Councils and local governments serve their communities in many ways. From governance and administration to public order, community services and more, councils are responsible for planning and delivering projects and services to meet the needs of their community now and into the future.
In a recent study by Deloitte, it was revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic fast tracked the adoption of technology with more than 74% of councils across the globe embarking on digital transformation projects to become “smart councils.” In doing so, they aim to future-proof and improve the services they offer their communities. In addition, by adopting innovative technologies to replace manual business processes with automated workflows, councils also benefit from improved operating efficiencies and increased productivity.
One way that councils are becoming "smart" is by implementing and integrating venue management solutions and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. In doing so, they can improve the management of community and recreational facilities, maximise space bookings and enhance the end-to-end customer experience for residents, while simultaneously improving their financial management processes.
What is a Venue Management Platform?
Venue Management Solutions are purpose-built applications that help venues to manage events and bookings for rooms, facilities, and other bookable spaces. Similar to event management software, they typically include CRM, live availability, online bookings, CAD floorplans, operations management, inventory management, catering management, sales management, financials, digital dashboards and reporting.
For councils and local governments, venue management solutions are often used to manage bookings for community spaces and recreational facilities, including community halls, neighbourhood centres, meeting rooms, swimming pools, sports grounds, open spaces and more. Many councils choose venue management solutions with self-service online portals to enhance their customer experiences by providing smoother end-to-end booking processes.
What is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Platform?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions combine all the functionality that an organisation needs to support its day-to-day operational and strategic requirements within one interface. ERPs are typically cloud-based applications that are delivered via the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business models, and they offer a single source of information, and accurate, real-time data reporting. For councils, ERPs provide a centralised platform to support everything from corporate strategy and planning to procurement, accounting, human resources and more.
Why Should Councils Integrate their Venue Management and ERP Platforms?
Independently, venue management solutions and ERPs solve a range of challenges faced by councils but it’s not enough to simply implement them. Without integrating these systems, councils risk having inconsistent data and are forced to manually duplicate data entry between the systems, which is inefficient, labour intensive, and can lead to additional errors.
With this in mind, we built a native integration that allows users to sync critical financial data between Ungerboeck and the leading ERP for government and councils, TechnologyOne, enabling data to flow seamlessly between the two applications.
Overview of data flow between Ungerboeck and OneCouncil from TechnologyOne
Benefits of Integrating Ungerboeck with TechnologyOne
Since launching our Accounts Receivable Integration, we have seen first-hand the benefits that councils can experience by integrating systems like Ungerboeck and TechnologyOne. Here are some of the benefits that Kate Thompson, Team Leader - Hospitality Operations at Frankston City Council has experienced since they implemented Ungerboeck in 2016:
- Save Time With Automation
Relying on staff to duplicate financial data between multiple systems wastes valuable time and resources. Instead, the integration ensures financial data flows automatically and seamlessly between applications which reduces the need for manual processes.
“Before we implemented the integration, there was a lot of back and forth between the event and finance teams. For example, we had to request an invoice from finance, wait for them to prepare it and send it to us before we could send it out to the client. Now, we can create invoices in one click, attach it to an email and send it to the client directly. We have also taken ownership for chasing up payments, so the whole process is much more streamlined.” explains Kate.
- Eliminate Errors & Improve Data Integrity
Automating the sync between Ungerboeck and TechnologyOne eliminates the risk of human error and guarantees the accuracy, completeness, and consistency of financial data in both systems. Kate commented, “Before we introduced the integration, we faced many issues with human error, double-handling of data and a lot of information was lost in translation. Now we can rest assured our invoices and payments are up-to-date as they sync across both systems in real-time.”
- Increase Productivity & Encourage Collaboration
By streamlining data flow between Ungerboeck and TechnologyOne, all staff can access current and reliable financial information from either application. As a result, councils benefit from increased productivity and encourage collaboration as all staff can pick up where the last person left off.
Kate has set up customised dashboards for the staff at Frankston to allow them to access the information they need. She explains, “Staff can log into the system at any point and see how many invoices are outstanding and what payments have been made which reduces unnecessary back and forth communication, and staff can follow up outstanding payments without needing to wait for finance.”
- Clearer Insight into Business Performance
Successful integrations provide you with greater visibility into data analytics and business performance. By integrating Ungerboeck and TechnologyOne, councils can make informed decisions about their business and better support their communities. For example, Kate and her team can check which clients have or have not paid and use this information to determine whether they accept repeat bookings. She explains, “We can track payments and flag when a payment hasn’t been made, which helps us to decide whether or not we accept a future contract.”
Ready To Get Started?
Our team of council experts are available to help you map out your digital transformation strategy and design a fully integrated technology ecosystem. Contact us today to find out how Ungerboeck can help streamline event management processes at your council and improve your online booking journey for your community.