Brisbane's Redman Solutions deploys OpenGov to Ipswich City Council, Norfolk Island

Brisbane-based Redman Solutions has deployed government performance management software from OpenGov to Ipswich City Council and Norfolk Island Regional Council.

The councils sought to improve transparency of their systems and also reduce costs with OpenGov’s cloud ERP, through its built in financials and budgeting feature.

Backed by Telstra Ventures, US-headquartered OpenGov is a SaaS budgeting, financial management, and citizen services platform designed for all levels of the public sector. 

“The platform improves strategic decision-making by getting a complete, accurate picture of the organization’s finances, operational measures, and KPI’s while saving an average of 80 percent of time on reporting and reducing public information requests by 20 percent,” Redman Solutions chief executive Michael Redman said.

He added the financial oversight and productivity improvements from the platform could result in cost savings of up to 60 percent for individual public sector authorities.

Ipswich City Council, under Mayor Teresa Harding, tapped Redman Solutions to deploy OpenGov following an open tender process, in a bid to reform the council and rebuild community trust.

The council was rocked by scandal in 2018 after reports of an alleged culture of corruption, where some members misused their power and had inappropriate relationships. The entire council was sacked that same year and an administrator was put in place for 18 months, before Harding was appointed in April 2020.

With OpenGov, the some six gigabytes of data from the council was ingested to turn into actionable insights that are available to the community.

Norfolk Island, as an external Australian territory, sought to enhance controls for people entering and exiting the Island due to COVID-19, as well as a robust and simple way to manage funding arrangements.

Norfolk Island Regional Council tapped Redman Solutions and OpenGov to provide a proof of concept, which was delivered within 48 hours.

Redman soon after implemented the platform to host a border pass system that would allow returning residents and visitors to apply for an entry permit quickly.

“Many public sector organisations have expressed frustration at the cost, complexity and time that current technology solutions place on them,” Redman added.

“By taking OpenGov to market in Australia, we’re reducing risk and costs while improving accountability and productivity.”

OpenGov global vice president of customer success and partnerships Claudia Arriaga said in a statement, “Without data, decision makers are pretty much blind to what’s going on. With OpenGov, they can ask and answer questions right from their desktops without a team of analysts with them.”