Lessons Learnt Series - Less time spent on admin and reporting means being able to focus

Technology was central to the government’s response to COVID-19, as certain departments shifted to remote working and new service delivery models were developed to meet citizen needs. 

The embrace of innovation - at unprecedented speed - highlighted how the pandemic presented government leaders the opportunity to transform the way it works, including harnessing cloud-based tools to scale and adapt quickly. 

Australian governments are committed to a digital future. However, they must build on this current momentum and remove the inertia that had been ingrained in the culture of government. This means adopting a more cohesive approach to modernising daily operations to reap the wider benefits both now and in the future. 

A well-integrated digital ecosystem can help provide greater efficiencies, including improving ease of reporting, tracking and accountability for teams. For government professionals, building their digital capabilities ultimately frees up their time to focus on the more important mission - providing better long-term outcomes for the community.
 

Improving visibility improves planning 

Governments at all levels in Australia have attempted to improve productivity, but have found limited success in finding sustainable cost reduction opportunities. It is important that such measures do not impact delivery outcomes - particularly at a time when departments are still responsible for services and initiatives for the community. 

It is integral to be strategic to improve practices, as the public sector often faces significant scrutiny to achieve value for money. Project management tools are a small way to have a big impact on productivity. Intuitive and effective platforms can automate manual tasks, sending reminders for certain milestones and capturing when tasks need to be updated in real-time. This ultimately frees up project managers to focus on delivering better results for the community.  

The Western Australian Mental Health Commission is leading the way on how government departments are able to keep users on track, where creating a central document takes less than five minutes. Repeated tasks, like preparing the Commission’s Annual Report, are now streamlined with the use of Smartsheet to help deliver seamlessly.

Supporting project teams improves performance

The pandemic revealed one key insight for governments: that collaboration works. As departments often work closely with other agencies, government workers, and NGOs, a centralised cloud-based platform is key to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

Such platforms, such as Smartsheet, encourage governments to operate in a more collaborative and modern way, wherever they may be. For users operating remotely and on different devices, it enables greater information sharing for staff to execute on programs to support their work. It also allows authorised users to access securely and streamline processes that a manual paper system would not allow. 
The ability to capture data and pull up important information at a click of a button also enables a more accurate status update, providing assurance to decision-makers and certainty and structure for the team. 

In the case of Western Australian Mental Health Commission, it allowed stakeholders to access and share information in a secure way, even while travelling to remote locations. Witnessing visible improvement and ease of processes using the application prompted the government agency to roll out the use of the tool - from a single user to 200 Smartsheet users across diverse areas within government. 

Efficiency, effectiveness and continuous improvement is what most organisations strive for. Government departments are no exception to this rule. Digital tools offer the transparency and collaboration required to deliver long-term savings and effectiveness gains. Most importantly, it brings governments one step closer to delivering better citizen and employee experiences. 

 

With Smartsheet – the enterprise platform for dynamic work – you can make the move to more efficient project management today with our 30-day free trial that comes with access to many pre-structured and customisable templates. Streamline your projects by following these best practices to increase consistency, from project initiation to completion.