With a wide range of committees making a vast array of decisions, Woking Borough Council had no visibility over the decisions made or the associated actions and tasks.
The Council recognised that it needed a corporate tool that would help it to manage and track all subjects raised and their outcomes in the corporate decision making process, and to improve the transparency of the process for members, officers and the public.
The Borough also needed a reporting tool to monitor the decision-making process and to measure performance in implementing decisions.
Based on the specification Woking selected Dorset Software to provide a bespoke Democratic Process Management application.
It assists the Council to: create a framework for standard procedures; automate the decision making process; track subjects requiring decisions and those where actions are to be implemented; remind users of their actions and amalgamate and associate key decision plans, meeting agendas, minutes and actions.
The completed system also includes a reporting tool to monitor the decision making process and the ability to measure performance in implementing decisions, plus seamless integration with the Council’s intranet and public website.
The application delivers a host of benefits to Woking Borough Council: It improves overall governance arrangements; it helps to improve and monitor the decision-making process and it enhances the transparency of the decision-making process for Members, Officers and the public.
It enables the outcomes of decisions to be tracked; increases accountability across the organisation and ensures that performance against targets can be measured. It also helps to streamline the decision making process, reducing the amount of user training required.
It allows the Council to see, at a glance, the status of all business.
Technology Snapshot
Developed using VB.NET and a Microsoft SQL Server database along with automated MS Word templates, Shikari integrates MS Active Directory for security and ISYS, its Document Management System.