Jun 2023
iFerret Update - June 2023
Welcome to the latest edition of the iFerret/iArchive Update. iPLATINUM is pleased to announce we now have over 100 installations of our iFerret and iArchive solutions from Perth to Horowhenua and many places in between. We are pleased to have been able to assist these organisations improve information access and increase business efficiencies.
We are excited Release 3.1 is nearing completion and it should be available for rollout to all customers early in the second half of the year.
In this edition we cover new customers, events update, iFerret 3.1 Update, the benefits of iArchive and a usage update and training offer. We hope you enjoy the iFerret/iArchive Update.
Download the full article from here
Dec 2022
iFerret Update - December 2022
Welcome to the latest edition of the iFerret/iArchive Update. iPLATINUM is pleased to announce we now have over 100 councils using our iFerret and iArchive solutions from Perth to Horowhenua and many places in between. We are pleased to have been able to assist these organisations improve information access and increase business efficiencies.
We are hopeful the world continues to return to some level of normality as we move into the Christmas holiday season but we have all learned to expect the unex- pected. Either way we will continue to roll out solutions that improve outcomes for your staff and customers.
In this edition we cover new customers, events update, iFerret 3.1 Update, usage update and the benefits of iArchive. We hope you enjoy the iFerret/iArchive Update.
Download the full article from here
Feb 2022
iFerret Update - February 2022
Welcome to the latest edition of the iFerret Update. iPLATINUM is pleased to announce we now have over 100 councils using our iFerret and iArchive solutions. We are pleased to have been able to assist these organisations improve information access and increase business efficiencies.
At the time of writing we are now in the middle of the Omicron wave and life continues to throw us a host of new challenges. It’s good to know, even with this uncertainty, iFerret enables our customers to easily access corporate information even if they can’t safely visit their workplace.
This period has provided us with the ongoing opportunity to install our solutions remotely thus enabling our customers to continue business as usual. It has also enabled us time to further enhance our solutions and provide even better outcomes for our customers.
In this edition we cover new customers, upcoming events, iFerret 3.0 Update, usage update and the benefits of iArchive. We hope you enjoy the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
Jul 2021
iFerret Update - July 2021
iPLATINUM is pleased to celebrate 20 years assisting Local Councils gain a better return on their investment in information technology.
Well here we are, back in lockdown, and it was just announced today Sydney will remain this way until the end July 2021. I’m glad I took the opportunity to get out and see some customers in WA, VIC and NSW whilst I had the opportunity to do so before this latest covid wave. I apologise to those customers whose visits I had to cancel in the back half of July but hopefully I will get a chance to visit you, along with the remainder of our customer base later in the year.
In these uncertain times it is more important than ever staff have easy access to corporate information wherever they may be working. iFerret and iArchive are achieving that outcome for over 90 local and state authorities. In this edition we cover new staff, new customers, iFerret 3.0 Update, usage update and the benefits of iArchive. We hope you enjoy the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
Mar 2021
iFerret Update - March 2021
iPLATINUM is pleased to celebrate 20 years assisting Local Councils gain a better return on their investment in information technology.
We started this journey in April 2001 with a small group of dedicated people offering a range of services to enable councils to improve their use of corporate systems and get better value for money from that spend.
Today we continue to provide those services and have also developed industry standard products including iFerret and iArchive enabling councils to more easily access corporate information, wherever it may reside.
Download the full article from here
Dec 2020
Video Presentation – December 2020
Utilising Data to Inform Strategy, Improve Performance and Boost CX
Nov 2020
Editorial for iArchive – November 2020
iArchive provides a new and transformative solution for historical data held in redundant systems. The iArchive search solution developed by iPLATINUM is now installed at circa 50 councils across Australia and is becoming widely recognised as the smart alternative to migrating legacy data when upgrading ERP solutions.
Whilst the focus has been on government departments the solution can add real value to any organisation that has problems accessing and retrieving corporate information residing in redundant legacy systems.
Download the full article from here
Oct 2020
iPLATINUM is pleased to announce iFerret v3.0
iFerret v3.0 is ready to hit the streets and with it comes a host of enhancements that will make finding corporate information quicker and even simpler than it has been with previous releases.
The key strengths of iFerret have always been its ability to easily find corporate data and there are now over 50 councils experiencing this business transformation.
Download the full article from here
Aug 2020
Editorial for iFerret – August 2020
iFerret Providing Dramatic Information Access Improvements to Support Digital Transformation The iFerret search and discovery solution developed by iPLATINUM is now installed at over 50 councils across Australia and is becoming widely recognised as the defacto standard search facility for Local Government. The solution is now also being used at a State Government level.
Download the full article from here
May 2020
May 2020 - iFerret Update
Welcome to the COVID-19 edition of the iFerret Update. Did you know they are using ferrets to test new vaccines for COVID-19? The ferret is contributing to steering us through this pandemic in many ways.
iFerret continues to spark the interest of organisations wanting to give their staff efficient and simple access to corporate information thus enabling better service to their customers.
In these challenging times it is more important than ever staff have easy access to corporate information wherever they may working. iFerret is achieving that outcome for over 50 local and state authorities.
In this edition we cover new customers, a call to action during lockdown, usage update and the new iFerret release. We hope you enjoy the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
March 2019
iFerret and our 29th PM Visit Kardinia Park in Geelong for the MAV Technology Conference
The MAV Technology Conference was held at the GMHBA Stadium in Geelong from the 25th to 28th March 2019 and attended by over 300 delegates from councils across Australia and New Zealand.
iPLATINUM was in attendance and Frankie, the latest Aussie attired iFerret attracted plenty of attention from council delegates from far and wide. It was great to catch up with customers and meet some new prospects who showed great interest in the capabilities of iFerret.
Our 29th Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull opened the conference and his key message was for councils to not be afraid of “having a go” and adopting innovation that could make a real difference. The underlying message, if you don’t step out of your comfort zone and give things a go you will miss the opportunity to drive change and deliver better outcomes. We felt this was a perfect introduction to the iFerret solution.
Thank you to everyone who visited our stand and collected their very own Aussie Frankie.
November 2018
November 2018 - iFerret Update
Welcome to the November 2018 edition of the iFerret Update. iFerret continues to spark the interest of organisations wanting to give their staff efficient and simple access to corporate information thus enabling better service to their customers.
iFerret is now installed at 44 councils and that number continues to grow. These councils are benefiting from improved access to corporate information resulting in better decision making and faster response times.
In this edition we cover new customers, a customer case study, recent events, usage update, the new iFerret release, and training and education opportunities. We hope you enjoy the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
November 2017
YARRA RANGES FIRST IN VICTORIA TO EMBRACE TURNKEY SOLUTION
Yarra Ranges Council is the first local government authority in Victoria to embrace a total turnkey solution for its search requirements, having engaged iPLATINUM to supply iFerret on specially configured hardware.
The turnkey solution combines a hardware and software configuration ensuring iFerret can achieve optimal performance levels while searching Yarra Ranges huge email archive and other systems.
Yarra Ranges has a policy of retaining all emails so once it had decided that iFerret was its preferred solution, it faced a dilemma. Did it deploy staff to configure a virtual machine to the exacting specifications needed to optimise iFerret and thereby take them away from high priority council tasks?
Well respected among Victorian councils for its information technology expertise Yarra Ranges said “no,” choosing instead to have iPLATINUM provide a machine, and thereby joining a growing number of councils embracing a total turnkey solution.
These include NSW councils at Gosford, Hornsby, Bega Valley, Coffs Harbour and Georges River along with Stonnington in Victoria.
Yarra Ranges’ enterprise systems business analyst, Michelle Harris explains “we had an overwhelming need to find information for FOI requests, our email archive was very large and information was stored in various locations in network drives, rather than the corporate document management system".
“Each system we use - ECM, Pathway and Email Archive - has its own searching capabilities but we were after a single means of searching and collecting documentation and data in the one place,” she said. This approach means that nothing can fall through the gaps when performing searches for FOI information requests, insurance discovery, governance, compliance or customer service.
“Feedback from users has been very positive,” Ms Harris said. “They love it. Our FOI discovery process has reduced previous search times by at least 50 percent.”
The turnkey solution, including hardware and software, has not only exceeded Yarra Ranges search performance needs but makes the implementation and ongoing upkeep of the solution seamless from the Council’s perspective.
October 2016
Frankie shows Customer Service Officers how to deliver in Wollongong
iPLATINUM was a gold sponsor of the National Local Government Customer Service Network Annual Conference 2016 held at the Novotel, Wollongong from the 19th to 21st October 2016.
The attendees, many of whom are already iFerret customers, embraced the opportunity to better understand how iFerret could assist their organisations, with a specific focus on information access during transition as brought about by amalgamations.
iPLATINUM was pleased to sponsor “The Customer Service Team of the Year Award” where Northern Beaches Council achieved the top honour.
A big thank you goes out to Brendan Scott from the newly created Georges River Council who presented a case study on how iFerret has assisted the former Hurstville to achieve huge efficiencies in information access and management. Brendan also discussed how iFerret would assist Georges River stay on top of information requests during their transition stage to amalgamation of corporate systems.
Thank you to all the attendees of the event who took a keen interest in how iFerret could assist them to better serve their customers.
August 2016
iFerret features in the Rust Report Issue #32, August 15, 2016
The iFerret search and discovery solution developed by iiPLATINUM is now installed at 37 councils across Australia and New Zealand and is becoming widely recognised as the defacto standard search facility for Local Government. Whilst there are many features that elevate iFerret above other search technologies (as proven in recent evaluations), the main differentiator for iFerret in Local Government is the installation approach developed by iPLATINUM...
Download and read the full article on page 6 from here
July 2016
July 2016 - iFerret Update
Welcome to the July 2016 edition of the iFerret Update. iFerret continues to spark the interest of organisations wanting to give their staff efficient and simple access to corporate information thus enabling better service to their customers.
iFerret is also now being seen as a critical tool as New South Wales Councils face pending amalgamation and reform. iFerret will ensure they will have easy access to information across the new entity.
In this edition we cover a customer case study, user workshop, reform, new customers, and upcoming events. We hope you enjoy this edition of the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
April 2016
iFerret Customers Gather to Share Good News
The latest iFerret User Workshop was held at Manly Surf Pavilion on 14th April 2016 where customers gathered to share their success stories and learn how to get more out of the iFerret Solution.
The session was attended by representatives from Pittwater Council, Coffs Harbour City Council, Gosford City Council, Manly Council, Hurstville City Council, Canterbury City Council, North Sydney Council and Warringah Council.
iPLATINUM provided sessions on features, usage techniques, new functionality and reform opportunities whilst informative case studies were provided by David Thomson and Brendan Scott from Hurstville City Council and Jane Kercher from Pittwater Council.
Thank you to all councils who participated in this event and special thanks to Henry Wong and Nathan Rogers from Manly Council for hosting the day at such an iconic location.
iFerret Revs Up at Coffs Harbour
Coffs Harbour City Council, host of Rally Australia, the annual Australian leg of the FIA World Rally Championship also entered the fast lane for the search and retrieval of corporate information when it recently went live with the iFerret solution from iPLATINUM.
Coffs join a rapidly expanding local government customer base who are now able to easily find corporate information in seconds, as opposed to spending hours searching through corporate systems, email and network drives.
The Coffs Harbour Ferret was presented to Steve McGrath, General Manager - Coffs Harbour City Council and Andrew Beswick, Director Business Services - Coffs Harbour City Council by Trevor Wilson and Mike Preedy from iPLATINUM at the recent LGE Conference held at Coffs Harbour.
January 2016
January 2016 - iFerret Update
Welcome to the January 2016 edition of the iFerret Update. iFerret continues to spark the interest of organisations wanting to give their staff efficient and simple access to corporate information thus enabling better service to their customers.
iFerret is also now being seen as a critical tool as New South Wales Councils face pending amalgamation and reform. iFerret will ensure they will have easy access to information across the new entity.
In this edition we cover upgrades and new features, training, reform, new customers, and upcoming events. We hope you enjoy this edition of the iFerret Update.
Download the full article from here
December 2015
iFerret providing dramatic transformation for local councils using latest technology
Whilst there are many features that elevate iFerret above other search technologies (as proven in recent evaluations), the main differentiator for iFerret in Local Government is the installation approach developed by iPLATINUM. iFerret is installed as an appliance “turnkey” solution which means there is minimal effort required on behalf of council staff and the solution can be made operational in months, unlike many tool boxes that often take years to install without ultimately achieving the desired outcomes.
The value proposition developed by many councils is a pretty simple one, iFerret enables any staff member to find any piece of information (security permitting) quickly and efficiently without having to understand the complexity of their corporate systems, office products or network structures. Some councils have reported time savings of 2.5hours per employee per week. When you multiply these numbers across a councils’ workforce the time and cost savings become very compelling.
Whilst in its simplest form iFerret is a wonderful search solution, iPLATINUM has provided customised features to specifically address the requirements of local councils. This includes the automatic electronic packaging of information for Freedom of Information (FOI) and Government Information Public Access (GIPA) purposes, optical character recognition (searching on scanned documents), reporting to easily identify copies and duplicates and standard connectors for the commonly used systems in Local Government.
October 2015
Customer Service Officers embrace Frankie on the Gold Coast
iPLATINUM was a sponsor of the National Local Government Customer Service Network Annual Conference 2015 held at the Crown Plaza Gold Coast from the 13th to 15th October 2015.
The delegates seized the opportunity to understand how iFerret could help them provide a higher level of service to their customers by providing quick and easy access to information when needed.
iPLATINUM was pleased to sponsor “The Customer Focus Innovation Award” where Albury City Council and Hurstville City Council received the honour of being “Highly Commended”. We would like to congratulate Warringah Council who were judged the winners in this category.
iPLATINUM would also like to thank Margaret Le for the presentation she did on innovation which highlighted the benefits iFerret is delivering to Hurstville City Council.
Thank you to all the customer service officers who seized this opportunity to learn more about iFerret and we look forward to seeing you at next years’ conference in Wollongong.
September 2015
Records Managers see the benefits of iFerret at INFORUM 2015
iPLATINUM was a sponsor of the INFORUM 2015 Annual Conference held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from the 30th August to 2nd September 2015. We were overwhelmed with the interest in iFerret and it seems most records managers clearly see the benefits of a single point of access to all corporate information, regardless of where it resides.
The resident iPLATINUM Ferret “Frankie” was so popular iPLATINUM won the People’s Choice Award for the best themed stand at the conference.
Thank you to all the records managers who visited our stand and we look forward to seeing you again at next years’ event in Perth.
4 September 2015
Ipswich Council becomes the first Queensland user of iFerret
Ipswich City Council is the first user in Queensland of iPLATINUM’s
enterprise search solution for local government, iFerret.
While Queensland’s oldest provincial city has been making a name for itself - as one of the world’s top 7 most intelligent communities for the way it is mapping out its digital future - its Council was facing more prosaic information systems challenges.
These challenges include the search of information assets across multiple corporate systems and network drives to assist with “Right to Information” (RTI) requests, identification of data quality issues (such as duplicate documents) in information assets which had to be addressed prior to introduction of a new EDRMS system and the need to provide a single view of each customer across multiple customer systems.
Cr Paul Tully, chair of the Council’s Information and Technology Board, said “after an extensive evaluation of solutions, including global brands, locally developed iFerret was chosen as the best option for the Council to undertake structured and unstructured searches of its various information repositories.”
The pilot project undertaken at Ipswich Council required iFerret to:
- confirm the consistency and relevance of the search results it generated
- provide quantitative and qualitative analysis of data available in Council’s applications
- assess the quality of data stored in key repositories
- assess search effectiveness and efficiency
- identify organisational impacts of implementing an enterprise search solution
iFerret is now enabling documents to be located in a matter of seconds, when previously they may not have been found or it would have taken a long time to find them.
As part of its assessment Council looked at the use of conventional search engines, only to conclude they were not as feature-rich as iFerret and that they were much more expensive.
Cr Tully identified that “improved access to documents, improved information on data quality in current systems and the ability to identify duplicate documents, underscored by major time savings, already lead a list of benefits starting to flow at Ipswich.”
Ipswich brings to 30 the number of Councils across Australia using iFerret.
iFerret is winning friends everywhere for the benefits it is bringing to local government.
Download our iFerret newsletter and read about the new version of iFerret, our training courses and new customers.
iPLATINUM is pleased to introduce the following new iFerret customers for the quarter to June 30 2015
Tamworth City Council, Coffs Harbour City Council, Maitland City Council, Kempsey Shire Council, Hurstville City Council and Kingston City Council.
September 10, 2013
Purpose-built search engine helps ferret out the facts to ensure good corporate governance at NSW Council
The ability of a purpose-built search engine to find and deliver an electronic “package” of documents to meet a range of information needs is proving to be the icing on the corporate governance cake for one of NSW’s oldest councils.
Randwick Council in suburban Sydney got its first taste of the productivity benefits of streamlined search technology when, in 2008, it became one of the first councils to adopt iPlatinum’s WebWombat, a purpose-built search engine for local government.
But this raised a major question: once the information was located in any of a number of data repositories how could it be collated in a readily accessible electronic format to be made available to those who needed it for such things as formalised GIPA and subpoena or court-related requests.
It followed therefore when iPlatinum recently introduced iFerret, the successor to WebWombat, that Randwick was keen to see if it could secure further productivity gains in the area of corporate governance.
The Council’s Manager Administrative Services, David Kelly explains.
“They are not uncommon problems reported to any council call centres: the damaged footpath which results in someone falling and sustaining an injury or a tree in a public space that drops a large limb and damages private property.
“If such incidents are consequential enough they will set in train a search for information stored across numerous data repositories. That information may be required to satisfy insurance claims, assemble the facts for subpoenas in judicial proceedings or in some instances, respond to Government Information (Public Access) information requests.
“It’s information to help ensure good corporate governance,” Mr. Kelly says.
iFerret has not only solved a number of problems previously identified by Randwick in locating all relevant information but a new function is delivering far greater productivity. The Managed Results Set enables the user to prepare a “package” of documents in an electronic form to address such things as formalised GIPA and subpoena or court-related requests. The solution allows the creation of a narrative for the document package, as well as the ability to store the result electronically for future reference.
Randwick’s Access to Information officer, Gina Garios, says a typical example of the use of iFerret is one related to an insurance claim for an injury sustained when a shopper tripped on damaged pavement in a retail precinct. This incident resulted in more than 120 files comprising PDF, TIF and JPGs of images and documents produced for use within the Council as well as with external parties.
Council insurance officer Stacey Jeffries said of the claim related to the damaged footpath “it took between two and three hours to search through everything related to the footpath on the particular road so I could be sure I captured all relevant documents.
“For insurance purposes however, the real benefit of doing this kind of search comes with use of the Managed Result Set. It means that all documents can be placed into a folder and then quickly sent to the relevant parties, either legal advisors or insurers,” she said.
Previously staff would have had to undertake separate searches across four separate Council applications but they would still be unable to see documents located on public network drives or in the Council’s email system.
Today iFerret is deployed to search across Randwick’s TRIM document management system, PATHWAY land information system, customer request management system as well as email applications and its network environment.
iPlatinum managing director Trevor Wilson says iFerret represents a quantum improvement in search technology because of functions such as OCR support, synonyms, duplicate documents recognition and user configurations of ’administrator’ and ‘super user’.
November 20, 2012
New search engine for local government ferrets out hidden information
New Australian-developed search engine technology for local government is giving the staff of Lake Macquarie City Council on the NSW central coast a big edge in delivering great customer service.
iFerret Enterprise Search technology is enabling Lake Macquarie staff to better understand a given situation about a customer, a property or a Council asset and make correct and timely decisions and achieve superior outcomes.
So it is that the Council’s decision to implement the technology developed by local government specialist iPlatinum has been vindicated many times over.
iFerret gives local government staff the ability to locate and retrieve information that might otherwise remain hidden in databases, networks and document management systems. It does so using simple search methods and filtering techniques. Seventeen staff in a pilot scheme that preceded the Council-wide roll-out of iFerret were saving an average of more than 2 hours a week searching for information across the Council’s digital assets including records management and email systems.
Today iFerret is dramatically increasing the speed with which staff find and deliver information in response to both internal and external enquiries.
Mark Piper, Lake Macquarie’s corporate information manager said iFerret appealed to the Council because it knew it was not making full use of the information it held due to separate information repositories and that metadata was inconsistent.
Meanwhile customers were expecting more timely responses to their enquiries and there was increasing awareness in the wider community of its rights to access information under Government Information Public Access (GIPA) act.
“Finally within Council we wanted to ensure better informed decision-making by using existing resources and putting knowledge in the hands of every staff member,” Mr Piper said.
To confirm the business case for its use, iFerret was configured to search the Council’s main four applications and five shared network drives. The applications included the TRIM records management system, Oracle’s Customer Relationship Management system, the Pathway land and information system and Microsoft Outlook for email.
Project manager in charge of the implementation of iFerret, Julie Walker, said a customer service officer’s search for a particular sub-division is an excellent example of iFerret’s capabilities.
She explains that the Council’s Pathway property system requires searching by application number, by the property or applicant’s name or by the full address. Of these the customer knew only the suburb. Using iFerret and Pathway as the data source, the customer service officer searched using three phrases, "suburb name", " “developer name" and "subdivision".
This immediately located the correct application number for the subdivision enabling the customer to view the application from an application tracking page on the Council’s website.
“The customer service officer would have never been able to locate it in Pathway without the full property address,” Ms Walker explains.
With a population of more than 200,000, which is expected to grow by some 30 percent over the next 20 years, Lake Macquarie City Council lies between Sydney and Newcastle, embracing such towns as Belmont, Cardiff, Charlestown, Morisset, Swansea and Toronto.
