Located in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs, the City of Banyule oversees the delivery of community services for a population greater than 130,000. Spanning 21 suburbs, the area is known for its parklands, as well as its key industries in construction, education, and health care.

Some years ago – to better support its delivery of community services – Banyule City Council began using GBM Mobile – a previous iteration of GBM’s offering, helping to increase the safety, efficiency and delivery speed of council responsibilities. It was primarily used for data collection, tree management and proactive RMP (Road Management Plan) inspections.

It was this journey that would eventually lead the council to connect with location- based data collection application GBM Konect – a relationship that has blossomed ever since.

Banyule City Council transitioned to GBM Konect shortly after its release, with the initial and enhanced capabilities, such as real-time collaboration among multiple field operators, easier data management, and the ability to tailor use to its needs a major attraction.

Scott Nutt, Spatial and Property Systems Analyst – Banyule City Council says this migration allowed the council to move from a manual desktop-based data download/ upload process to a modern, field-friendly, real-time solution.

“Konect opened us up to a wider world, given the fact that it’s not plug in and download-driven, like other platforms were at the time,” he says.

“We’ve used the platform ever since to manage out RMP inspections, as well as maintenance works on our footpaths, roads and a whole lot more.”

In fact, Konect’s use has now spread to council’s operations and parks depots, covering roles such as street sweepers, gardeners, mowing crews, drain cleaners, as well as those involved in parks and sports field maintenance.

Nutt attributes this to the flexibility and adaptability provided by the platform.

“The beauty of Konect is its tailor-ability. You can make it as simple, or as complex as you need,” he says.

Council can tailor forms, workflows, data views, and even visual styles to the specific needs of different roles and departments, all without requiring coding or technical expertise.

Nutt says this capability is a fundamental requirement, with the nature of council operations involving a multitude of external parties and contractors.

Tasks, defects, and data entries are automatically routed to the appropriate crews or contractors based on set rules, minimising administrative intervention.

“Whether they’re external, or it’s a Council department, once the workflow is set there is no need for them to deal with me. They’ll enter the platform with their own log-in, only see the fields that they need to see, then they can complete the necessary fields to record the required data,” Nutt says.

“For road and footpath defects, our evidence base is always solid, because we’ve got before and after pictures for each job. All of this in just three fields: changing the job status, adding a photo, then selecting which person or contractor did the job. It’s all seamless.”

Nutt adds that Konect’s customisation has also enabled an improved transition for computer-averse staff.

“It’s all just tap the screen. With Konect, we can tailor the view to show only what that particular person needs to see, which removes any confusion,” he says.

“Even for those who aren’t as computer-embracing as office workers have taken to it, no problem. If someone’s got red-green colour blindness for example, we could make the interface black and white and stylise the data a particular way for a particular user.

One of the many strengths of GBM Konect is that you don’t need to engage with them once you’ve learned the system. If you’ve done that, then the tools are at your disposal. You don’t need to know code. You don’t have to be a computer head. The interface is very simple.”

IN THE FIELD

Just one example of the council’s use of Konect has been its management of potholes and footpath defects. As part of its delivery of services, council gets external contractors to conduct comprehensive inspections across the road and footpath network, recording issues such as potholes, displacements, line marking problems, sign issues, and pit lid issues directly into Konect. Tasks, defects, and data entries are also automatically routed to the appropriate crews or contractors based on set rules, speeding up response time.

Konect integrates with corporate Geographic Information Systems (GIS), ensuring all teams and stakeholders access up- to-date and consistent information.

“Konect’s inherent spatial capabilities make data collection easier. For example, from an operator point of view, they don’t have to know what road section they’re on when they’re collecting the data, because it’s spatially enabled it can automatically add that data to the record being collected,” Nutt says.

When a pothole is recorded, the defect is instantly routed to the asphalt crew’s dashboard in Konect. The crews check their dashboards daily for new work, and as repairs are completed, those issues disappear from their map in real time.

Multiple operators can work simultaneously in the field on the same data set, allowing updates and information to be shared instantly, eliminating any potential for duplication and ensuring everyone is working with the latest available data.

Nutt says this “single source of truth” has equally been as effective as part of council’s environmental monitoring responsibilities, an important responsibility that forms part of the effective planning and delivery of community infrastructure. Council’s environmental team uses Konect, paired with a Trimble device, to track endangered Eltham Copper Butterfly larvae with sub-metre accuracy in parks. The team can pinpoint larvae clusters with high precision on Konect’s digital map.

Over time, this information is used to see if interventions have been effective, such as indicating the positive or negative impacts of tree planting or other remedial works on the butterfly population. Nutt adds that the ability to adapt management efforts based on real-time, spatially accurate information has been a huge help in reporting, planning, and justifying project delivery within the community.

“Konect is one of the first software platforms we’ve used that says, ‘here’s a tool, you build what you want’. We’ve given our people the power to create and edit data in a controlled fashion and, as a software administrator, being able to do all of that with little to no coding experience makes it an even more powerful tool,” he says.