One of the key differences of true cloud-based, multi-tenant systems versus on-premise solutions, is that all users have access to the same version of the system because all updates are installed remotely by the software developers. For Penrith City Council, this benefit alone has had a huge impact on their operation, because it has significantly reduced their dependence on their internal IT resources. David explains, “IT doesn’t really need to know what Priava is anymore because all updates are installed remotely and all of our support requests are addressed by Priava’s support team.”

On top of the time savings Penrith City Council has experienced, they have also significantly reduced their IT infrastructure costs as they no longer need a server to store all of their data. By eliminating the need for a server, they have considerably reduced their dependence on internal IT support that would have previously been invested in maintaining their server and administering system updates. These savings can then be reinvested into other areas of their organisation which will in turn result in a better experience for the Penrith community.

With more than 45,000 venue bookings per year, efficiency is the key to enabling the staff at Penrith City Council to manage their venue bookings effectively. One of the primary features of Priava is the ability to multi-task. Users can work across multiple tabs and can add, edit and delete information from various contact and organisation records, opportunities and event bookings and produce reports at the same time. David elaborates, “You can open multiple tabs and work on multiple things simultaneously. For example, you can run reports, while processing payments in other parts of the system. This means that you can maximise your efficiency and create your own production line of tasks, which is a huge benefit for our staff.”

David believes that one of the most impressive parts of the system is the reporting feature. Priava’s core system includes a suite of more than 35 report templates that can be tailored by system administrators to determine what information is displayed on reports and how it appears. He explains, “Reporting is definitely more sophisticated than it was in our old system. From what I have experienced, there’s a huge scope of information that we can get out of Priava. We have really benefited from working with the Priava support team to understand what each of the reports are and how we can use them to access key information.”

The Bulk Edit feature is perhaps the single most important piece of functionality for the team at Penrith City Council. Due to the sheer volume of repeat and reoccurring events and venue bookings that they manage, this feature provides significant time savings as it allows them to make changes to multiple event records simultaneously. Bulk Edit was in its early stages of development at the time that Penrith City Council began using Priava, however, during the time they have been using the system there have been multiple updates to this feature including the introduction of “Advanced Bulk Edit” and all of these updates have been included free of charge as part of their subscription to the Events and Bookings module.

David explains, “Using Bulk Edit you can pick and choose which event details and charges you would like to update so you can make changes in isolation or completely change the details of a group of events that you have selected.” He continues, “Another benefit is that you can now edit the contact that is associated with multiple events which you couldn’t do in our old system, but all of this is achieved quickly and easily using Priava’s Bulk Edit feature.”

For large-scale organisations like Penrith City Council, it is important to minimise the time and resources required to induct new staff members as this can have a significant impact on productivity levels. Implementing technologies that are intuitive and easy-to-use means less training for new staff and in turn, this minimises the impact or any downtime experienced by the organisation when a new staff member joins the team. David explains that Priava requires little training for new users. “When new staff come on board, you really only need to show them through the basics of the system once.” He continues, “This has translated into time savings for our organisation. People find it easy to pick up and use which means I can spend less time training new staff and reinvest that time back into other areas.”

Penrith City Council has recently implemented Online Calendar & Enquiries to assist them in capturing enquiries for their neighbourhood facilities. This allows visitors to their website to check availability online before submitting a venue hire enquiry. All enquiries submitted via the online form are populated into Priava ready for the team to pick up straight away which has further streamlined the booking process. With the introduction of Online Bookings which enables customers to pay online at the time of making their booking, David and the team are keen to explore the increased efficiency and service this module can add.

Penrith City Council is always looking for ways to improve productivity, and looks forward to working with Priava on future integration with some of their corporate systems.