‘Greater Data Input and the Ability to Look Out for Trends’ – City of Darwin Case Study
Overview
In this case study, Executive Manager of Program Management for the City of Darwin, Nik Kleine, talks about working with Mandalay and their transition to a cloud-based system.
Darwin’s singular waste management facility at Shoal Bay provides unlimited access to the city’s 130,000 residents. In addition to landfill services, Shoal Bay houses a transfer station, an independently operated recycle shop and a green waste recovery facility. Landfill gas is also harvested, producing renewable electricity to power approximately 1000 homes every year.
In October 2020, City of Darwin engaged Mandalay Technologies and launched the company’s naus Intelligence Platform at Shoal Bay Waste Management Facility. With the introduction of Mandalay Technologies’ naus Intelligence Platform, City of Darwin is the latest Australian metropolitan centre to move its waste data into the cloud.
The Situation
City of Darwin first began discussing an upgrade to the cloud with Mandalay in 2019. Conversations with Mandalay progressed once Council decided to construct a new weighbridge.
The new weighbridge is a key piece in City of Darwin’s Masterplan for the Future, which aims to maximise land usage at Shoal Bay, while incorporating opportunities for new technological advancements in the future.
City of Darwin seeks to streamline future developments thanks to the adaptability of Mandalay’s intelligence platform, which is designed to transition software upgrades seamlessly.
“Those future upgrades will facilitate improvements in customer experience, particularly with our commercial customers” – Nik Kleine
While the capabilities of Mandalay’s software in relation to the masterplan were Council’s main driver when partnering with the company, Nik also noted that Mandalay’s customer centric approach to the project has also been complementary to the entire transition experience.
Requirements & Objectives
There is no doubt that the waste collection and management industry is changing rapidly in the face of growing population pressure, increasing regulatory compliance along with the new and unique challenges of COVID-19. Because of these things, innovative data architecture is now an essential requirement for successful waste management facilities. In turn, data and its integrity and accountability are also becoming more critical with government legislation and increasing community interest.
With all of this in mind, Nik Kleine and the City of Darwin waste management team acknowledged that an effective and forward-thinking approach to data management is crucial to their future plans.
According to Nik Kleine, their transition to the cloud will help Council minimise risks, enhance the customer experience along with improve data integrity and accessibility. Furthermore, he also acknowledges that the system’s reporting capabilities will greatly assist future planning at Shoal Bay.
The Challenges / Benefits of Mandalay
Cloud-Based Platform
A cloud-based system, also known as ‘cloud computing’, is internet-based computing. Without cloud computing, operators would run programs or applications from software downloaded on a physical computer or server in the office. With cloud computing, access is gained to the same kinds of applications via the internet.
Mandalay’s naus intelligence platform operates on as a hybrid cloud-based system that allows Mandalay’s software to be hosted both in the cloud and on site. With a hybrid data solution, data generated on site is synchronised to the cloud.
With Mandalay’s hybrid cloud-based system, data centralises and is accessible from multiple sites rather than being confined to a single PC/location. Mandalay’s platform also provides self-managed role-based user access, multi-directional data synchronisation (between site and admin), data backup and disaster recovery. A number of other key benefits are gained by operating on a cloud-based platform too including improvements to accessibility, deployment, security, risk reduction and the ability to meet a number of management requirements.
Data Accessibility and Flexibility
Easy access and flexible use of their data are two key factors for the team at City of Darwin. With the system accessible through the cloud, data can be accessed and utilised from anywhere.
“With the naus Intelligence Platform, I don’t have to go to the site to get reports or have my team run reports for me. I can look at them anywhere, which adds an important layer of flexibility,” – Nik Kleine
Data Integrity
Data integrity and accountability are increasingly crucial, especially since one of the most challenging responsibilities for leaders in local government is planning, delivering and maintaining infrastructure. Effective delivery in these areas is only as good as the quality of data they have to work with. Without accurate and relevant data, Council risks falling short of community requirements.
The naus Intelligence Platform is expected to provide City of Darwin with improved operational data, facilitate the ability to predict future challenges and meet them before they arise.
“It will give us greater data input and the ability to look out for trends, which we can use to adapt our site to meet future needs. Our previous system had reporting capabilities, but they were less intuitive and manipulative. With this new system, we can manipulate data very easily to get the information we need,” – Nik Kleine
Image Capture
Utilising Mandalay’s Image Capture product is another significant benefit according to Nik. This product captures vehicles on the weighbridge (image, data and time, vehicle registration etc) and includes that information on dockets. With this quick and simple transaction search capability, the opportunity to give finance access to accurate data opens up, saving the waste-team time. He adds that as more commercial customers become aware of these capabilities, he believes they will quickly begin to use them.
“Image capture will become especially important as a referencing tool for loads. If someone questions their account, the image will be there, which is a great tool for both us and our customers,” Nik Kleine
Mandalay Support
Nik has been very impressed with the high level of customer support provided by Mandalay and the team. According to Nik, Mandalay and Shoal Bay’s weighbridge operators have developed a strong working relationship, which has been invaluable.
“They were always responsive and the cut over time was great. We shut the site in the evening and were operational again in the morning,” – Nik Kleine
A Smooth Transition
High quality support has been key to a smooth transition over to the cloud-based system and Nik has been very complimentary towards Mandalay and the team in how they worked with their Council and waste team during the transition process.
“The customer support provided by Rosemary Black from Mandalay was great. We also had their Senior Implementation Consultant Kumar Kannan come to the facility to provide training for our staff, which was very timely. He worked with our finance and IT team to manage any initial teething issues.” – Nik Kleine.
Visit our Facility Product Suite, Facility Analytics and Reporting, and Image Capture page and ask us about the benefits of our cloud based system to learn more about how our Mandalay can help enhance your waste operations.
