‘Maintaining Knowledge is Important’ – Moonee Valley City Council Case Study
Overview
Refresher training is not always top of mind during your day-to-day operations, however Craig Perry (Coordinator Waste Management and Recycling) and Adam Trezise (Transfer Station Team Leader) from Moonee Valley City Council have shared with us their most recent training experience which was a game changer for them.
Moonee Valley City Council is comprised of various inner north-western suburbs of Melbourne. Moonee Valley has one transfer station without a weighbridge and the facility accepts vehicles weighing less than 2.5 tonnes. They have been using Mandalay software since 2009 and the Mandalay products they are currently utilising include the Facility Product Suite – Ticketing, EFTPOS integration and they have recently commenced using Premium Facility Analytics and Reporting.
The Situation
Both Craig and Adam were appointed to leadership roles within the waste team at Moonee Valley City Council in 2022. At the time, neither of them had any prior experience using the software.
‘Between Adam and I, we had little understanding of the Mandalay System and its capabilities. I contacted Brendon and he gave me a very quick crash course in Mandalay. After this crash course I knew more training was required in order to maximise the capabilities of the Mandalay System.’ – Craig Perry
One of the challenges for Adam and the Transfer Station staff using Mandalay was that the ticketing process that was in place had too many steps and it was taking far too long for operators to find products. This resulted in long queues of vehicles at the gatehouse.
‘We knew there was a better and more efficient way to use the ticketing system, but we did not have knowledge of the Mandalay System to reprogram the ticketing function to make these improvements’’ – Craig Perry.
Following an initial chat, they arranged for training sessions to be undertaken with their team. One of Mandalay’s Application Specialists, Shelby Whitney, headed up training for the team.
‘Shelby absolutely taught us wonders over the course of those lessons. Made it clearer.’ – Adam Trezise
The Goals / Requirements
The main goals for Craig, Adam and the team were to gain a thorough understanding of the software and simplify the ticketing process for their gatehouse operators. Training was required to get Craig, Adam, and the team up to speed.
The Challenges
Minimal System Knowledge
The new leadership team did not have enough knowledge of the system to utilise it to its full capability. Craig was also concerned about making mistakes in reprogramming the system that may cause the system to lose data or fail completely.
Inefficient Ticketing Process
Another key challenge to overcome was the length of time it was taking gatehouse attendants to process the vehicles entering the facility. The process they were following was too long and complicated which resulted in vehicles lining up out onto the street and congesting the traffic.
Data Recording
The system was not recording the information required for their reports. A number of new fees and charges needed to be added to the system. In addition to this, the number of inputs and steps to program a ticket was so complicated that the gatehouse operators were having difficulty processing tickets which resulted in the wrong transactions being recorded.
The Solution
Having new management in place with limited knowledge of the Mandalay System provided the opportunity to review and improve how the Transfer Station Staff could use the Mandalay System to improve the efficiency and accuracy of reporting. Training was the first step in helping them achieve that. They needed an understanding of how to use the system properly first and they also needed a data cleanse to help ensure the information they report on was accurate and met their needs.
Training
Craig told Mandalay that they wanted to train their operators on ticketing and that they wanted to understand how it worked and how they could program it themselves. From there, they undertook a 4-hour ticketing training session, a 4-hour data administration session and a 2-hour reporting session. The entire training schedule was conducted online via Microsoft teams.
‘We sat down with Shelby for training, and we went from novices to basically reconfiguring the entire system in 4 hours.’ – Craig Perry
Streamlining the Ticketing Process
In addition to providing training, Shelby was able to help the team streamline their ticketing process. The training started as a structured session and as they progressed, Shelby started showing the team how to adjust the system to suit their needs.
After making the necessary configuration changes, the ticketing process became easier and more efficient. Shelby helped change the settings in ticketing to reduce the process down to 3 clicks. This allowed operators to process vehicles coming to the transfer station in half the time because it was easier to find things in the system.
‘I can’t speak highly enough of what Shelby did for us. The work she did to get us to a good level, listening to us, and it was all done over teams. Being able to do that well virtually and get a great result was good.’ – Craig Perry
The Outcome
Confidence Using the System
The staff are now confident in using the system and are finding the system so much easier to use.
‘We always had the capability, but we didn’t have that knowledge. The ongoing maintenance of that knowledge is important’ – Craig Perry
As a result of the training, Adam can now go into the system with confidence and know how everything is adjusted and how it all works. He’s now at a stage where he can make administration changes to the system where necessary without needing to seek help from Mandalay. The training provided him with the tools and confidence to do that because he now knows how everything is adjusted and how it all works.
Once Adam had the knowledge, he was also able to refine the system further according to the advice shared by Shelby throughout the training.
Resilience
Now that there is more than one person with knowledge about the system, this has allowed them to build their business resilience. So, when Adam goes on leave, other people are able to get into the system to make changes with confidence too.
‘I’ve learnt that minor admin problems I can take care of myself. It’s good to know we have staff now who can resolve the issues too without me having to get involved.’ – Adam Trezise
Internal Training and Support
Adam is now in a position where he can train other people internally on ticketing and administration.
Adam’s office is also located in the same room as the operators, so if an operator finds a glitch or something to clean up, he is right there and able to action it straight away.
Key Learnings and Advice
Despite the improvements made, Craig and Adam say that they still have a lot of data that can be cleaner, so their advice to others is to cleanse your data.
They also acknowledge that data governance is important. If someone has been in the system who doesn’t work in the gatehouse and doesn’t know what they’re doing, the changes they make could have a negative impact on the inputs at the front end for the gatehouse operations.
Along with making sure inputs match the needs of the gatehouse, it’s also important to ensure that the information and inputs in the system match what needs to be reported on. Correct data linkages in the back end of the system will lead to more efficient gatehouse operations and improved reporting to enable management to effectively measure and manage their facility.
Both Craig and Adam encourage others to reach out to Mandalay and ask about training.
‘If they haven’t touched base with Mandalay, have new staff or just need training, take an opportunity to spend a couple of hours with Mandalay. Identify the improvements you need and get it done. You don’t need a Mandalay person to come down who data collects for you, once you have the knowledge, you can do it yourself and do it as it happens.’ – Craig Perry
The Future for Moonee Valley
In the future, Moonee Valley City Council hopes to further improve their use and understanding of Mandalay’s reporting systems and recently began to make use of the Premium Facility Analytics and Reporting product. They are hoping to get better data and analytics out of reporting and be able to create better quality reports.
They have already started to track what times and days are the busiest at the facility, but in the future, they are also looking at other information such as profiles of customers who are using the transfer station. The current perception is that non-resident use is quite high, however so far, the data indicates that is not necessarily the case. They are looking to get their data cleaned up further to help with their reporting.
‘Reporting is going to be really important for us to see how we’re tracking. We can definitely see when our busier days and quieter days are so we can see if we have the appropriate resources to cover those days, and we need that data as evidence to support those changes.’ – Craig Perry
Mandalay’s ticketing product is highly configurable and offers significant capability spanning regulatory considerations, pricing and commercial factors, waste types, detailed reporting, vehicle management and a whole lot more. It’s important to understand the system so that it can be configured and tailored to meet the individual needs of your business or site and to ensure the ongoing success of your team members.
If you are an existing customer who wants to make sure you are making the most of our software, or if you are new to Mandalay and want to find out more, please get in touch.
