From humble beginnings to high tech: council rates
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It’s been more than 30 years since Zipform Digital sent its first batch of council rates notices. Now delivering millions of notices each year, the business reflects on three decades of experience through the lens of Stephanie Brown, Account Manager at Zipform Digital.
Rates notices are the most important revenue generating channel that councils have in their income generation streams. Used to build and maintain beaches, roads, parks, sporting facilities and community services, without the income they generate our beautiful cities around Australia would slip into decline.
With 537 councils Australia-wide, local government revenue from rates in 2020-21 was around $20 billion, however in the same financial year, total annual spend was $43.1 billion. Zipform Digital has been sending out council rates since 1993, and last year alone we sent out 1.4 million mailpacks during the July-September rates season, plus an additional 1.8 million notices such as interim statements since then.
Stephanie Brown has worked with local councils across Western Australia for a number of years.
“We know how critical it is to our councils that the rates period goes smoothly, which is why over 40 staff across the business are involved from start to finish. The team functions like a well-oiled machine, it’s great to see everyone work together during this time.”
This well-oiled machine is critical when the rates period only spans 4-6 weeks every year whilst ensuring that the balance between quality and efficiency is maintained for nearly 100 councils. The team also emphasise the need for accuracy, reliability and most importantly, security.
Stephanie explains,
“After many years of processing rates notices for councils, we know how stressful this time is for the rates teams. Our focus is always to make their job as easy as possible, and just “get it done”. It’s as simple as that.”
30 years of change
Technology has been a game-changer not only for the customer communications industry, but specifically for council rates, with some councils around Australia issuing rates notices for over 100 years.
When looking back on the key changes that have taken place for Zipform Digital clients, Stephanie highlights the impact of technology.
“When we began printing rates notices back in 1993, we used a pre-printed base stock supplied by the client which we then overprinted with laser. Fast forward 30 years, our newly installed inkjet printers can print hundreds of pages per minute with completely personalised information. The multi-million-dollar investment last year in our print, mail and technology offering including new production facilities has not only increased our efficiencies but also doubled our capacity. The second inkjet printer which came online late last year has also dramatically reduced business continuity risk, which is key for our local government clients.”
Continuous improvement
Whilst the Zipform Digital team who are behind the rates period are well seasoned in the requirements of each council client, Stephanie is clear that it’s never a case of set and forget.
“Every year we make sure that key learnings and improvements are document and actioned before the next rates season. We’ve invested in cross training to ensure there are now more staff across the business – particularly programming – who can pick up any job if needed. From a production perspective we’ve invested in equipment and software that gives us both increased efficiencies and data security. Things are very different now than they were back in 1993.”
With the Zipform Digital team onboarding multiple new council clients every year, it’s peace of mind for them to encounter the structured, tried and tested process that’s in place that provides them with minimal risk.
Stephanie concludes,
“Our staff have an incredible amount of experience – one of the senior programmers has been here 30 years and there is nothing he doesn’t know about the rates process for councils. Because we focus on cross-training and upskilling and have invested heavily in world-class technology there is never any risk to our clients during those crucial rates weeks every year. It’s an exciting time for the team every year, and we are already gearing up ready for the 2025 rates season.”