Hornsby Shire Council
Hornsby Shire Council completely removed manual processes and improved the customer experience with Bookable.
Customer Profile
The Hornsby Shire is located in the Upper North Shore area of Sydney, covering an area of 455 km sq and home to around 160,000 people. Hornsby Shire is the largest council in the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region by area and is bound be Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in the east and the Hawkesbury River to the north.
Council's Challenge
Council’s booking system and processes did not deliver a great customer experience. Systems were clunky with a high reliance on manual intervention and staff knowledge. Staff involvement was required throughout the entire booking lifecycle, from responding to customer enquiries, making and managing bookings, sending communications to customers through to financial processing.
Council conducted an internal review and business case and identified a need for change, key drivers included:
- Identifiable efficiency opportunities
- Improvement of the customer experience
- Reduce risks associated with manual processing.
The Solution
Through a competitive process, Hornsby Shire Council selected Attekus Bookable and went live in May 2023. The initial focus was for bookings across 20 halls and meeting rooms. Council has moved to a solution that now:
- Provides online information, in real-time, on venue and space availability, suitability of use and booking requirements.
- Allows customer to complete online bookings, including payments, with integration to Council’s payment gateway and ERP, TechnologyOne Financials.
- Centralises all bookings into a single, enterprise solution, to increase visibility of booking information and data across the organisation.
- Eliminates manual processes and streamline the internal review and approval for bookings across Council.
- Improves venue utilisation through removing utilisation roadblocks put in place through previous manual and timely processes.
The Results
Council’s Technology and Transformation Vision is to “be a customer-focused provider of technology-enabled business transformation” and “to improve the customer experience, work productively, and achieve service objectives”.
Through implementing Attekus Bookable, which directly supports this vision, Council has:
- Elevated the customer experience – delivering a consistent, compelling booking process with 24/7 self-service access to make, manage and pay for bookings.
- Streamlined payments – automated invoicing and flexible online payment options have cut manual debt recovery and improved cash flow.
- Freed up staff time – automation throughout the booking lifecycle (notifications, confirmations, payment tracking) means staff spend less time on admin and more on proactive customer engagement.
Council’s business case identified a potential saving of 3 FTE’s across the organisation through reduction of the manual intervention required to support the current booking processes.
Sharon Bowman – Manager, Technology and Transformation
Seamless Integration with Council Systems
Bookable integrates with Council’s existing platforms for even greater efficiency:
- Smart venue access – keyless entry codes are automatically issued, eliminating the need to collect and return keys.
- Automated financial processing – transactions flow directly into TechnologyOne Financials, removing the need for manual credit-card refunds or double-handling.
Outcome: A measurable lift in customer satisfaction and operational productivity, fully aligned with Council’s transformation goals.
By the numbers
Critical statistic
100%
Critical statistic
100%
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Sutherland Shire Council
Read about how Sutherland Shire Council in the southern suburbs of Sydney revolutionised its online booking process with Attekus Bookable.
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