Transforming fire prevention inspections at Wattle Range

Located in South Australia, the Wattle Range Council team faces the challenge of managing compliance with fire break regulations across more than 400,000 square kilometres – all while fostering sustainable development for the community it serves and supporting the region’s key industries including agriculture, forestry, and tourism. 

After struggling with outdated technology and processes, Wattle Range adopted Datascape Fieldwork to transform their fire prevention process. This new solution enables the Council to conduct critical fire inspections in the field efficiently and accurately, while facilitating seamless communication to resolve any issues that arise. 

Before implementing Datascape Fieldwork, Wattle Range Council struggled with outdated technology and inefficient processes. Staff used an old laptop connected to a handheld GPS for property inspections, meaning only one team could perform inspections at a time.

Inspecting properties was a two-person job, with one person in the passenger seat inputting data while the other drove, and with only a single computer in use, inspectors had to ensure that the day’s data was extracted before heading out the following day.

"It was cumbersome, and made the process less efficient than it needed to be,” says Ben Gower, CEO at Wattle Range.

Problems with GPS mapping led to outdated property information, resulting in notices being sent to the wrong people and issues with enforcement.

“It was manual, slow and outdated, and it resulted in delays during fire-prone periods ... We were essentially stuck in a cycle of inefficiency that impacted our ability to carry out inspections quickly and accurately,” says Tim Wilson, Senior General Inspector, Wattle Range Council.

Staff frequently had to work long hours to meet critical fire prevention deadlines and finalise processes before property information changed, leading to a stressful work environment and draining valuable time and resources.

“There was a whole series of things we had to do in a small timeframe, so it was a challenging environment to manage effectively.”

To address these challenges, Wattle Range implemented the Fieldwork mobile app, an end-to-end solution giving council staff an ‘office in the pocket’ on mobile or tablet to conduct onsite inspections, assessments and audits efficiently. Having previously rolled out Datascape ERP (Financials, Property & Rating and CRM) to modernise its financial management processes, Wattle Range was familiar with Datascape, a software suite purpose-built for local government. 

The Fieldwork app has drastically transformed Wattle Range’s fire prevention efforts, allowing multiple inspectors to capture data in the field simultaneously. “Inspections are much faster,” says Ben, who adds that the user-friendly nature of the app allows for easy data entry.

"The user interface is spot on – both simple and functional. Once the workflows are configured in the back end, everything just works."   

Fieldwork provides inspectors with instant access to property information, enabling real-time data entry and photo uploads. This allows staff to directly upload evidence to the job, minimising non-productive time. “It means they're actually out doing the jobs that need to be done rather than the paperwork,” says Ben.

This easy access to information relating to a property also assists with community queries, and the mapping functionality has proven to be effective, with Wilson explaining that they are using it frequently for other tasks as well. The system also provides the Council with a single source of evidence, should compliance measures be required at a later stage.

“It's all there in one place, and anyone who needs to view it has access to it, rather than it being saved on someone's phone or in different files,” says Tim.

Once data has been entered into the system, automated workflows reduce manual admin, ensuring residents receive timely notifications about their fire prevention responsibilities. Given the improved experience, feedback from staff on has been overwhelmingly positive.

“They love the app,” says Ben. “The feedback is it's exactly what they were looking for, and they can complete their tasks much more efficiently.”

 The Datascape Fieldwork solution has fundamentally changed how Wattle Range manages fire prevention inspections, the way staff communicate and manage issues with owners, and overall fire prevention processes.

Datascape Fieldwork has slashed the time it takes to complete fire prevention inspections.

“The time efficiency has improved significantly. We used to take around about eleven to twelve days to get around all of our towns, and now we're doing it in five,” says Wattle Range’s Senior General Inspector Tim Wilson.

The Fieldwork app allows staff to easily identify owners and access fire prevention compliance data in one place, allowing them to address compliance issues proactively and respond to queries efficiently and accurately. “Having all the evidence in one place is a huge advantage. If someone calls asking about it, our team can quickly check while they're on the phone and view a photo showing they didn't mow their lawns.” 

By enhancing operational efficiency, improving data accuracy, consolidating information, and optimising customer communication, Wattle Range is able to address fire hazards more promptly and effectively. “Datascape has provided us with the results we wanted.”

For Wattle Range’s CEO, Ben Gower, the Fieldwork app is not just a tool for operational efficiency, but a means of capturing and analysing data to enhance the customer experience and measure the council’s performance, and it will lend itself to a huge range of further use cases required by council.

"It builds trust between Council and the community, and it starts to inform your elected members about how efficiently the organisation is running, which is incredibly powerful."