The team at ALGIM are excited to introduce Andrew Siddles, Corporate IT Manager at Napier City Council. Andrew was elected on to the ALGIM Executive at the ALGIM AGM, held last year during the 2012 Annual ALGIM Conference.
Andrew’s role at Napier City Council includes the management of Business and Information Systems, IT Support, Websites and Intranet, IT Projects, Technology infrastructure, and Telecommunications. He has been involved in Local Government for nearly 7 years, however he also worked at Wellington City Council as a Records Officer & Courier back when he was fresh out of university. “The opportunities were endless for a BA graduate in the early 90s!” says Andrew. He became involved with Napier City Council when they were looking for an IT Manager. As the job he was employed in at the time were moving operations offshore,
Andrew jumped at the opportunity and describes it as a “fluke of timing” that he ended up there.
Andrew describes introducing a strong customer focus to IT service delivery at NCC as a highlight of his career. As a result of this introduction, several departments who used to independently manage and support their technology systems now receive these services from the Corporate IT Department.
Another highlight for Andrew is taking on responsibility for Web Services and then redeveloping the main Council website to introduce a Content Management system, an intranet and more online services. This also involved designing and implementing a web architecture that allows information and modules to be shared across multiple websites and other channels such as digital signs and kiosks.
Working closely with the community is something Andrew enjoys about working in Local Government. “If I do my job well it helps my family and friends. The flipside is that if I make a mistake I hear all about how my mother couldn’t download her ebook from the library, the difficulty my neighbour had with a building consent, or the information my wife couldn’t find on our website.”
Also, because nobody in local government sector is in competition with one another, Andrew enjoys the culture of sharing knowledge, good practice and expertise amongst the Councils. He appreciates the ability to tap into the experience of others across the country – learning what has worked (or not) elsewhere and sharing documentation such as business cases and policies.
Andrew enjoys that ALGIM is about sharing and adding value to the whole sector – by developing shared resources and providing forums for Council staff to share their good practice, resources and expertise with others in the sector.
In the short term, Andrew hopes to give a higher profile to the resources ALGIM already have that can save individual Councils from reinventing the wheel. For example, we’re currently implementing an eDRMS at NCC and I’ve been blown away by the value ALGIM’s IM toolkit has provided in this process.
Andrew would like to explore opportunities to market ALGIM products and services to other sectors and geographies eg the Australian local government sector, lines companies for GIS as a long term goal for ALGIM.
Away from work, Andrew enjoys spending quality time with his wife and three boys, playing the “real kind” of football (that with the round ball!) and kayaking.
