Civica launches new cloud optimised Local Government software suite, helping councils connect with citizens and employees in a post-COVID world

Sydney, 21 July 2020: Civica, a global leader in software for public and community services, has announced the launch of Authority Altitude, a new software suite aimed at streamlining operations and improving how councils engage with their community, which has gained even greater importance as they manage the challenges that follow the COVID-19 pandemic.

Authority Altitude, a cloud optimised enterprise solution, provides improved operational management supporting an ambitious vision for councils focused around cloud, digital enablement, technology innovation and data analytics. It enables council employees to work from any location, enhancing how councils connect and support their citizens. The solution represents the evolution of the Authority enterprise solution that has been used by over 200 councils throughout Australia and New Zealand in the course of its 25+ year history to date.

Calling on 25+ years of community consulting and product development, Authority Altitude provides a digital platform for local governments to meet the dynamic needs of their communities. Created in partnership with Civica’s local government customers through co-design sessions and strategic council forums, Authority Altitude delivers increased productivity, a better citizen experience, best practice approaches to maintaining infrastructure as well as reducing overheads.

As part of their digital transformation journey, Palmerston North City Council in New Zealand recently selected Authority Altitude to modernise business processes and drive efficient best practice.

“In order to achieve our ‘small city benefits, big city ambition’ vision we selected Civica to help us deliver improved services to our community,” says Stuart McKinnon, Chief Financial Officer, Palmerston North City Council.

“Authority Altitude will enhance our online offering, we’ll now be equipped to manage financial services, planning and reporting, property rating, regulatory, and customer self-service which we aim to use to build a stronger and better supported community.”

Authority Altitude is an evolution of Civica’s Authority solution. As a cloud solution, it provides greater flexibility, enabling councils to deliver better, faster and more innovative services while supporting reduced cost of IT support and infrastructure. It connects to a range of mobile applications and is designed to integrate with technology implemented by councils now and in the future.

“Authority Altitude is designed to form a critical part of the digital infrastructure of local councils as they transform their operations. This has heightened in importance more recently as we entered a new way of working and communicating with citizens after the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of this solution, councils and citizens will have access to apps and online portals that enable remote interactions rather than using physical facilities,” says Ben Cowling, Executive Director, Civica Australasia.

“We worked closely with many local governments across the country to better understand the needs of their councils for the future. This led us to designing a solution that is intuitive to operate, flexible, scalable, secure and cost efficient.

“Our local industry experts designed the cloud-based software taking into account future plans councils might have for creating smart communities. Authority Altitude can integrate IoT, AI and other solutions to meet the ever-changing needs of citizens. We decided to introduce the solution under a new name because Altitude will help ANZ Local Government reach new heights in their journey to raise citizen and employee engagement.” Civica’s Authority Altitude solution leverages the global cloud security leadership of Microsoft Azure - the preferred vendor of the Australian Signals Directorate and utilised by Australia’s Defence, Federal and State Governments.

Civica solutions are offered under ISO27001: 2013 information security management certification, guaranteeing that robust and resilient information security processes for information storage, processing and provisioning are in place to safeguard systems and data.