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WALGA ICT Online Services
There are a variety of services that WALGA offers to its members, these are described below. For each of the services there is an annual subscription fee and each service requires various hardware and software options and support and maintenance arrangements.
Linking Communities and Councils (LCC) Program
The Linking Councils and Communities program allows for the development of a website, the hosting, support and maintenance of the website for an annual subscription fee.
Managed Services, Email and Gateway Machines
This is a centrally managed service that provides the configuration and user information required by the gateway machines in each Local Government. It provides for a centralised mail server with virus scanning provided for all participating local governments to utilise as their mail server, a user management directory (LDAP), Gateway configuration to allow access to remote services as required and regular maintenance and system updates of central services and remote gateway machines.
An email hosting solution can be provided for local governments through a central mail server. Through this implementation local governments can take advantage of the online management of email accounts through a browser interface, have secure 128-bit encrypted webmail for all email accounts which can be accessed from any location, virus scanning of all inbound emails and spam filtering.
Gateway Machine
The gateway machine is customised to extract the maximum functionality from the available Internet carrier service (be it PSTN, ISDN, ADSL or some other type of connection). The gateway machine provides and controls Internet connectivity according to the configurations defined on the centralised services, offering Internet connection redundancy, Firewall, Intrusion detection and content filtering to block access to inappropriate material or malware installation.
The gateway machines are maintained remotely to remove the need for maintenance staff to visit the Local Government on a regular basis. No end user interaction is required except in the case of equipment failure.
DNS Management
DNS management is available to local governments who utilise ICT Online services. Changes are made on a central server, which becomes the designated SOA (Source of Authority) for the domain(s). The system is also designed so that the central server is never exposed to the outside world, offering protection against DNS poisoning attacks and other malicious activities.
Electronic Lodgement System (ELS) for Building Applications
The Electronic Lodgement System is the interface part of the Building Application Lodgement Integration Project. This interface allows participating Western Australian-based builders to submit building applications online in a paperless environment to participating local governments with the benefit of faster approval times and reduced red tape.
Simple Messaging System (SMS)
The WA Local Government SMS Broadcast Service is a service that allows individuals within Local Government to send short text messages to the mobile phones (GSM or Next G) of individuals, or pre-defined broadcast lists of individuals, in a controlled and traceable manner.
Outbound messages can be sent from a simple secure webpage or may be initiated from third-party software (such as library management systems). If the sending party is authorised to send SMS messages, the text message is then dispatched to the recipient(s), and an email is automatically sent to the originator, complete with details of the message, what time it was sent and the destination phone number (or broadcast list) it was sent to.
Possible applications for this service could be automatically advising patrons that their requested book is now available at the local library (instead of posting out a letter), broadcasting the activation of a Harvest Ban to all farmers’ mobiles during harvest season, broadcasting a change of meeting time / cancellation to all councillors or issuing an alert to all rangers.
Remote Network Management
Remote network management is available to regional local governments that may lack sufficient local/in-house IT resources. Technical assistance can be delivered remotely through the use of a gateway (although not necessary) and VNC/Remote Desktop software. Onsite support can also be made available if required.
Some of the services that can be provided are assistance with installation and configuration of new and existing network devices, such as workstations, servers and printers/scanners/photocopiers, support and maintenance of workstations, support and management of software such as Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office Applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, etc), organising cabling, purchasing of new/replacement equipment other than the gateway and maintenance of printers/scanners/fax machines.
Common Services
There are a number of services that are used by the above primary services and underpin these service offerings which are referred to as common services.
Helpdesk
The helpdesk service provides a 1300 free call number and email address for queries and issues related to the services offered on this page. This service is available Monday – Friday, 8:30am – 5:30pm.
Co-location Service (hosting)
The local government website is hosted in a dedicated co-location facility in Perth. Several IBM rack mount servers power the various websites and systems hosted by the WALGA ICT Online Services. Service include the hosting of the infrastructure hardware which includes an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), air-conditioned environment and secured facilities, provision of Firewall services, appropriate subnet public IP addresses, bandwidth for inbound and outbound traffic, virus scanning of all inbound and outbound e-mail traffic for the domains, disaster recovery for internet connectivity to the services via a PSTN facility enabling multiple logins, 24 hr monitoring with SMS and e-mail alerts for DNS, HTTP and LDAP. Benefits are minimal downtime, secure website environment, protection from virus infections and other computer hackers.
Content Management System (CMS)
The Content Management System (CMS) is designed to allow authorised content administrators, authors and editors in an organisation to easily manage their individual content areas via a simple, yet secure web interface without the need for special HTML or programming skills. Simply put, a CMS allows you to manage the content (words, images, photographs, etc) of a website.
Training
Training in the use of the Content Management System (CMS) is provided to the subscribers of the Linking Councils and Communities program free of charge. There is no set limit on the amount of training a Council can request in a year. Training is conducted onsite, in a suitable nearby facility (e.g. Telecentre) or a central location if several nearby local governments require training. The session is conducted over a four hour period and covers basic use of the CMS.
Technical Support Services
Specialist technical support for 2nd and 3rd level support is required to support the various servers, switches and routers that the Linking Councils and Communities program utilises. There is a requirement that the various hardware and software environments including websites are kept up to date with software and firmware patches supplied by the vendors of the hardware and software. This is available Monday – Friday 8:30am – 5:30pm. Problems are referred to this group by the Helpdesk. Services covered are, server management, technical project management, application of patches to application software, server log review, application of hardware and software patches to the hosting servers and communication equipment to keep this in line with recommendations from suppliers, monitoring server loads, recovery of content on the website and resolution of issues with the CMS.
Development and Enhancement
There is a necessity to keep the CMS environment and operating environments including websites up to date with software and firmware revisions supplied by the vendors. Services undertaken are project management of the development, installation and commissioning of new websites, ongoing maintenance of the hardware and software of the CMS, and its customisations, development of additional functionality in the CMS and services that benefit all participating councils and the development of additional services that will benefit users of the WALGA ICT Online Services.
Maintenance
There is an obligation to maintain the various hardware, software and application environments to ensure that the WALGA ICT Online Services operates at maximum efficiency and is available for use by the members. Services undertaken are change Management of changes to the hardware, software and application environments, project management of version releases that significantly impact the hardware, software and application environments, application of hardware and software patches to the hosting servers to keep this in line with recommendations from suppliers, upgrades of the CMS in line with the release from the vendor to keep this recent and in line with development changes and ensure that the security of the CMS is maintained, application of security patches to software and application of security patches to firmware.
Management
The WALGA ICT Online Services utilises a number of 3rd parties to support, maintain and enhance the services provided. There are also various Service Level Agreements (SLA) and Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) in place for the subscribers to the WALGA ICT Online Services. There is a requirement to manage the 3rd party providers and the various documents in the areas of contracts, Service Level Agreements, Memorandums of Understanding, negotiation and review of contracts, SLA’s and MOU’s, development and maintenance of contract, risk and budget plans, system documentation that enables the support, maintenance and enhancement of the WALGA ICT Online Services, availability management, capacity management, configuration management and incident management.