Local Government: Positive Team Adoption Delivers Improved Stakeholder Management
When an Australian-based local government decided it was time for a new stakeholder management platform, they knew that buy-in and positive team adoption was essential.
Project highlights
| 4,000
Stakeholder records in under 12 months |
Efficient Reporting
Centralized data for fast and accurate reporting |
Positive Adoption High team engagement and consistent use |
“The client is happy with Simply Stakeholders. The process of adapting and maturing has revealed which functions are the most useful to them and, ultimately, it’s created a significant shift in terms of how the client manages their stakeholder engagement records.”
Joana Zaper, Simply Stakeholder Customer Success Team
Organization Background
Priding itself on supporting innovation and growth, this local government works to promote the vast and varied lifestyles that the area caters to.
The client’s lead for stakeholder engagement is dedicated to managing stakeholder relationships for around 1,700 capital infrastructure projects across the area. The team consists of 10 stakeholder engagement specialists, each assigned to diverse infrastructure and construction ready projects.
The Challenge: Changing Platforms and Team Adoption
Managing a huge volume of residents and visitors with diverse stakeholder needs, requires the Council to be agile and responsive. So as the Council’s focus evolved in response to stakeholder need, a new way to manage the relationships more comprehensively and efficiently was recognised.
“The system that was in place worked really well for the original purpose that it was intended. But when the client’s SRM priorities changed, it was time for a more fit for purpose system,” said Joi, who works closely with the client.
Attempts to repurpose the existing system were explored. People still added information, but the system functions at the time no longer aligned with the work that the client was producing.
Ultimately, they needed to make a decision about the continuity of the system. “In the end, they reverted to using spreadsheets,” said Joi, and explained the familiar yet undesirable situation of having to rely on asking people for their individual accounts and records of stakeholder interactions. The client’s centralized system had vanished, which slowed the work pace and increased the risk of potential errors.
It was less than ideal, but the client was confident this would be a short-term solution due to the systems in place being unsustainable for the team in terms of workload. Once the client made the call that long-term, effective change was needed, they were hellbent on finding an intuitive, easy-to-use stakeholder management platform that her team would find irresistible.
The Solution: An Intuitive, User-Friendly Platform That Simplified Even Basic Stakeholder Management
Following an efficient and thorough process, Council staff dedicated five months to finding the right system for their needs.
Success meant finding a platform that:
- The team would use consistently to establish a reliable, centralized record of all stakeholder engagement
- Assisted with task management, improved productivity, and smoothed the workload process so tracking deliverables was easier
- Was intuitive and user friendly.
Aware that they were coming from a significantly different system, the client embraced the notion that they were working with a blank canvas. Potentially, they could create the ideal stakeholder engagement and management environment, so flexibility and adaptability would be an attractive draw.
To make sure they found a solution that was sustainable, all system users were involved throughout the process. “The client explained that their team’s buy-in from the start was paramount,” said Joi.
After the research phase was completed, the client concluded that Simply Stakeholders was the platform that suited them the most.
Outcomes: Positive Adoption and Centralized Data Lead to Speedier Data Discovery and Slick Report Creation
The client has been using Simply Stakeholders since late 2024, with the full rollout to the team occurring in early 2025. For them, it’s been a journey as they’ve been rebuilding and configuring their centralized registers, interactions, and embracing the opportunity to work with task tracking.
“In the first few months, the team focused on interactions with stakeholders, making sure they understood how to use the platform to get the basics right. The goal was to make using the system a positive habit,” said Joi.
Using Simply Stakeholder has helped with:
- Stakeholder records and interaction: “In less than a year, the Council has gone from having a very small amount of centralized data to over 4,000 stakeholder records and 3,000 logged interactions.”
- Task management: “By recording all of their deliverables onto the system — fact sheets, project notifications, council briefings — they can easily see what activity is happening and what stage in the process a task is at.”
- Report creation: “The client finds it exceptionally easy to pull data. As a result, the reports they produce for management and for the team’s own records are very useful.”
With positive signs that the platform is being used consistently, the client has turned its attention to the more advanced features, such as stakeholder mapping.
“The client are working in the growth and maturing phase,” admits Joi, and is keen for the client to know there’s more the client can experiment with. But currently this Council is using the platform for:
- Stakeholder and interaction registers
- Stakeholder mapping
- Task management
- Customized internal reporting
- Data management
- Sentiment tracking
- Complaints management.
With such positive signs, the eventual plan is to roll out the use of Simply Stakeholders to other teams in Council.
While the current configuration suits the needs of a single project stakeholder management team, flexibility within the platform allows for individual team customization. Without complicating things for other teams. The result is an ultimate single source of truth regarding stakeholder interactions.
The Reality of Moving
Changing to a new platform, system, and way of working was a massive shift for this team. It would be remiss not to acknowledge the upheaval.
“The client was clearly excited to have Simply Stakeholders as a resource. But moving also presented a challenge,” says Joi of the onboarding process and initial few months. “At first, the client was presented us with more work as they created the systems they needed for operation, configured the platform, and created positive work habits,” says Joi.
A massive task was facing the client. But they weren’t going it alone. Throughout the switch, they called on Joana, their dedicated Customer Success support advisor.
“It was a pleasure to help with the client’s transition. Supporting them involved being available for calls, training sessions, and of course answering queries as they came through.”
The Wrap Up
For this Australian-based local government, Simply Stakeholders has helped with centralizing important stakeholder data that directly affects local projects. For a time, this data was difficult to access, which slowed processes and affected team performance and project delivery continuity. But with positive team adoption and consistent use, the centralization of key stakeholder data has smoothed processes, increasing team efficiency and accountability.
