Wellington City Council
"Our customers don't want to be expert database users. They just want to be able to do their job. And this solution lets them do that."
Laura Nichol
GIS specialist
Wellington City Council
The City of Wellington, New Zealand's capital city, needed to develop a system that provides fast responses to all information requests. Using Sybase® technology, it created a powerful solution that quickly delivers information from multiple applications, disparate systems and with varied formats. Business Advantage Key Benefits Sybase Technology Industry
Managing an Array of Information
As New Zealand's capital city, Wellington has to keep up with the growing amount of information needed by both its offices and property owners. The 1,200 to 1,400 permanent staff and contract workers manage 60,000 properties and track 250,000 rent payers. They also manage city services—anything from botanic gardens to libraries—and define policy and strategy for Wellington.
Managing a vast array of homeowner and property information, Wellington City Council needed to build a system that would provide fast responses to all information requests when assessing a property for rates, planning approval, pursuing permits, etc. And the solution needed to access information stores in multiple applications, disparate systems and with varied formats.
Selecting Sybase
Wellington City Council selected Sybase for its ease of use, and for the ability to leverage existing systems. The solution had to allow them to link to peripheral systems and not cause them to lose access to currently available information.
"Our customers don't want to be expert database users," said Laura Nichol, GIS specialist, Wellington City Council. "They just want to be able to do their job. And this solution lets them do that."
Flexibility, Speed, and Reduced TCO
Sybase EAServer provides the tools to automatically generate interface components, which include Sybase PowerBuilder and Java objects, within the application layer that connects to the data stored in a Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) database. The Web-based application combines relational (property owner, size, current rate details) and geo-spatial data stored in an Informix-based GIS application.
"Many packages don't allow you to develop components yourself so you can control how your data will be used," said Brett Priddey, information architect. "Integrating a piece in an existing system can be a significant cost. Sybase EAServer is J2EE-certified, combined with Sybase EAServer's flexibility to support multiple component types and overall good performance, it made sense."
The open solution also allows for a multitude of future options.
"Instead of closing doors to other options, like other vendor products might have, Sybase EAServer lets us open a big door that allows multiple options," Priddey said. "We were vindicated in what we were trying to do when we chose Sybase. Delivered within four months, the application reduced the time it required to process queries by at least 25 percent. The new system effectively reduced the budget for day-to-day operations and operator training and helped to improve the effectiveness of civil services."