The Climate Council of Australia’s Cities Power Partnership

About This Case Study

The Climate Council is Australia’s leading climate change communications organisation that provides authoritative, expert advice to the Australian public on climate change and solutions based on the most up-to-date science available. The Climate Council are made up of some of the country’s leading climate scientists, health, renewable energy, and policy experts, as well as a team of staff, and a huge community of volunteers and supporters who power their work.

The Cities Power Partnership is one of The Climate Council’s programs focused on collaborating with local councils across Australia to drive climate change initiatives in their local government areas.

Project: Council Connect

When the Cities Power Partnership (TCPP) contacted ONGC they had previously been using a WordPress online portal to share information with their audience. This solution was not delivering on their expanded breadth of requirements so the ‘Council Connect’ project was born. The team were looking for a platform that would provide a familiar and simple interface that would encourage adoption and participation of the 150 councils around Australia that they were partnered with.
The knowledge sharing and collaboration platform for their member councils would also need to provide the means to:

• Quickly and easily connect to other councils,
• Instigate and engage with meaningful discussions around relevant topics,
• Be a go-to resource for networking and solutions

The Solution

In collaboration with TCPP, ONGC worked to build the base solution utilising Microsoft Teams. There were several key features and benefits identified during the initial evaluation process which would see the Council Connect project provide a modernised approach to collaboration. A number of these items were included in the overall development including:

• Custom ‘Council Connect’ branding across the platform
• Enablement of chat functions individually or in a group
• Shared calendars that provide flexibility to include both local council and govt activities
• Phone and video conferencing functionality with recording
• Directory of users that allows members to look each other up and connect with them
• A section where introduction training videos and documents are readily available to members
• Provision of training and support throughout by ONGC to ensure a successful launch
• The ability for TCPP to self-manage the solution post-implementation

The Result

The platform was built over a 4-month engagement and deployed late in 2021. The result has been extremely successful to enable council members to share material, collaborate on projects and achieve greater awareness for TCPP.

Since launching Council Connect, TCPP have seen a significant uptake and collaboration between members. More ideas are being shared and developed and the TCPP team can quickly and easily communicate with all 150 members within seconds. TCPP have also seen a significant reduction in the time they need to maintain the solution on a day-to-day basis and are also now able to fully self-manage the solution, with the ability to reduce ongoing management costs. This complex project was all achievable by utilising the Microsoft stack and delivered on the Microsoft Teams platform.

Further, through their partnership with ONGC, TCPP were able to leverage the sponsorship benefits made available through Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact initiative. This included taking advantage of fully funded donation licenses which has enabled TCPP to deliver this solution with zero ongoing Microsoft licensing fees.