Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority have been a key Citizen Space user since October 2012 and were our first pin on the map in Western Australia.

The adoption of Citizen Space has helped the EPA both internally and externally. Our Australian and UK account management and sales teams met with Donna Weston at EPA to learn some more about the benefits of using the app.

3 ways Citizen Space has helped internal stakeholders at EPA:

“Citizen Space is an example of serving the communication of the business” Donna Weston, EPA

1) Presenting comments in a clean way

The simple and clean interface of Citizen Space has helped the agency establish a clear internal cultural standard for online consultations. This has assisted staff to work more quickly through consultation projects using the app’s easy-to-use structure.

2) Having an externally hosted instance

Having Citizen Space externally hosted within Australian territory has been really beneficial. It helps reduce the strain on limited IT resources and frees the EPA from having to carry out any updates or install new software, as we manage all of that for our customers.

3) Improved and more efficient analysis process

Previously the EPA received consultation submissions via email or paper. Admin staff would collate the comments into an Excel spreadsheet before showing assessment officers who considered the feedback. This step has now been cut out, and assessment officers can view comments and statistics in real time as consultation responses come in. This is a more efficient way of processing user responses, as results can be analysed straightaway, rather than at the end of the process.

3 ways Citizen Space has helped external stakeholders at EPA:

1) Being able to collate on the ground information in an efficient manner

EPA are a small department without many staff. Consulting online helps the department to collate information which may have not otherwise have been collected or considered.

2) Providing end-users with an acknowledgement email and ID number helps confirm their response

The ability to add a response manually helps to identify duplicates. The acknowledgement email and ID numbers are really handy as they help when associating responses and allow for manually adding submissions.

3) Easy to promote internally and to relevant stakeholder groups

The EPA Citizen Space instance has been shown to the EPA’s Stakeholder Reference Group, a mix of external professional organisations, agencies, individuals and chambers of commerce. They are really busy so anything that helps streamline the consultation process and allows them to keep abreast of it is of benefit.

Internally it is possible to keep up to date with any consultations added to the system via RSS feeds. This helps people inside the agency to see what consultations are being created in other areas of the EPA and identify potential cross-overs.