Challenge/Problem

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When we first met, Civix's planning business was growing and so was their workload. They were looking for ways to improve efficiency across their team while maintaining the high quality of their work.

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Before using Rico, they’d complete preliminary assessments / due diligence manually. When it came to report writing, formatting and preparing a structured AEE specific to each proposal was time consuming.

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“Preparing new AEEs would take up a lot of time. Formatting is the worst - creating lists of objectives, policies and rules is tedious and Word doesn’t always do what you want it to.

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..Assessing a project manually takes time and correlating the AUP text into a concise and clear AEE format was reducing our report writing efficiency.”

-Delilah

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Solution

 

We worked with Civix to move their application preparation process into Rico’s digital workflow. During this time, there were several key steps in implementing this change:

 

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Customising Rico to fit Civix’s unique approach

 

At first, the team had a few concerns about changing over from their existing format/approach:

 

“My biggest concern was what the report outputs would look like, what order things would be and how it would be formatted.”

-Delilah

 

“I was fairly skeptical as I had a ‘if it’s not broke, why fix it’ attitude … I was also a bit skeptical about the validity of a premade AEE template”

-Imogen

 

These concerns were addressed as the team saw that Rico could adapt to the requirements of each unique project and be configured to suit Civix's unique approach and template format.

 

“Rico’s frequent liaison with us as a team of planners using the template confirmed what works and what doesn’t for us. Fantastic service.”

-Imogen

 

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Learning to use Rico

 

When it came to learning to use Rico, the team found it clear and straightforward which meant they were up and running quickly. 

 

“The process was fairly easy as the entire system is clear and self-explanatory. It led me through with clear and concise instructions and I liked that aspect of it.”

-Imogen

 

“From the first application it was straightforward.”

-Delilah

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Results

 

A few months on, Civix are producing the vast majority of their resource consent applications with Rico. Here’s an overview of the key results Civix has enjoyed while using Rico: 

 

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Productivity increased by minimising lower value work

 

Rico cut out repetitive, administrative tasks, freeing up more time to focus on planning assessments.

 

“This lets you just concentrate on the actual assessments as opposed to formatting and admin sort of work.”

-Delilah

 

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Favourite feature?

 

Imogen and Delilah liked the ability to quickly insert assessments from existing projects into applications. (We call this the import function)

 

“The feature for incorporating assessments from other jobs is particularly handy.”

-Imogen

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What would you say to those thinking of using Rico?

 

"Do it. It helps with saving time and efficiency, not having to format, completing initial stage checks and due diligence and overall [Rico] are a good company that will work through feedback with you to adapt to your company's approach.”

-Delilah

 

“That they should use it, as it would be particularly helpful for saving time. Also that it is ultimately a checklist + formatting tool and does not mean their entire report is being written for them. Any company can still put their branding on this and the author of the AEE is still the author.”

-Imogen