How Ōtorohanga District Council cut LGOIMA response times by 40% through automation
Ōtorohanga District Council replaced spreadsheets and manual email with a structured workflow – giving teams clear visibility and speeding up LGOIMA responses.
faster LGOIMA response times
days average response time
of requests now require CE escalation
weeks to implement
Organisation
Ōtorohanga District Council
Industry
Local Government
Region
New Zealand
Products Used
Process Mapping →
Workflow Automation →
“Before Flowingly, I’d spend half my day just walking around the building chasing people for answers. It was exhausting.”
“We’ve got people here who’ve been in council 25+ years and even they’re using it confidently. That’s a huge win.”
The Organisation
Ōtorohanga District Council is a local government authority in New Zealand’s Waikato region. Despite being a small council with limited resources, they manage a wide range of services and face growing demand for transparency and public accountability-especially under LGOIMA.
We spoke with Rebecca Griffin, Business Improvement Lead, and Jessica Nelson, LGOIMA lead, about how they reimagined their approach to compliance using Flowingly.
The Challenge
Ōtorohanga District Council is responsible for managing requests under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA). These requests require input from multiple departments and must be responded to within a statutory 20-working-day timeframe.
Previously, the process was largely manual.
Requests were tracked in spreadsheets and coordinated through email threads, with staff responsible for following up across departments to gather information and track progress.
“Everything was driven by spreadsheets and email chains. There was no visibility, and no way of knowing where anything was at.”
— Rebecca Griffin, Business Improvement Lead, Ōtorohanga District Council
Without a structured process, it was difficult to see where requests were in the workflow, who was responsible for the next step, or whether deadlines were at risk.
The council wanted a way to make the process clearer and easier to manage while reducing the administrative effort required to coordinate responses.
The Solution
The council used Flowingly to redesign and automate its LGOIMA request process.
Using Flowingly’s visual workflow builder, the team mapped the full lifecycle of a request and created a structured workflow that guides staff through each step of the process.
Tasks are automatically routed to the relevant departments, ensuring the right people are notified when their input is required. Staff can see where each request is in the process and what actions still need to be completed.
Conditional logic was also introduced to assess the risk level of requests and determine whether escalation is required.
This ensures that higher-risk requests receive additional oversight while routine requests can progress through the workflow without unnecessary delays.
Results
The new workflow significantly improved the council’s ability to manage LGOIMA requests.
Response times decreased by 40%, reducing the average response time from approximately 20 working days to around 12 days.
The workflow also provides clear visibility into the progress of each request, making it easier for staff to track responsibilities and ensure deadlines are met.
“Now we can clearly see where each request is in the process and who is responsible for the next step.”
— Rebecca Griffin, Business Improvement Lead, Ōtorohanga District Council
By replacing manual coordination with a structured workflow, the council created a more reliable and transparent process for responding to public information requests.