How Hurunui DC migrated from Promapp and got the council excited about process again
Hurunui District Council moved from Promapp to Flowingly – reviewing what they had, migrating what mattered, and giving staff a system they actually use.
processes migrated
to migrate their process maps
unused processes retired
processes reviewed pre-migration
Organisation
Hurunui District Council (also serving Kaikōura DC)
Industry
Local Government
Region
Canterbury, New Zealand
Products Used
Process Mapping →
AI SOP Recorder →
“It was surprisingly easier than I thought. The team were very supportive and we had set pretty clear expectations on how we wanted things to look in the new platform.”
“People love it. With some changes, people say ‘I hate it, it’s terrible software.’ But with Flowingly, we haven’t had any sort of feedback like that.”
The Organisation
Hurunui District Council is a local government authority in Canterbury, New Zealand. Through a shared services arrangement, the council’s Business Analyst, Himam, also supports Kaikōura District Council – managing process improvement across both organisations.
The councils had been using Promapp for approximately three years, with over 500 processes across both organisations. We spoke with Himam about the experience of migrating to Flowingly and what that transition looked like in practice.
The Challenge
Despite years of effort, process mapping hadn’t taken hold across either council. Staff found Promapp difficult to use — the form-based approach meant people couldn’t see the process map as they built it, and the result often didn’t match what they’d expected.
“It was not easy to use. That’s the feedback we received from a lot of our end users. They were struggling to grasp the concept of process mapping. They couldn’t see the map to begin with.”
— Himam Dhungel, Business Analyst, Hurunui District Council
Beyond usability, Promapp’s limitations around consecutive decision points made it difficult to capture more complex cross-functional workflows accurately. Planning sessions consumed significant time, and process mapping was always something staff did on top of their regular workload – making it a hard sell internally.
Combined with increasing licensing costs and limited budgets, the team needed a platform that was easier to use, more capable, and more cost-effective.
The Solution
The team followed the ADKAR change management framework to structure the transition. Rather than migrating everything, they audited all 500+ processes across both councils – engaging process champions and department leads to decide what was worth bringing across.
“Rather than us telling them which processes to migrate, it was the staff actually owning their processes and telling us what they wanted to bring across.”
— Himam Dhungel, Business Analyst, Hurunui District Council
Of the 500+ processes, approximately 190 were confirmed for migration. The technical migration itself took three to four days, with the Flowingly team importing process maps, activities, work instructions, rich content, and documents. The team timed the cutover to coincide with the Christmas break – staff came back in January to a fully migrated environment.
Process champions then spent three to four weeks reviewing their content, reassigning activities, and familiarising themselves with the platform through training sessions and focus groups across both councils.
The team also adopted Flowingly’s AI SOP Recorder to support an ongoing ERP migration to Datascape – capturing step-by-step procedures while staff learned the new system.
“It’s really easy to actually just click those two buttons – start and stop – and then you’ve got something to refer to as you are learning the new system.”
— Himam Dhungel, Business Analyst, Hurunui District Council
Results
The migration delivered a simpler, more usable process management environment across both councils. Staff adoption has been positive, with no negative feedback about the platform – a marked change from the resistance the team had experienced previously.
“I actually get a lot of emails from people saying ‘Hey, I need to do this – could you show me around and help me get started?’ That shows people are using it and trying to engage more.”
— Himam Dhungel, Business Analyst, Hurunui District Council
By auditing before migrating, the team reduced their process library by over 60% – carrying forward only what was current and actively owned. With the SOP Recorder embedded in their ERP rollout and workflow automation on the roadmap, Hurunui has a platform that can grow with the organisation rather than hold it back.