In Douglas, they save time and money with FirstAgenda

In the Irish Sea lies the self-governing Isle of Man. In the capital city of Douglas, the council has also adopted FirstAgenda Prepare's conferencing solution - and the introduction has been something of a transformation.

Previously, all documents were printed before being manually assembled and sent or handed to meeting participants. It was a time-consuming process, with one employee quickly spending two or three days preparing all the documents. With the switch to FirstAgenda Prepare, that process has become significantly easier - as have the piles of paper.

The city council is particularly pleased that all meeting documents are archived and that it is possible to include high-resolution images in the solution. Previously, all images were scanned and printed, which was expensive and the quality was often poor. In Prepare, zooming in on a map or an image of a monument helps the city council to make better decisions.

Another advantage is that it is possible to make last-minute changes to the agenda. Such a change used to mean that the decision was postponed to the next meeting, but this is never a problem anymore.

"I would recommend FirstAgenda Prepare to any council considering going digital. It has saved us both time and money," says Daniel Looney, ICT Manager at Douglas City Council.

"Everyone is happy with the switch. We tested three or four other meeting tools, but we kept coming back to FirstAgenda Prepare. We have more freedom and it's good value for money. It's intuitive and easy to use, so it was a pleasure to train our staff to use it."

- Daniel Looney, ICT Manager