Primesafe’s licensing management system

PrimeSafe is a statutory authority operating under the Meat Industry Act 1993 and Seafood Safety Act 2003 to regulate the safety of meat, poultry and seafood in Victoria.

Its custom-built, web-based Licensing Management System (LMS) handled more than 6,000 licencees. It had been in operation for 9 years, processing hundreds of transactions each month, including payments and recording audit and non-conformance information.

All maintenance and enhancements of the system were contracted to the team that developed the application. The development partner informed PrimeSafe that support for the application had reached end-of-life and that it was required to move to a more complex and expensive platform in order to retain development support.

Although PrimeSafe had received advice from external parties of the need to migrate from its current platform, it remained to be convinced due to the cost and potential upheaval of its business.

Frame determined that there was no overwhelming need to move to a different platform. Instead, we recommended PrimeSafe update its business processes and the functionality of the existing platform.

We provided a more user-friendly interface, with greater self-service options, minimising the need for developer support. And, we simplified and streamlined business processes to boost the efficiency of operations.

By upgrading the existing system rather than replacing it, Frame contributed heavily to minimising project costs, time to market and change management requirements.

The result was a value-for-money solution that expanded existing functionality, assisted users to be more productive and improved site maintainability.

All this, without the risk of moving the system to a different application platform — and at half the cost estimated to do it.

The approach was tailored to minimise risk and to understand as much as possible about the system prior to the build. Frame defined, in detail, the proposed business processes and user interface, specifically we:

• produced a high-level process flow and context diagram
• determined the business requirements for the LMS
• researched and analysed the options for the technical and information architecture
• recommended the way forward and developed a roadmap to achieve it
• undertook a high-level cost-benefit analysis of the options.

Frame documented the business processes and redeveloped the website. The system was integrated with the organisation’s new accounting system, introduced a BPAY facility for payments, improved the search capability, and streamlined the user interface with less clicks for more information.