The State Revenue Office of Victoria Gains 99% System Availability, Improves Customer Service
 
 

The State Revenue Office of Victoria Gains 99% System Availability, Improves Customer Service

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“The majority of our employees use our online applications, so we can’t afford any downtime. Oracle Real User Experience Insight picks up response times of our online applications that were built using Oracle Forms. This ensures we can identify and fix problems before they affect the service we provide to our customers.” – Philip Dunlop, Manager, Technical Services, State Revenue Office

The State Revenue Office (SRO) is an Australian tax collection agency responsible for collecting 40% of revenue, or around $10 billion annually, for the Victorian Government. SRO is an independent agency that operates under an agreement between the Victorian Treasurer, the Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance and the Commissioner of State Revenue. It collects duties, payroll, and land tax, and several levies; distributes the First Home Owner Grant and First Home Bonus; and administers unclaimed money. It employs about 550 staff members in its Melbourne and Ballarat offices.

Around 300 SRO employees use a revenue management system (e-Sys), developed in-house using Oracle Forms, Oracle Database, and Oracle Application Server, to manage revenue collection and compliance activities. SRO staff use around 400 forms to navigate and collect the data they need to deal with customer queries.

Around 30,000 payroll tax customers also use a Web-based application to submit electronic tax returns and pay taxes. e-Sys is combined with the agency’s records and document management system to complete transactions and manage customer records. Oracle Database supports several Web applications that manage payroll tax, land tax, and duties transactions.

Historically, SRO used a third-party software tool to determine network and application response times and ensure application and system performance met its requirements. However, as the agency moved to the Web-based Oracle Forms, the tool could no longer detect application response times.

This prevented the agency from monitoring online application performance and identifying issues that may cause outages.
In mid-2009, SRO deployed Oracle Real User Experience Insight to monitor its key applications and network to identify issues that may affect performance, and ultimately customer service.

“The majority of our staff use our online applications so we can’t afford any downtime,” said Philip Dunlop, manager, technical services, State Revenue Office of Victoria.

“Oracle Real User Experience Insight picks up the response times of our online applications that were built using Oracle Forms. This ensures we can identify and fix problems before they affect the service we provide to customers. It is particularly useful at identifying network issues that will impact service at our front counter.”

 
Application Issues Resolved Quickly

A word from The State Revenue Office of Victoria

  • “Oracle Real User Experience Insight picks up the response times of our online applications that were built using Oracle Forms. This ensures we can identify and fix problems before they affect the service we provide to customers. It is particularly useful at identifying network issues that will impact service at our front counter.” Philip Dunlop, manager, technical services, State Revenue Office of Victoria.

 
More Accurate Service Level Reporting

 
 

 
 

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Identified and fixed network, system, and application issues that had the potential to affect the performance of key systems, and ultimately customer service
  • Achieved 99% system and application availability over the past 18 months, thanks to proactive infrastructure monitoring and analysis
  • Ensured customer service staff didn’t have any application performance issues, as, in the past, helpdesk staff would receive on average at least one call from these employees every two weeks
  • Enabled the agency’s IT department to meet key performance indicators around network and application response times
  • Solved integration issues between the agency’s records management system (TRIM) and revenue management system (e-Sys)

Why Oracle

A key reason SRO chose Oracle Real User Experience Insight was that it enabled the agency to measure the response of Oracle Forms in a Web environment developed using Java.

“We also had a long history working successfully with Oracle products, so it made sense to continue the relationship,” said Dunlop.


Implementation Process

In early 2009, the SRO engaged Oracle Consulting to conduct a pilot of Oracle Real User Experience Insight, which lasted around three months. The agency then developed a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that the application could monitor Oracle Forms in a Web-based environment. The application went live in mid-2009.

The State Revenue Office is an Australian tax collection agency responsible for collecting 40% of revenue for the Victorian Government. It collects duties, payroll and land taxes, and several levies; distributes the First Home Owner’s Grant and First Home Bonus; and administers unclaimed money.