September 13, 2025
Keeping All Knowledge Accessible: Horizons' ECM Rebuild
Horizons Regional Council spent thirteen years knowing its file share couldn't be trusted. Information Leadership moved 2.3 million files into a governed Microsoft 365 environment, on time, and $5,055 under a $1.13 million budget.
0.45%
- 2.3 million files, one governed system
- Content moved off HERMAN, an ageing on-premises file share, into SharePoint Online under the iWorkplace™ ECM framework. 42,500 large files went to Smart Storage.
- No more unsecured links
- A three-tier external collaboration framework, Smart Guest Management for long-term project partners, a Sharing Hub for controlled folder access, and a custom public sharing solution, replaced unauthenticated OneDrive links.
- LGOIMA responses back inside the deadline
- An automated escalation system, built in direct response to Ombudsman censure, alerts through to the Chief Executive if a response deadline is at risk. Two complaints since go-live, both closed without adverse findings.
- Fifty-plus staff volunteered as champions
- Roadshows reached all nine service centres. Training was mandatory for everyone. Staff chose the system's name themselves.
Challenges
Horizons Regional Council first identified the need for a new system in 2011. It took thirteen years to act.
HERMAN, Horizons Regional Council's on-premises file share, had accumulated 3.85 million files and up to 14TB of content over decades, with no consistent way to manage any of it. Staff couldn't find documents reliably. Retention and disposal were manual. External collaboration ran through unsecured OneDrive links with no authentication and no audit trail, anyone the recipient chose to forward a link to could open it.
The council had also drawn repeated censure from the Ombudsman for missing the 20-working-day deadline on LGOIMA requests.
The need for a proper content management system had been on the table since 2011. What finally moved it from the list to a funded project was the accumulation of failures, wrong documents going out as final, requests missed, nowhere left to put things.
Solution
Information Leadership partnered with Horizons Regional Council to build Kākā, a governed Microsoft 365 environment named and adopted by the people who use it.
Kākā ran on the iWorkplace™ ECM framework: a three-tier workspace architecture, automated retention and disposal mapped to a taxonomy built with HRC's own records team, and the external collaboration framework described above. A custom LGOIMA escalation system was built directly in response to the Ombudsman censure, as a deadline approaches without resolution, alerts escalate progressively to General Manager, then Chief Executive.
"People don't want it going to the chief executive." - Brenda Balmer, Business Services Lead, Horizons Regional Council
Information Leadership built 80% of the environment; HRC's own team built the remaining 20%, a deliberate transfer of capability, not a handover at the end.
"Building it ourselves gave us a better understanding of SharePoint and how we could help ourselves without relying on a vendor." - Brenda Balmer, Business Services Lead, Horizons Regional Council
Twelve to eighteen months of roadshows ran across all nine service centres before a single file moved. Training was mandatory for every staff member and customised by function, a deliberate correction after an earlier HRC system rollout where optional training undermined adoption. Staff surveyed their own workspace requirements and chose the system's name by vote: Kākā, Keeping All Knowledge Accessible.
"Get out to the satellite offices. Front it yourself." - Natalie McLelland, Change Lead, Horizons Regional Council
Results
Delivered on time, and $5,055 under a $1,128,654 budget.
2.3 million files moved from HERMAN into SharePoint Online. The project commenced 6 August 2024 and went live 13 October 2025, 14 months, on schedule. Actual cost came in at $1,123,599 against a forecast of $1,128,654, a 0.45% variance. Nine formal scope variations were raised, approved, and funded through a Project Control Group before work began on each, none were absorbed into the existing budget.
"You couldn't really search in HERMAN. You had to already know where something could be and then search in that area. Whereas now you can search the whole thing." - HRC Communications team member
Since go-live, HRC has received two LGOIMA complaints. Both were closed without adverse findings. Taranaki Regional Council visited specifically to understand and replicate the Sharing Hub model. The $5,055 underspend is now funding a 75-item enhancements register, managed by a standing governance group that meets weekly.
"They put it all in plain English. They said what they were going to do, they did it. It cost what they said it would cost."
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