Evolving to address unique challenges of local councils

For 30 years, CouncilFirst has been in the business of helping Australia’s local government authorities address the unique challenges around operational efficiency. One of its key success factors is building solutions on Dynamics 365 Business Central, which has provided both the foundational functionality and flexibility needed to meet local council requirements around financial management, payroll, community engagement, and more. “Local governments are very diverse. Some can be quite large with thousands of users, while others have just five or six people running their operations,” said Glenn Nanda, General Manager at CouncilFirst. “Therefore, we need to offer a modular and scalable solution that can address wide-ranging needs. Business Central, with its integration with other Microsoft Cloud solutions, is an ideal platform for our customers.”

As more councils come on board, CouncilFirst has had to grow its team of consultants. However, finding candidates with both local government expertise and Business Central experience is difficult. Not wanting its talent search to slow down business growth, CouncilFirst turned to Microsoft’s #BCTalent ReSKILL initiative. “We were excited to learn about #BCTalent, which is designed to help partners like us transform our employees with industry-specific knowledge into Business Central experts,” said Nanda. “Since we had a new hire starting, we wanted to see how this program could help us supplement our internal training efforts and accelerate his onboarding.”

“My background is working in local councils, and while I was familiar with the CouncilFirst solution, I didn’t have deep Business Central knowledge,” said Kurt Viskovich, WA Consultant at CouncilFirst. “ReSKILL gave me a clear path to developing Business Central expertise.”

ReSKILL reinforces value of Business Central investment

As part of the #BCTalent initiative, ReSKILL helps partners address Business Central talent shortages by providing product and professional skills training, personalized coaching, and community engagement to individuals with industry expertise and transferable skills. The 12-month course is designed to be cost effective and low risk, with options for self-paced learning and virtual classroom training. “Instead of just diving into product documentation, ReSKILL provides additional insights into how to approach each topic area. If there are four options to run a particular process, it advises you on the best route to take to provide the desired outcome,” said Viskovich. “It also talks you through the connection with wider ERP [enterprise resource planning] system capabilities across the Microsoft stack, helping provide additional ways to use Business Central to drive customer impact.”

By providing a comprehensive Business Central training, ReSKILL is helping CouncilFirst ramp up new hires without diverting senior consultants from customer projects. At the same time, the training ensures that new hires are familiar with all the latest features and functionality, allowing them to provide immediate value to the broader team. “With cloud-based solutions like Business Central, new features are rolled out rapidly, and CouncilFirst needs to know which of those new standard capabilities can replace previously created customizations. ReSKILL was invaluable in expediting this understanding without requiring me to weed through release notes, which allowed me to communicate this guidance to relevant customer teams,” said Viskovich.

Continue to leverage ReSKILL to grow talent

As part of ReSKILL, participants also get access to continuous learning, including weekly sessions on topics like AI and Copilot skilling, negotiation masterclasses, and in-person networking. “I think one of the most valuable aspects of ReSKILL is the community around it,” said Viskovich. “When I saw questions coming through that I didn’t have a sharp enough answer for – especially from people who were further along in the course than I was – I knew that I would need to dig in a bit more on that topic.”

Seeing the results of its first consultant successfully completing ReSKILL, CouncilFirst intends to offer the course to future hires. “We want our new consultants to have the same comprehensive skill set that Kurt received from his participation in ReSKILL,” said Nanda. “It is an efficient way for us to set our new hires on the right track, saving us critical time and effort while ensuring their Business Central knowledge balances their industry knowledge.”

“[#BCTalent] is an efficient way for us to set our new hires on the right track, saving us critical time and effort while ensuring their Business Central knowledge balances their industry knowlege."

— Glenn Nanda, General Manager, CouncilFirst

CouncilFirst leverages #BCTalent initiative to accelerate skilling of new team members