Aucklanders can pay rates, licence a dog or book a hall from anywhere in the city now that a controversial and costly computer system is online.
The NewCore computer system has cost $154 million and taken nearly seven years to implement, and joins other benefits arising from the Super City, such as the Hop card and the ability to borrow books from any of the city's 55 libraries.
Difficulties with what should be simple tasks like booking a hall, trying to pay rates outside old council boundaries and getting a building consent online are a thing of the past.
NewCore is designed to consolidate the outdated operating systems of the former eight councils, which merged in 2010 to become the Auckland Council. The first stages of the project came on stream last year in the former Waitakere, North Shore and Rodney council areas. In the past few weeks, the rest of Auckland went live.
The computer system is considered key to delivering the promised savings of the Super City, with $10 million of annual savings locked into the budget, which chief operating officer Dean Kimpton said would be achieved through reduced labour and licensing costs.
"The challenges for NewCore was getting it scoped and budgeted appropriately. Since the reset and focus it has been a significant achievement," Kimpton said.
The project is different from the $1 billion-plus, IT modernisation of the tax system by Inland Revenue, which could lead to about 2000 job losses from its 5647-strong workforce between 2018 and 2021.
Job losses are mostly limited to the NewCore project team, which peaked at 250 staff and contractors last year.
In November 2014, the Herald revealed a cost blowout to the NewCore programme, from $71m to $157m, when the programme was due to start in June 2015.
Group chief finance officer Sue Tindal said the reset budget had come in $2.8m under budget, saying no one should underestimate the effort a large number of people had put into the project.
Council IT director Mark Denvir said it was the "safest landing" of any comparable project he had came across.
Finance committee deputy chair Desley Simpson said the original due diligence for the project as not done correctly, saying the refreshed budget was accurate and the project team should be congratulated for delivering it on time and under budget.
"It will save us millions," Simpson said.
Council IT and finance staff are preparing for the next stage of NewCore, digitising property records from the former councils and doing work around cemeteries and leisure centres. The scope and cost of this work will be presented to councillors in the next few months.