Objective Corporation (ASX:OCL) today announced the immediate availability of Objective Nexus, the next generation in information and process management solutions, delivered as a complete cloud offering. It is explicitly designed for government and highly regulated industries to improve how they create, collect, manage, and use one of their most valuable assets: information; while supporting the cloud-first approach to IT procurement from governments worldwide.

Tony Walls, CEO, Objective Corporation said: “This is a significant product release for Objective's Content Solutions business line and a game-changer for government agencies. Not only can they modernise how they manage information, but can also achieve a faster ROI, when compared to traditional on-premises or hosted applications, thanks to the Software as a Service model.”

Objective Nexus is curated from more than 30 years’ software innovation experience for the public sector. Objective Content Solutions, which includes Objective ECM, is widely used throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom for managing the vast volumes of documents generated by government agencies and the processes within that rely on access to accurate and relevant information to make timely decisions that keep the public sector on track, effective and accountable. Organisations such as the Australian Department of Defence, the whole of both the Scottish and Welsh Governments, Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, Department of Treasury and Finance in South Australia, several Australian state Police Services, the Ministry of Social Development in New Zealand and a long list of local government authorities including the City of Gold Coast, Greater Dandenong City Council and many more.

Conceptually evolved from Objective ECM, but completely re-architected for the cloud, Objective Nexus helps government agencies deliver effective and responsive services to their communities in the following areas:

Building trust in government

As referenced in the National Archives of Australia’s (NAA) policy that took effect 1 January 2021, “Building trust in the public record”^[1], well-managed information not only increases community trust in government but also allows agencies to better support, protect and serve the community, both now and into the future.

• Demonstrate transparency and accountability – Objective Nexus provides government agencies with evidence of their decisions and actions and importantly, the underlying reasons for those decisions and actions.
• Assuring compliance and reducing security risks – governments have an inherent responsibility to manage information securely and must meet a range of regulatory requirements. Objective Nexus assists agencies in its key markets of Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, meeting these obligations and standards.
• Accuracy, validity and integrity – Objective Nexus provides the right information, at the right time, to the right people and enables informed decision-making, resulting in better service delivery, improved public perception and ultimately trust.

Modernising public sector IT; leveraging the benefits of a complete SaaS model

Government agencies, like other industry sectors, are adopting cloud computing models at an increasing rate for a variety of well-documented benefits.

• Always up to date – a secure SaaS solution, Objective Nexus is always available and always up to date. Faced with staff shortages like all industries, removing the need for dedicating people to keep applications up to date, backed up, and available means agencies can focus their resources on their core purpose, delivering community outcomes, not managing software applications.

• Ensuring security – Objective Nexus has a well-defined security posture that addresses each service element of a SaaS solution; the application, the platform, and the delivery of the service.

• Flexibility – the headaches that come with structural upheaval in the public sector, such as machinery of government changes or the adoption of new technologies, are removed by simply adding more users or new modules.

• More effective spend of the taxpayer dollar – the benefits of cloud mean a faster return on investment as a result of rapid deployment.

An efficient and effective public sector

The ability to share and exchange information between people, processes and systems, and reduce unnecessary data silos, is key to a modern agency, according to the NAA’s policy.^[2]

• Enabling flexible and hybrid work practices – to work effectively, employees need access to information from the location they’re working, via the right application for the task at hand. Often this might be SENSITIVE or even PROTECTED levels of information under the government’s Information Security Manual (ISM), therefore security, accuracy and provenance are an imperative.
• Governance across hybrid workplaces – remote working created an explosion of conversations held, and decisions made in chat or email applications all of which should become government records. With extensive integration into Microsoft 365; Objective Nexus applies governance to records, whether users are working in Microsoft Teams, Outlook or SharePoint.
• Automation – removes the administrative overhead of repetitive tasks, reduces errors, and improves the efficiency and reliability of processes. It helps agencies reduce delays, improve quality of community outcomes and meet performance KPIs, whilst providing management visibility with better tracking and reporting. With built-in workflow, Objective Nexus can manage simple records management automation such as content classification or folder generation right through to complex government processes such as responding to ministerial enquiries, correspondence management or Freedom of Information requests.

Objective Nexus – Features

User centred design has delivered an interface that is familiar and
intuitive for users, across any device, enabling them to work from
anywhere and results in minimal change management for agencies.

Objective Nexus is a cloud-based solution providing recordkeeping compliance, enterprise-scale information management and process automation.

It delivers all of the features government agencies need to comply with the recordkeeping obligations of their jurisdiction and is a platform to create a modern information ecosystem supporting users from wherever they work and integrating with the applications they use every day. Features include:

Document Management - a foundation to effectively and securely manage, organise and share information throughout its entire lifecycle of: creation; revision; review; approval; publishing; and disposal.

Records Management - comprehensive and standards-compliant controls for records managers while allowing business users the freedom to work as they choose. Not only does it help meet compliance obligations, it also functions as an intelligent business support system.

Automation – Workflow technology, techniques and processes to improve the efficiency and reliability of classifying, accessing, managing and utilising your valuable information assets; from simple recordkeeping automation to end-to-end management of government processes.

External Collaboration – Secure external file collaboration to protect information, when sharing it with anyone outside your organisation.

Integration – Line of Business Systems - A modern low code integration environment with visual logic and data mapping definitions supports your information governance practices across business applications.

Governance for Microsoft 365 - Enhanced information governance for Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Exchange.

Availability, pricing and migration

Objective Nexus is available now in three editions to suit organisations of various sizes and complexities: Standard, Professional and Enterprise.

For agencies wanting to modernise their legacy electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS), Objective has packaged services offerings and tools to assist with document migrations and transition to the cloud; with teams of highly experienced consultants based in each state of Australia, throughout New Zealand and the UK.

About Objective

We create software to make a difference.

Using Objective software, thousands of public sector organisations are shifting to being completely digital. Where our customers can work from anywhere; with access to information, governance guaranteed, and security assured.

Innovation is our lifeblood. We invest significantly in the ongoing development of our products to deliver outstanding solutions to the public sector and regulated industries.

The result – is stronger national and community outcomes; and accountability that builds trust in government.

[1] Page 7, Purpose - Building Trust in the Public Record, managing information and data for government and community. National Archives of Australia.

[2] Page 15, Implement fit-for-purpose information management processes, practices and systems, Building Trust in the Public Record, managing information and data for government and community. National Archives of Australia.