It’s not quite stone age tools, but the council in New Zealand’s fastest growing district needs an urgent technology upgrade.

What that entails and what is planned will be discussed in depth at another round of councilor briefings on Wednesday.

Councillors will get an overview of the planned digital transformation.

It will likely be a hot topic for the new council that has signalled its intent to tighten the purse strings, bringing the forecast rate rise of 13.3% down to single digits, while delivering efficiencies for the community.

The technology deficiencies have already been touched on across the first two council briefings, or what Mayor Lydia Gliddon has called "deep dives" into council business to “strengthen our foundations and our knowledge of what is happening”.

Chief executive Sharon Mason had signalled there hasn't been any investment in technology and there needs to be.

“We just don't have the integrated systems across the organisation, and in some places we're still very manual and [using] paperwork,” Mason said at the briefing on November 5.

In the last long-term plan the previous council had budgeted $13m over the 10-year period, around $1.3m per year, to help bring the council up to speed, she said.

How and when to spend that will be up to the new council when it approaches the annual plan.

Mason said the councillors will soon be receiving presentations “to get some guidance from you because there is a large technology debt in this organisation”.

“We do need to do some catch-up but we're very conscious it needs to be a good return on investment and best bang for our buck.”

The council has identified that digital technology upgrades are required in areas like finance, consents, and customer service.

During the session, Cr Samuel Wilshire said he was aware of customer enquiries getting lost in the current system and asked why the council doesn’t have a customer request management (CRM) system like many councils.

Community services and facilities executive director Denise Kidd said the intention was to introduce a CRM system in the digital transition.

More details around that will be discussed on Wednesday.

By Jonathan Leask