South Dublin County Council

The third largest local authority in Ireland, South Dublin County Council serves a population of over 275,000 citizens across almost 223 square kilometres in South Dublin. To ensure the provision of open, effective, inclusive and participative local democratic processes together with the highest quality services, South Dublin County Council is committed to Public Service Innovation. This focus on innovation permeates across all Council departments with innovation at the heart of both technological and employee-focused developments. 

In early 2022, the Irish government announced that civil workers would soon be given the right to request hybrid/remote work under The Right to Request Remote Work Bill. A move that would require local authorities to implement new business processes, to support the management of such employee applications. The shift was made all the more challenging due to tight deadlines for implementation. However, South Dublin County Council being ahead of the curve with its focus on innovation, quickly got to work as the first local authority to develop the processes necessary to manage the shift to hybrid work. 

Power Platform, Microsoft's low-code solution platform that allows businesses to build custom low-code solutions with a simple interface that leverages responsive design and high security, was used to bring the solution from design to development. A custom app was built using Power Apps, streamlining hybrid work requests and approvals through workflow automation and delivering time savings. The app saw further benefits from the integration of a Power BI dashboard that simplified data management and accelerated reporting processes.