How a Simple Setup Eliminated the Need for an Additional Hire for the Abrolhos Islands Management Council

We were fortunate to chat with Mathew and Barry from the Abrolhos Islands Management Council and discovered how a single executive officer— Mathew Khun— is able to manage 22 islands and 135+ fishermen members, while staying on top of his daily tasks managing the various member applications, fishermen activities, and lease agreements with the government.

The Abrolhos Islands, photo by Barry Mitchell

What is the Abrolhos Islands?

The Abrolhos Islands is a group of islands spanning between 60 to 100 kilometers west of Geraldton, Western Australia. In 2007, the government entered into a lease agreement with rock lobster fishermen to be able to occupy the islands, build camps, and undertake fishing activity. About 97% of the archipelago is a national park, while the remaining 22 islands is a reserve subject to this lease agreement managed by the Abrolhos Islands Management Council. The council is composed of Mathew alongside 8 volunteers, managing 135+ fishermen’s visitation and occupancy of these islands.

As part of government regulations and for safety reasons, fishermen need to notify the Abrolhos Islands Management Council before making their trip to the islands for recreational fishing, commercial fishing, maintenance, and tourism activities. Other functions of the council include negotiating leases with the government, processing approval requests for invitees, camp transfers, jetty usage, helicopter landings, and emergency responses, among others. As you can imagine, Mathew needs to stay on top of a large amount of time-sensitive, critical tasks.

The Challenge

Previously Zoho users for about 10 years, the Abrolhos Islands Management Council hired an external professional to build, design, and make changes to their database system. While this was handy and convenient at first, it soon became a challenge for the team. Additionally, since their data needs and requirements have changed due to the new government lease agreement, Barry and Mathew decided to search for a new solution that both meets their needs and overcomes their challenges using Zoho.

Why Zoho Did Not Work for Them

1. Zoho was too complex and the Abrolhos team needed the external professional’s help to make even the smallest changes and adjustments to the database design

2. Since Zoho was becoming too complicated, and the team wanted to simplify their processes, especially since it would involve many external users (the fishermen)

What the Team Needed

1. They needed to make processes simple and easy, even for people who have never used technology before, which was the case for some fishermen

2. They needed a solution that is hassle-free and accessible, making business process doable and convenient, even from a fishing boat

3. They needed a fast solution, in case any disputes, safety issues, and emergency arises

Sample Membership Form on Ragic (Mock Data Only)

The Solution

Good Pricing, Simplicity, and Ease of Use

When looking for a new database system, Ragic came up pretty early into the search and Barry decided to give it a go— and everything just fell into place.

Barry explained that as a non-profit organization, pricing is important; and Ragic’s cost-efficient pricing, along with its ability to cater to unlimited free external users, was perfect for their needs. However, it was Ragic’s simplicity and ease of use that Barry and Mathew found to be the winning factor as to why they chose Ragic. It was so simple that they were able to design and set up their notification system for the fishermen on their own, without an external professional’s help, in just a few days. From there, the duo was able to find more and more built-in functions within Ragic that were able to help minimize manual processes and improve efficiency:

Fishing Boat, photo by Barry Mitchell

A Simplified Process with Minimal Keystrokes

In the old days, fishermen did not need to notify the council every time they were making a trip to the islands. They just needed to scribble some notes on a bit of paper and send them to the fisheries at the end of the week. However, due to the change in data needs and requirements from the new lease, the Abrolhos Islands Management Council anticipated challenges in convincing the fishermen to adapt to the changes.

As a result, Mat and Barry ensured that the process be made as simple as possible. For instance, they used checkboxes and action buttons to minimize the number of keystrokes. They also used Ragic’s link and load function, so that fishermen only needed to select their Company information while the system auto-populated the rest of their data based on the BC Membership form. By using these features, they are able to keep the whole process quick and easy under 30 seconds.

Sample Notification Form on Ragic (Mock Data Only)

During their annual meeting with the fishermen, Barry demonstrated the ease of using the sheet, while Mathew explained the benefits they would be getting from this change. Compared to their previous process, the new Notification Form would:

1. Provide fishermen with a history record of their trips like below (mock format and data only):

2. Allow the management council to quickly download reports from Ragic for government regulators or whenever fishermen were to encounter any issues. Below is a sample custom print report from Ragic (mock format and data):

3. Prevent any fines and penalty for the fishermen in case of any disputes and disparities with government regulators

4. Safety management and emergency response in case of any accidents or dangerous weather conditions

Another breakthrough for both the Abrolhos Islands Management Council and the fishermen is Ragic’s mobile app, which allows fishermen to fill in the forms while on the go— even when on a fishing boat!

By keeping everything fairly simple, easy, and accessible, the Abrolhos Islands Management Council was able to successfully convince the fishermen to come on board with the new process.

The Consistent, Helpful Support Team

In just 10 months of being on Ragic, the Abrolhos Islands Management team has sent 7 support tickets. As executive officer Mathew stated, “Not only is Ragic a functional and intuitive system but the customer service and effort that is put into understanding and delivering on your clients needs really sets Ragic apart. Well done!”

The responsiveness and reliability of the support team in understanding customer needs and delivering helpful responses in less than 24 hours has been a key factor in their satisfaction with the Ragic platform.

Fishing Camp and Jetty, photo by Barry Mitchell

So, What are They Working on Now?

Happy with the two sheets’ functionality on Ragic, Mathew is now currently working on turning the currently paper-based approval forms for invitees, camp transfers, jetty usage, and helicopter landings into digitized approval forms using Ragic’s integrated approval workflow function and action buttons.

Manually, these processes can sometimes take 3 to 4 months, and the team is trying to recreate a faster process by building upon data relationships, just like how they designed the BC Membership and Notification sheets. As of today, the sheets are still in the design and testing phase, but we’re excited to see them go live and further boost the council’s productivity and efficiency.

The Results

From needing to take at least an hour to process notifications by paper to requiring only 3 to 4 minutes, the council’s simple setup boosted the fishermen’s efficiency by 15 times, saving 93% of their time to do more meaningful activities.

Better yet, the seamless end-to-end automation helps the council save on manpower costs, not just with the previously-hired Zoho expert, but also for their own management team. Barry mentioned that if it wasn’t for Ragic, Mathew would be needing more colleagues to keep up with daily tasks:

To which Mathew said:

Imagine how much more could be accomplished once the approval forms go live!