The 5 Questions to Ask When Evaluating Government Technology

March 23, 2017

Speaker – Michael Ashford• Vice President of Product Marketing at Granicus

• Been in GovTech space for a decade. Joined Granicus in October 2014

• Led Marketing teams at CivicPlus and MindMixer

• Kansas State University alum – B.S. in Mass Communications and Journalism

• Began career as a sports writer, but grew up in local government

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GRANICUS OVERVIEW

STATE OF GOV TECH

Q&A WITH BOBBIE KOEPP

DEMO

QUESTIONS

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Agenda

Technology for the people who are changing our world.

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Learning Services

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• Legistar• iLegislate• PEAK• Votecast• eComment• Minutes• Granicus Video

MEETING AND AGENDA SUITE

• Civica Website CMS• Boards & Commissions• SpeakUp• Open Data (DKAN)• Learning Platform• Records Management

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Foundational Solutions

Thought to get started“Change is never easy. We know it is inevitable and yet, it still knocks us off our feet a bit. Government has been undergoing some changes in technological procurement, innovations, and more.”

- Mariah BastinGovLoop Blog

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State of Government Technology• 2017 State and Local IT spending projected to be $101.3 billion*

oCounties: $22 billion

• Technology enabling more employees to work from home

• Governments using technology to “market” themselves and the services they offer to prove value

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*GovTech.com

The budget question

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Trends in 2017Top 10 technologies and initiatives likely to have an increased focus in the next year:

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Center for Digital Government

1. Cyber Security

2. Mobility/Mobile Applications

3. Hire/Retain IT Personnel; Open Government

4. Disaster Recovery/Continuity of Operations

5. Budget/Cost Control

6. Portal/eGovernment

7. Citizen Engagement

8. Shared or Collaborative Services

9. Business Process Automation; Virtualization

10. Business Intelligence/Analytics

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• We’ve had a technology implementation ail or fall short because we couldn’t figure out how to make it work with our process

• We’ve had issues in the past showing real returns on our technology investments

• We know technology can make things easier for us but we’re not sure how it will be received by internal staff

Sound familiar?

The 5 Questions to Ask

The 5 questions to askWhen evaluating government technology, ask:

• Does it rely on my existing process, or improve it?

• Will my workload increase, or decrease?

• Will I have to work to get my citizens to use it, or will it “just work?”

• Does it solve a real problem or need, or does it create new ones?

• Are the benefits real, or artificial?

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1. Existing processDon’t implement technology just for technology’s sake

• Needs to be real value driven from technology’s existence

• Technology layered over existing process adds complexity

• Process improvement is where value starts

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Shawnee County, KansasOld Way – People waiting in line for more than 4 hours to renew vehicle tags and titles

Solution – Create an electronic queuing system that allowed people to “get in line” from home or their phone. Issued ticket number and receive text when number is 20 minutes out

Outcome – People aren’t waiting in line at the Clerk’s office, but they’re still waiting

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Oh great, we’re going to come up with a better way to wait.- Citizen“ ”

Smith County, TexasOld Way – Outdated recording system and process that required no less than nine staff members’ time to process a single document and mail it back to the customer three days later

Solution – A Records Management system to streamline the process and make indexing documents simpler

Outcome – One staff member records a document and customer gets document back within 5 minutes

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We’ve eliminated all of that time and confusion. ... Going to a system where we could scan a document and hand it right back to the customer, it saved a ton of time and money, not to mention that we could better serve the people coming into our office.

- Karen Phillips, County Clerk“ ”

2. WorkloadDon’t just “run faster in place”

• Use technology to produce better results with less staff time needed

• Create efficiencies that allow staff to do the other things they were hired to do

• The outflow of this is better customer service

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How it doesn’t work

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How it doesn’t work

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Forcing tech into an existing process

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3. Citizen usageRemember citizen expectation that government “just works”

• Getting citizens to use technology they normally wouldn’t can drain government of any time savings it could conceivably achieve

• Is your organization prepared to make citizen adoption of technology a success

• This is too often the fatal flaw impeding potential technology success

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Citizen hierarchy of needsSelf Actualization = Citizen Problem Solving – Involves creativity and problem solving. Citizens building on open data or organizing citizen watch groups

Esteem = Sharing Ideas – The ability to share one’s voice with others – an in-person or online town hall, ability to give feedback on a program, etc.

Love/Belonging = General Agency Content/News – A sense of community. Getting news about your community or Parks & Rec sharing great images, conversations, and more via social media

Safety = Emergencies/Jobs – Security of body and employment. Emergency alerts like snow/hurricane information. Also being able to find and apply for jobs.

Physiology = Basic Transactions – Getting your marriage license, renewing your passport, registering for Parks & Rec activities, paying utility bills

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Steve Ressler, GovLoop

Citizen hierarchy of needs

Where do we tend to throw technology solutions to try and “fix” citizen interactions?

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Citizen hierarchy of needsSelf Actualization = Citizen Problem Solving – Involves creativity and problem solving. Citizens building on open data or organizing citizen watch groups

Esteem = Sharing Ideas – The ability to share one’s voice with others – an in-person or online town hall, ability to give feedback on a program, etc.

Love/Belonging = General Agency Content/News – A sense of community. Getting news about your community or Parks & Rec sharing great images, conversations, and more via social media

Safety = Emergencies/Jobs – Security of body and employment. Emergency alerts like snow/hurricane information. Also being able to find and apply for jobs.

Physiology = Basic Transactions – Getting your marriage license, renewing your passport, registering for Parks & Rec activities, paying utility bills

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Steve Ressler, GovLoop

4. Solving real problemsKeep your focus

• Citizen engagement is a huge buzzword that won’t go away shyly

• Where do you stand to gain the most – by serving the vocal minority or by delivering better service for all?

• Be honest: Many government processes need a reboot to adjust to an Internet- and technology-driven world

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Citizen engagement

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Have we created an artificial problem?

Public trust in local government is high. A September 2016 Gallup poll found:

• 71% of Americans say they have a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of trust in local government to handle problems

• 62% say the same for the state government

Through online platforms, especially with social networks that include Facebook and Twitter among others, information or sentiments can be easily manipulated to create the illusion of widespread support or disagreement.

- Kevin DeSouza

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5. BenefitsMeasure what can be measured

• Technology to improve process can produce easily calculable ROI

• Be careful of the “feel good” factor

• Understand what your baseline is so you can measure against it

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Digitized Agenda Packets – Took agenda assembly and distribution process from paper-based to digitalSearchable archive of agendas and meetings – Council meetings webcasted live and archived online for quick and convenient public self-serviceSuccess Highlights:

• Reduced time spent handling meeting inquires by 65%

• Cut paper usage by more than 50%

• Nearly 90% of public meeting inquiries are now self-service

• Had nearly 6,000 hits to their videos in the first few months

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Keene, N.H.

Moved to eRecording – Took over-the-counter process for recording deeds, releases, liens, mortgages, titles nearly completely digital.Opportunity Cost – County Clerk reports she no longer has plans to ramp up staff to be able to handle volume of documents to recordSuccess Highlights:

• Mail used to take a day to work through before recording could begin; recording process is now immediate

• Office saves on labeling and postage costs since documents are returned electronically

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Comal County, Texas

Remember…It’s a process

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Evaluating technology means:

• Investing the time to review your own process first; become the expert

• Accepting that it is a process. Be aggressive, be calculated, be knowledgeable of the benefits, but also be respectful

• Gaining support from your main stakeholders

Questions?