With the capabilities and benefits that modern digital infrastructure provides, every county and municipal government department has the ability to automate and vastly improve existing workflows and processes via government software.
If you’ve been working in local government for a long time, the idea of transitioning operations and services to a digital environment and changing the work processes you’ve grown used to might sound stressful. Fortunately, making the change is straightforward and offers countless benefits for government employees and your constituents.
In this article, you’ll learn about the benefits of embracing technology across your entire government organization or specific department, and how government management software can transform your local government.
Government management software is a digital solution for local governments that automates time-consuming administrative tasks across departments, makes for seamless governmental communications (between public sector officials and with constituents as well) and stores government data in the cloud.
By switching to government software applications, local governments can go paperless while saving time and money and ensuring that government data is backed up in the case of a cyber attack or natural disaster.
If you’re working in one particular government department, you’re probably wondering: what can local government software do for me?
Take a look at this list of government software applications by department to find the right solutions for you and your coworkers:
Clerk’s department employees spend the majority of their time doing tedious administrative tasks like filing paperwork, managing phone calls and emails, and helping constituents fill out applications at the office.
With clerk’s department software, constituents and businesses file applications for things like permits, licenses, etc. directly via your local government website. Documents are automatically uploaded into the cloud and made accessible to relevant government employees.
Clerk’s software saves employees time on getting paperwork filed via automation, and drastically reduces the number of calls and emails to the clerk’s department as constituents fill out straightforward forms for permits and licenses on your government website.
As most government departments make the adjustment to a digital format, the IT department is one of the busiest and most important departments. With the need to install and maintain computer systems, as well as take preventative action and respond in the wake of a government cybersecurity attack, IT workers have a lot on their plates.
Without the proper ticketing systems in place, managing the never ending series of tech issues across departments can be a challenging and time-consuming task in and of itself.
With local government IT ticketing software, IT workers won’t have to worry about keeping IT tickets organized. When an IT issue is submitted, the software automatically timestamps it and makes it viewable within a simple module. Automated organization ensures that no tickets slip through the cracks and makes it simple to prioritize projects. Plus, technical reports can be generated with the click of a button.
Learn more in the Local Government Information Technology Strategy guide.
Pro Tip: If you really want to make your life easier as an IT employee, encourage all of your local government departments to embrace cloud-based infrastructure. Doing so will ensure that data is constantly backed-up and harder for hackers to break into that traditional physical servers.
Whether you’re in a major city, a secondary city, the suburbs, or even a traditionally rural area, moving patterns since the pandemic have likely made residential and commercial real estate a hot commodity. Government workers in your construction and building department are busy processing paperwork like permit applications and accepting bids and proposals for public infrastructure projects.
Here are some of the many ways online permitting and RFP processes can improve on construction department workflows:
As a code enforcement officer, you’re constantly busy monitoring your locality to ensure local laws and policies are being abided by. Whether you’re leaving tickets to illegally parked cars, inspecting new and existing infrastructure, or ensuring public health compliance is being abided by, you’re always on the go and have a lot of tasks to keep an organized record of.
Public sector inspectors as well as private sector inspection partners can take notes throughout an inspection via a mobile inspection app on their cell phone. With code enforcement software, code enforcement officers update property records from the field that are automatically accessible from the cloud.
Natural disasters pose a major threat in every area of the United States. An increase in violence and active shootings adds another stressful responsibility for the emergency department to prepare for. You’ve got the responsibility to recruit and train CERT volunteers, host emergency preparedness training for constituents, implement emergency mitigation techniques, and respond in the wake of a crisis situation.
There are many ways that government software applications can help with emergency management in your community:
While you’re looking to improve your emergency management workflows, check out these helpful resources:
As a courthouse official, you spend a lot of time doing administrative tasks. You probably spend your time fulfilling court documents like transcripts and record requests. You’re constantly helping constituents file appeals for court decisions.
During the pandemic, already backed up courthouses got even worse as government workers adjusted to an online format for the first time.
With court software, court document requests can be added to your government website, allowing constituents to request transcripts, court records, or other relevant documentation with a few clicks from their computer or cell phone. Appeal requests can also be made online. Frequently requested documents can be added to a public facing GIS map, dropping the total number of requests substantially.
Court management software also includes a simple, straightforward virtual court hearing module, making it simple and seamless to hold court hearings online as needed.
Learn more about how court management software works in the guide to the Best Court Software for Municipal and County Governments.
Working in the health department has always been an important but stressful role in local government. When COVID-19 happened, that stress level reached another level. Compliance measures vary from state to state and even at the local level, meaning the inspection of local businesses like restaurants became complicated, more frequent, and more time consuming.
Health department software expedites inspection workflows with a simplified mobile app. When inspecting anything from barbershops to restaurants to public pools and cannabis dispensaries in your municipality, customizable modules will ensure efficiency and keep constituents safe. Notes from inspections will be automatically saved in the cloud and accessible within seconds from an intuitive GIS Map.
An increase in the number of Americans moving means that many communities around the country are seeing rapid population growth. While more constituents mean more local economic development and tax dollars, it also comes with high expectations for the planning and zoning department. Department employees are spending all of their time getting paperwork approved to upgrade public infrastructure and enforcing building and housing code and regulations.
Planning & zoning plays an integral role in making sure the behind-the-scenes administrative work gets done to make infrastructure improvements happen. Improving workflows by going digital in this department is critical to the success of your entire local government and ensuring constituent safety.
Planning and zoning software solutions improve governmental workflows by:
Human resources in local government bears the same responsibilities as the private sector with more hurdles to overcome. Government HR deals with limited budgeting and a general lack of interest in public sector roles, making it substantially more difficult to fill critical roles your government needs to get things done.
Government software makes it simple to post job applications on your government website and drastically reduces the number of new hires needed as the technology automates administrative workflows. With a reduced need for administrative employees, your human resources department can focus their efforts on filling roles that remain critical to the success of your neighborhood.
If your community isn’t actively making efforts to encourage population growth and increase business registration, you’re missing out on a sea of opportunity. Americans are leaving the major cities in droves and accepting remote job offers that allow them to work from anywhere. Your community has the opportunity to encourage new constituents and businesses alike to invest their time and money in your neighborhood.
Ensure your municipality is prepared to budget, and allocate funds in the most effective ways with GovPilot's resources such as our Local Government Asset Management Strategy guide.
Encourage business registration and infrastructure development in your neighborhood by making workflows simple for everyone involved:
It’s a lot of pressure to keep constituents happy with well-maintained public parks and constant things to do. With limited budgets and high expectations, parks and recreation employees spend their time constantly planning events, organizing neighborhood groups, maintaining public areas, and managing the loads of paperwork needed to make everything happen.
Parks and recreation software is especially helpful in scheduling maintenance work via a simple online platform, automating workflows around the various permits and licenses needed for events and public works, and uses GIS maps to make it clear which public spaces are reserved and by who.
With simple online job postings, you can actively recruit volunteers to assist in park maintenance projects and local events. For more insight into the types of projects you can leverage volunteers for, check out our guide: How to Get Involved and Make a Difference in Your Local Community
While the parks and recreation department makes a lot of the decisions around which public areas need maintenance, the public works department is the team that gets the projects done. In addition to constantly running around to fix issues and improve on existing infrastructure, the team needs to manage and organize a wide range of assets like vehicles, tools, and more.
Public works software simplifies everything from scheduling public works projects to filling work orders and managing them via a simple online module to automated expense management.
Constituents care about where their tax dollars are going and how long public works projects take, so real-time data made easily accessible by the public on your government's website will allow you to keep constituents informed on what’s happening in their neighborhood in real time.
Learn about how to form a government performance management strategy and track your municipalities progress for digital and physical infrastructure improvements.
Automation wields the power to transform any government department. With customizable local government software solutions, every department in your county or municipality can expect the following types of benefits:
With robotic process automation technology, government software does the mindless administrative tasks for you, giving government employees hours of time a day back to focus on more interesting tasks and solving big problems.
No matter which department you’re a part of, partnering with private sector businesses for crucial goods and services is integral to your success. With government software, procurement data is automatically pulled into straightforward databases and financial dashboards that paint a clear picture of where money is being spent and help with making future spending decisions. Check out GovPilot's online payment processes to learn about the best government payment processing services.
What Are the Best Automated Procurement Workflows for Local Governments? Read on to find out.
Cloud-based systems are substantially more challenging for hackers to break into, and GovPilot frequently backs up government data, meaning you won’t have to fear the total loss of data in the wake of a ransomware attack.
In the process of onboarding government workers to government software, employees will be trained on cybersecurity best practices. Check out our guide, What Cybersecurity Protocols to Train Government Workers On for a quick look into what they’ll learn from their government software provider.
From monitoring financial expenditures to tracking progress on infrastructure projects, GovPilot offers customizable dashboards that pull in real-time data to give you simple, transparent insights into what’s happening in your community.
Consider how your local government can organize an asset management strategy to take advantage of data collection and reporting processes from GovPilot.
Across the board, government software makes it easier for the public sector to communicate. Integrated communications across government departments makes it simple to contact colleagues across your locality, and ensures that government workers automatically have access to pertinent documentation.
Your government can improve constituent communications as well. Simple, transparent dashboards highlight your government data in intuitive ways that can easily be shared with your constituents and local media outlets. Complaint management software allows constituents to reach out directly relating to non-emergency issues in your neighborhood.
For years, local governments have fallen behind as modern technology allows for paperless, automated workflows to improve organizational workflows. Finally, government management software allows local governments to go digital to get things done more efficiently. To find out how GovPilot government software solutions can transform your government department, or local government as a whole, book a free demo.
Sources
https://www.indeed.com/hire/job-description/clerk
https://www.silverwrightlaw.com/the-role-and-importance-of-code-enforcement-officers/
https://www.cga.ct.gov/PS99/rpt%5Colr%5Chtm/99-R-1186.htm