Looking for new tech for your local government? Make incremental improvements, so you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
If you are frustrated with the technology your city, county, department or agency is using, it’s tempting to throw up your hands and start looking for something new. Surely, there has to be a better software tool for whatever you’re trying to do, some new system that won’t have the same limitations and issues as the current platform. We see a lot of people who believe that the perfect system must be out there — one that can magically unite all their old legacy data and improve operations. But it’s almost always more complicated than that.
I’ve been there and felt your pain. But wholesale change, for instance from one ‘big system’ vendor to another, is always more complicated than you’d think and won’t be seamless. It’s almost always far better to test, experiment, start small, and make gradual, incremental improvements and changes. And that’s what we let you do with CityGrows.
What’s your procurement process?
Let’s start there: if you decide you want a new tool, can you just go out and buy it?
Probably not.
One organization I talked to recently had a eight- to twelve-month process for an RFP process- for an off-the-shelf system. Hiring a vendor to set up the tool could well double that time, and then it might take even more time to actually do the work. And that kind of timeline isn’t so unusual in government. That’s going to be a difficult, complicated process. By the end of it, the technology you originally wanted could already be obsolete.
It also doesn’t help that other people who haven’t used the system might not understand how it’s problematic or why a new one would be better.
And what happens while you’re going through procurement?
You still have to use the old, frustrating software.
But let’s say you are able to make it through procuring a new system. Then what happens?
Nothing is perfect; the grass is always greener.
The aphorism holds true in government, too. With any major change, there are going to be speed bumps, features that don’t work as well as they should. Forms might not be setup the way you need and you’ll either have to change how you operate or put in the time and effort to change the system.
There’s a better way.
Instead of trying to completely change systems, you can start small. Rather than trying to change everything at the same time, you can (and should in our opinion) be able to field test a new tech product on one, two, or a few workflows, to see what it’s like. You can get a sense of how a software platform really works that way. and understand if it’s a good fit for your needs, your staff, and your budget, without having to spend $10–25K before you even see whether it works for you. A demo is always going to make a product or platform look great — you can’t really understand what it’s like to use it, unless you use it.
That’s how we recommend governments use CityGrows. You don’t need to move all your forms and processes over at once before launching. Instead, you can do it one at a time and use those processes as test runs for what implementing CityGrows across your organization would be like.
Unlike most tech tools for government, CityGrows is set up and managed by government employees themselves- that means that the people who are managing processes day to day — the administrative staff who are actually issuing the special event permits, the parking passes, or the dog licenses — get involved in setting up the new system.
And with CityGrows, it’s totally free to get started. You don’t need to pay anything to try it out and see if it works and there are no upfront setup fees. You can even use it for free and pass along credit card processing fees to constituents. And if you decide to use additional features or support, just pay a monthly fee. (See our pricing page for more info).
With the slower, more incremental process, you’ll be making an immediate difference in the user experience for both government employees and staffers. You’ll let the departments that really need a solution now go first, and the most tech-savvy people on your team get started right away. Then those folks can share their experience and help people who are more suspicious of new technology get comfortable with the idea, without you having to force it.
You’ll discover questions, things you hadn’t considered about what it means to move processes online, and be able to resolve them earlier on, with your initial pilot teams. And you’ll be able to change how you operate or how you use CityGrows without the stress of having to deal with 20 different processes at once.
Setting up CityGrows or implementing any other innovation with gradual, incremental improvements will be smoother and you’ll have a better time with results and benefits that you’ll be able to see in real time.
And in two years, your whole organization will have transitioned to the CityGrows platform. By contrast, if you do a traditional procurement process and wait to roll everything out at once, you might just be starting to implement a new system by then.
