E-Gov Link Newsletter
The E-Gov Link newsletter is for our customers, and small cites, municipalities, or townships that are interested in bringing electronic government services to their community. Our aim is to provide you with useful information in the form of articles, stories, and white papers, as well as to keep you informed about what's going on at E-Gov Link.
Spotlight - Tom Carroll
According to a Pew Internet Project Study conducted in December 2006, 70 percent of adults use the Internet. With Internet access, anyone can pay bills online, download forms, and get information, 24/7. This growing familiarity with electronic services leads citizens to expect the same types of services from their local government that commercial organizations offer their customers. The pressure to provide these services is especially challenging to small communities that don't have the staff or money available.
One such small community is the City of Loveland, located in southwestern Ohio, about fifteen miles northeast of Cincinnati. Tom Carroll joined the City of Loveland in 2001, and was appointed City Manager in February 2006. Driven by customer demand and its City Council, Carroll explains how Loveland now provides e-government services to its 12,000 residents. Read Tom Carroll's Interview
Welcome New Customers
Mention Winslow, Arizona, and many people remember the lyrics "Well I'm standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona," from the song Take it Easy, written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey, and made famous by "The Eagles".
The City of Winslow has a population of around 9,500, and is located 50 miles east of Flagstaff and just 100 miles east of the Grand Canyon. Winslow is a favorite travel destination because of its spectacular views of the Painted Desert, the San Francisco Peaks, and its close proximity to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation.
Winslow (www.ci.winslow.az.us) is one of the latest cities to join the growing list of E-Gov Link customers.
"E-Gov Link was recommended to us by another city," said Sherry Lancaster, human resources director, who spearheaded the E-Gov Link implementation. "E-Gov Link already had most of the forms that we needed. It was easy to take the standard forms and modify them to our requirements."
Within a little over one month's time, Winslow was up and running with E-Gov Link.
"The implementation went very smoothly," said Lancaster. "E-Gov Link staff set up everything for us. I just modified the forms we needed and turned off the ones we didn't. They also set up the online bill payment facility. It was all very quick."
So far the feedback from residents has been very positive. "We have had excellent comments from our citizens, especially regarding the online bill payment facility," said Lancaster. "We just completed an online survey, which was very well received. Now we don't have to mail out the survey and wait for it to be returned."
Lancaster sees the potential benefits to the community. "A lot of our citizens work during the day so they can't always get down to city hall during normal working hours. Now, they can download forms and access information after we are closed. The Action Line will enable us to be more responsive to our citizens' requests, as items go directly to the person responsible. There is also a follow-up mechanism, so that if action has not been taken, E-Gov Link will automatically notify the next person in the chain."
Founded in the 1850s, Mooresville, North Carolina, is located approximately 45 minutes north of Charlotte. Over the years Mooresville has changed from a railroad town to a textile center, and today is best known as the home of dozens of NASCAR racing teams, which earned the town the nickname "Race City USA."
Mooresville started looking at Electronic Government services about a year ago. "We started to redesign our web site (www.ci.mooresville.nc.us) because we knew it was lacking the information our citizens were looking for," said Alan Bradford. "Our main objective was to provide easy access to documents, such as forms and permits. The town has a lot of documents, and we needed a way for our staff to post their departmental forms to the web site without involving the IT department."
Another requirement for Mooresville was the ability to record and track citizen's requests. "We were looking for a Request Tracking facility. We had received some quotes, but they were far too expensive. Like most local governments, we don't have a lot of money available for these types of projects, therefore the cost was very important. In our discussions with E-Gov Link, we soon found that they had both facilities at the right price, so the choice was easy," said Bradford.
Mooresville went live with E-Gov Link at the end of January 2007, and the facilities quickly proved popular. "Even though we haven't fully implemented the Action Line yet, we have had 225 requests during the past two months," said Bradford.
According to Bradford, the library facility within E-Gov Link makes it easy to find the right document: "We now have a structure in place. If someone is looking for a planning document they can either find it in the Planning Department section of the web site, or use the built-in search tool," said Bradford. "The Administrator facility allows me to control access to the web site, so that only the authorized person(s) in a department can post documents."
E-Gov Link will eventually reduce the workload on Mooresville's government staff. "We believe that making more information available on our web site will eventually reduce the number telephone calls," said Bradford. "We are encouraging people to check the web site first before calling the town hall."
Going Live
Better known as an international tourist attraction, the City of Niagara Falls, New York, is home to 52,000 people. Looking to improve communication and services to residents and businesses, the city's officials started evaluating electronic government capabilities just over a year ago.
"We looked at several web sites of other municipalities, and the types of e-government services they provided," said John Cahill, MIS director. "We talked to several different vendors, and eventually selected E-Gov Link. We reviewed the web sites of some of their other customers, and we liked what we saw. Their solution seemed to be the right size for our city,"
Peter Smith is responsible for administering the E-Gov facilities and the City's web site. "We didn't use all of the capabilities of E-Gov Link from day one," said Smith. "We started off very small, as we wanted to control the process and not be overwhelmed. The system gives us many different options, and is very easy to use and customize. We are currently rolling out new services, and E-Gov Link gives us the tools to expand when we are ready."
For any organization with limited resources, reliable support from their vendor is essential. "The support from E-Gov Link has been fantastic," said Smith. "They have a helpline and you can talk to anyone, anytime, even senior management."
The City is already seeing benefits resulting from the E-Gov Link implementation.
"The reaction from the community has been very positive," said Smith. "Communication has improved dramatically. We have an 'Ask the Mayor' mailbox where residents can send in requests and comments. The Request for Permits has been used a lot, and this has reduced the workload in the inspections department by reducing the number of phone calls and visits."
Niagara Falls was so pleased with the service that they contracted with E-Gov Link to redesign the City's official web site, www.niagarafallsusa.org. A content management facility is part of the new web site design. Smith explains:
"We don't have an internal design team and we have very few resources or time to maintain the web site. The content management capability has dramatically reduced the time required to update the web site. It's very easy to make changes, and now non-technical staff can manage their own sections of the web site."
The City of Bangor occupies 34 square miles on the western side of the Penobscot River, 20 miles northwest of Penobscot Bay. Bangor was settled in the 1760s, gaining fame during the 19th century as "the lumber capital of the world." Today, this city with a population of around 32,000 comprises urban, commercial, and industrial areas as well as numerous residential neighborhoods. It is the major commercial center for eastern and northern Maine.
To improve customer service, Bangor www.bgrme.org needed to find a way to track and manage work orders through their Public Works department. Jeff Courtney, MIS director, explains:
"When a citizen called with an issue or problem, we needed a better method of tracking and managing work orders to ensure that the work was completed. We also wanted to get the citizens involved by logging their issues through the web site, as an alternative to calling our dispatch center."
After searching the Internet for potential solutions, Bangor selected E-Gov Link. "E-Gov Link was the best fit," said Courtney. "Cost was very important, as was the willingness of E-Gov Link to customize the application to meet our needs, in particular our reporting requirements."
Bangor has been using E-Gov Link since October 2006, and is pleased with the results. "Now the Public Works Director and City Manager have more visibility of reported problems and can monitor their progress," said Courtney. "With E-Gov Link they can track and manage citizens' requests to ensure the work gets done. The word is slowly getting out, and more and more citizens are starting to log their requests via the web site. In the beginning, all requests went to a central area, but now we are starting to direct the requests to the relevant department. For example, if it was a problem regarding a dog, the request gets routed directly to the Animal Control Officer."
Bangor is looking at expanding their use of E-Gov Link solutions to provide more online facilities to their citizens. "We are planning to evaluate E-Gov ParksLink, for parks and recreation, for our summer and fall activities," said Courtney.
E-Gov Link Update
E-Gov Basics, includes Citizens Request Management (CRM), payments, community calendar, and document repository. We have added new features so that users can now edit data in the Action Line requests. This is very useful to fix incorrect data such as email addresses. There is a facility to print a standard work order for any Action Line requests. To simplify security administration, we have added templates.
The E-Gov Basics Options Package, adds extra functionality to E-Gov Link Basics. The form letter facility has been enhanced to allow users to merge form fields in the form letter and link specific requests to specific form letters, thereby simplifying administration. Now form letters can be exported to Microsoft® Word.
The new E-Gov Link Advanced Options package takes the Action Line facility to a higher level. All relevant documents can now be attached to the Action Line item, including plans and photos. New "internal only" fields are available for use by administration staff. These fields can be defined so they don't appear on the public form. The public can now make payments against an Action Line item. Data entered in an Action Line form can now be merged and printed using a PDF document.
New features in E-GovParks Link, our Recreation Management system, include improvements to the class and event registration, new data fields for individual family members, improved search capabilities, validation for residency, and the option for different prices for residents and non-residents.
Resources
The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. In addition to producing statistics relating to Internet and PC adoption, Pew has a series of reports on E-Gov and E-Policy www.pewinternet.org such as How Americans Get in Touch With Government and The Rise of the E-Citizen: How People Use Government Agencies' Web Sites.
ICMA's Electronic Government 2004 survey collected data from 3,410 municipalities and counties, and provides useful information relating to the organization and management of e-government services, barriers to e-government, changes introduced by e-government, services delivered, and funding. To download the results summary, click here.
Events
E-Gov Link will be attending the following upcoming conferences. Stop by our booth and see the latest enhancements to the E-Gov Link product family.
E-Gov Link will be exhibiting at the ICMA's 93rd Annual Conference, to be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 7-10, 2007. Booth #113
E-Gov Link will be attending the National Recreation and Park Association's Congress and Exposition, to be held in the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis, on September 26-28, 2007. E-Gov Link will be demonstrating E-Gov ParksLink, a complete Recreation Management system. Stop by our booth #3235 to see a demonstration of E-Gov ParksLink.
Want to Find Out More?
For many local governments, e-government has been a valuable tool for increasing productivity and reducing costs. For others, however, these benefits cannot be realized because of a lack of funds, technical expertise, and staff. E-Gov Link addresses these issues by providing all of the most popular e-government applications in a single, affordable package.
For more information about E-Gov Link's products and services, please visit our web site, contact Peter Selden at 513-681-4030 ext. 107, or email pselden@egovlink.com.
