3 Examples of Digital Tools Helping Government Accomplish More for Less

At a time when the public sector is coping with tremendous demand for services, many organizations must cut budgets while maintaining their heavy workload. With the “do more for less” mantra, agencies are turning to digital solutions to accomplish their goals.

In the past, aligning meaningful technology with citizen engagement expectations meant making giant investments in hardware, IT support skills, complex system integrations and a substantial team to orchestrate its execution. Thankfully, providing a truly modern digital experience is easier and more cost-efficient than ever. Technology platforms have moved to the cloud, infrastructure is shared, data centers are more secure, and even the smallest government organizations now have access to the same levels of technology support once available to only the largest government budgets. Not only do digital investments bring the promise of enhancing our citizen outcomes, they are reducing costs around the country.

Here are three examples of government organizations that have found success doing more for less:

Finding More Volunteers

The City of Sacramento had a number of key projects throughout its various communities, but it needed to find a way to increase volunteerism to get that work done. Through the use of strategic digital communications, a website overlay and an email newsletter campaign in GovDelivery Communications Cloud, the city capture an additional 30,000 volunteer hours. It estimates the value of that time at $693,135.

“[With Communications Cloud], we were able to reach our audience directly and inform them about what is coming up and how to get involved,” said Mary Lynn Perry, Volunteer Coordinator for the City of Sacramento.

When the community pitches in, scarce tax dollars can go to other vital services.

Reduced Printing and Shipping of Agendas

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is the largest of eight regional councils in the United States that manage fisheries. During each of its 10-day meetings, its 80 members required an enormous agenda packet – often reaching 750 pages. It was a huge expense, as well as a waste of 60,000 to 100,000 sheets of paper and a hassle for many members (some of whom are fishermen spending months at a time at sea).

Realizing the burden and waste it created, the NPFMC switched to Granicus’ Meeting and Agenda solution, which allowed them to each council member digitally on a tablet. That saves the organization about $30,000 per year in printing and shipping. This also frees staff up to do other work.

Increasing Park Reservations

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources sustains, enhances, protects and conserves the state’s natural resources, which spans 400 properties and 1 million acres.

Despite having collected extensive information about outdoor and recreational activities for residents, many reported that finding that information wasn’t easy. After performing a review, they Georgia DNR launched the “Georgia Outdoor Map,” which used Google Maps technology to show places people could camp, hike, explore, fish or hunt. While this service, which centralized the DNR’s information, existed, they needed to make sure people knew about it. Using the GovDelivery Communications Cloud, the Georgia DNR promoted the Georgia Outdoor Map to its existing base of subscribers.

As a result, the Georgia DNR said park reservation requests increased by about 30 per day. That might seem like a small number, but it adds up to $4,500 in additional revenue per week and $234,000 per year.

Are you ready to embrace digital government to save money and improve service delivery? We’d love to show you how Granicus products can help! Contact us at info@granicus.com.