justify the best government softwareAll governments, large or small, are faced with the challenge of juggling limited financial and human resources.   Service backlogs must be addressed while comprehensively dealing with challenges and demands.  I suppose one of the reasons municipalities may shy away from an investment in government software is because elected officials and perhaps even municipal managers don’t understand how valuable it can be.   You need the best government software available to justify the cost.

Imagine if a simple report could help city council, staff, and the public understand your government data.   How difficult is it to get and interpret the data for them, because without it you can’t even effectively approach budget decisions?  What if they had the data?  Would they see that other waste and losses are costing more than the cost of government software?  It’s a no-brainer decision.  To put it gently, you need the best government software money can buy because it’s at the heart of your budgetary resource allocation.

How to convince management there is a problem, and that the new software will solve it?  

  1. In order to justify, you must define the goals of the software purchase.

  • What are the benefits?
  • What are other municipalities able to do with their software that you aren’t able to?
  • Why are there problems with efficiency now? How will government software fix it?
  • Is your municipality positioning itself to adapt and face the future?

  1. Get some hard facts and be ready to present your case.

  • Determine what the big picture benefits are and what’s important to the city executives and council.
  • Describe how government software will improve accuracy and cut the hours required to complete permits, licensing, and requests.
  • Find out if it will reduce the receive/response time and free up employees to complete other relevant tasks.
  • Be ready to supply the patterns, trends, and recurring actions that are directly affected by inefficiency.
  • Determine the reasons why you aren’t achieving progress or funding, such as poor communication and outdated data?

  1. Get the important answers you need to gain major points towards approval?

  • How does the software interact with other programs and will it require upgrades to existing software?
  • Could government software encourage departments to stop working parallel to each other and instead create a collaborative environment through multi-departmental cooperation?
  • Will an integrated system detect things not running smoothly, therefore, offering areas for adjustments to improve the future?

How to justify a move towards the best government software solution for you.  

  1. Cost savings is the biggest reason for a change.

  • You can’t go wrong when you can do more with less. Cloud computing with government asset management software minimizes the overhead costs of maintaining and updating your software.
  • Performance-based budget reports will help your government set goals, justify budgetary requests, and maximize municipal resources.

  1. Customization and flexibility is part of the provider service.

  • Cloud-based applications can be easily configured to fit your government’s unique needs. Whether you need specific user permissions or a specialized tracking system to support infrastructure assets, cloud-based software is easy to customize.

  1. There is no excuse for not offering world-class data protection.

  • Cloud-based solutions offer physical protection from disasters like floods, as well as providing unseen service protections, like multi-factor authentication, user permissions, and automatic back-ups and updates.
  • When data is in the cloud, you avoid downtime in the event of catastrophic data loss from malicious virus attacks and server failures.

  1. Cloud services increase collaboration causing significantly increased productivity.

  • City officials, multi-departmental employees, contractors, and citizens are able to share, retrieve, and receive critical information from anywhere, anytime, on any device.
  • Utilizing one central information management system increases efficiency, strengthens collaboration, and improves budgetary meetings.

  1. Cloud computing is environmentally friendly.

  • Using cloud services results in at least 30% fewer carbon emissions and energy consumption compared to municipalities that use hosted on-site servers.

  1. Increased and enhanced citizen engagement.

  • Optimize citizen experiences with automatic status updates and quicker turnaround.
  • Citizens with disabilities, illnesses, or time shortages have easier access to permits, license’s, and applications which encourage growth and opportunity for everyone.

  1. Government software manages and accounts for your assets and liabilities.

  • The systematic management of the estimated useful lives of assets can prevent or delay reconstruction costs, shrink losses, and prevent accidents due to asset failure.

In an environment of continuous change, municipalities are faced with the challenge of deciding when to invest in technology. Investing too often is risky, but waiting too long can inhibit growth.  When this happens, convincing leadership to invest in new technology can be a challenge. The truth is, you don’t want to wait until your municipality is drowning in problems, inconsistencies, and inaccuracies before justifying an upgrade.  Call Novo Solutions today to learn how the best government software will help you legitimate activities as well as, enhance and improve efficiency.