The prospect of bringing digital transformation to your local government is an exciting one. In addition to improving the constituent experience through digital services, your local government, staff, and constituents themselves will save significant amounts of time through digital forms, automated workflows, and a public GIS map. Countless hours previously spent on mundane manual tasks will be freed up to enable your staff to take on higher priority initiatives. Yet, despite all of these proven benefits, there might be some hesitation in your mind about changing the status quo in your county or municipality and making the transition to government management software.
What will happen to our thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of paper records? What will our local government staff that’s accustomed to the old fashioned way think? Will they be able to adapt and learn a new digital platform? These are completely reasonable questions that most government leaders consider when deciding whether or not to go digital.
Luckily, making the transition to government software across departments isn’t as challenging as it might seem, and the benefits far outweigh the upfront challenges in making the switch to the cloud. With GovPilot, Onboarding Project Managers will be there to help you every step of the way.
Read on for a full view into the government technology onboarding process.
Why is Onboarding Government Software Worth It?
If you’ve made it this far, you're probably seriously considering onboarding government software into one or more of your local government departments. Good thinking! There are countless benefits that will positively impact your staff and citizens by embracing modern technology.
At a glance, here are the direct positive impacts from choosing government digital transformation over your current manual processes:
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Automation of tedious tasks:
Government software uses robotic process automation to automate repetitive, time consuming manual tasks. With the amount of time administrative staff members currently spend helping citizens to file paperwork like permits, licenses, etc. and filing the documents, every government department can save dozens of hours a month. Your administrative staff will have significantly more time to address bigger picture issues instead of manually logging paperwork.
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Cloud storage of documents:
As soon as you make the switch to GovPilot, Onboarding Project Managers will assist in uploading existing records into the government cloud, where every document will be accessible with just a few clicks. From that day forward, permit and license applications and other common forms can be submitted 24/7 from your government website. Applications can be approved or denied from a remote location, and will be easy to track down.
GovPilot’s platform is hosted by Microsoft Azure to ensure local government cybersecurity and regular back-ups of sensitive government data. Learn more about GovPilot’s Move to the Microsoft Cloud.
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Real-time dashboards:
With GovPilot, every government department and staffer can leverage their dashboard which displays tiles to display at-a-glance data about submitted applications and their status. Tiles’ appearance can be customized by individual employees to show information that is most important to them, enabling them to track performance of their government KPIs and easily generate formatted reports from specific data sets. Leadership can then make informed decisions when building their quarterly or annual strategic plans.
Learn more about how you can Master Government Analytics to Make Smart Decisions.
How to Prepare for Onboarding Government Software?
Making the transition to government software is straightforward, especially if you take the proper steps in advance of your onboarding process.
"When onboarding customers to the GovPilot platform, we have identified two major success factors:
First, customer engagement is key. We engage with our customers regularly from the sales process straight through the deployment of their modules to build confidence, and aid in their transition to GovPilot.
Second, we conduct comprehensive training with end users to build their skills confidence on the platform in order to maximize the user experience."
- Mike McAteer, GovPilot Onboarding Manager
Here are key actions government leadership can take to prepare for onboarding:
1. Communicate With Your Government Staff
You may fear that there will be backlash from your government staff for switching up workflows that have been standard for decades. Yet, even the more hesitant government officials have come to love the benefits of government software when they realize that it handles the most tedious components of their job.
Give your team a heads up well in advance of your onboarding start date, and be sure to address their questions and reiterate the many benefits to making a digital transformation.
Pro Tip: Communicate with potential new hires about the advantages of your government technology. The best candidates will want to spend their time thinking big and solving problems, so letting them know the most mundane, manual tasks will be automated can be a major plus. Learn more about Public Sector Recruitment and Key Benefits to Offer Government Workers.
2. Get Paper Records Organized
If your local government is still using paper-based filing, you’ve likely got thousands of documents filed in various cabinets across departments. If you are looking to adopt GovPilot our team is capable of easily importing data from previous digital systems or excel spreadsheets. If paper records are critical to carry over to GovPilot they can be attached to digital records once they have been scanned by our new customer or brought over from Laserfiche.
3. Inform the Public
Businesses and citizens alike are accustomed to the status quo for filing applications in-person. Notify them of the upcoming change and timeframe via your government social media, website, and notification channels so that they’re fully aware when they will be able to start submitting paperwork and make payments online.
How Does the Onboarding Process Work?
Once you make the decision to embrace government software, there’s a standard procedure for getting your local government fully digitized.
Here are the usual steps to move you away from paper filing or on site computer systems into the government cloud:
1. Decide which departments you’re going digital in
GovPilot offers 125+ modules for every government department to take advantage of. Choosing an Unlimited plan will allow you to take advantage of government software in every department for document storage, application submissions, inspections, and other common government workflows.
If you’re not ready to make the switch to full digital governance, government leadership will need to decide which government tasks to digitize. You can start with the Essentials (5 modules), Professional (10 modules), or Enterprise (20 modules) plan to see the power of government automation in key government workflows . Keep in mind, you can always scale up once you see the benefits in a few departments!
2. Get existing resources uploaded to the cloud
An Onboarding Project Manager will assist in getting all of your existing digital records including Excel spreadsheets uploaded to the cloud for easy access.
3. Get your staff trained
From day one, your Onboarding Project Managers will work with the government staff to get acclimated to the platform and reap the full benefits of the technology. Government officials have reported feeling comfortable with the technology in just one day, and are typically fully onboarded within 6 weeks or less.
Your government staff will be educated on the cybersecurity best practices to keep your data safe and secure. Learn more about how we Train Local Government Workers on Cybersecurity.
4. Create dashboards and Generate reports
In addition to training your staff, Onboarding Project Managers will work with government leadership to recognize the key KPIs for each department and metrics to track. Staff can set up tiles in their dashboard to personalize the way records and their status are displayed.
Use sorting functions to organize data sets quickly and easily in order to generate professionally formatted reports in mere seconds. Bring these reports in to your next meeting to discuss data, results, and progress.
5. Keep in touch!
Once onboarding is complete, our GovPilot Live Support Team and dedicated Account Managers will be on call to assist with whatever questions or needs arise.
Make Your Government Digital Transformation
With the ability to integrate local government software to your county or municipality in just several weeks, the pros far outweigh the cons of embracing government technology. Take the proper steps to educate your staff and citizens, give consideration to the departments you want to move to the cloud, and work with your Onboarding Project Managers to make a smooth transition to automation of your most tedious responsibilities.
For more details about how GovPilot can transform your government, book a free demo.
Onboarding GovTech FAQs
Is government technology worth it?
Local government technology is straightforward to onboard and offers countless benefits when it comes to saving time by automating manual tasks.
GovPilot customers have reported significant time savings on repetitive tasks, increased productivity, improved local economic development, and money saved. With GovPilot you can do what used to take hours in just a few clicks!
How can local governments prepare to onboard new technology?
Your local government hands the majority of the onboarding work and training to GovPilot. Here are some proactive things to make the onboarding process even smoother:
- Inform your staff: communication is key when it comes to big changes. Let your government staff know that they will be using new technology in the workspace, answer their questions, and remind them of the key benefits to government software
- Gather relevant documentation: existing digital documentation will be moved to the new platform for secure data storage. If you're still using paper filing, with GovPilot you’ll be able scan and upload as attachments to digital records.
- Notify the public: you're making your citizens' lives easier by offering online forms and payments. Give them a heads up about when they’ll be able to do so and the proper procedures.
How does government software integration work?
Once you’ve committed to your government software partner, onboarding specialists will assist in integrating your existing documentation into the platform, training your staff on the platform best practices and cybersecurity protocols, and answering any questions that come up from government leadership or employees.
What types of government software can be onboarded?
GovPilot offers 125+ modules to automate processes and move documentation to the cloud across government departments.
Your municipality or county can leverage government technology to:
- Accept online applications for licenses, permits, business registration, document requests, and more
- Perform and record building inspections, health inspections, and more in a simple web based app
- Pull up property records in seconds via GIS mapping technology
- Allow government workers to work from anywhere, at any time (which is a huge selling point for recruiting and retaining government workers)
- Collect fees and fines with credit card processing integrations on your website
What cybersecurity protocols are government officials trained on during onboarding?
The government cloud is often cited as more secure than other forms of data storage like in house servers. That being said, breaches can still occur if government employees are susceptible. GovPilot trains government employees about password best practices, how to avoid phishing scams and other common hacking tactics, and prioritizes two step verification to log into secure government accounts.
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