CivicPlus empowers local governments to streamline operations and boost resident engagement by delivering unified, accessible digital experiences that connect staff and communities seamlessly. Trusted by over 10,000 governments, CivicPlus drives efficiency, transparency, and public trust with smart automation and flexible tools built for impact-led leadership.
In this episode, we discuss the role of technology in local government with Brenden Elwood, Vice President of Market Research at CivicPlus. We explore how CivicPlus empowers local governments through innovative software solutions, emphasizing the importance of engagement, accessibility, and crisis management. The conversation also touches on trends in local government technology, including the integration of AI and the need for operational transparency to build public trust. We also discuss the transformative role of AI in enhancing government efficiency, the importance of building trust through transparency, and the critical need for accessibility in local government services. We explore compliance challenges faced by government workers and the emerging trends in government technology, emphasizing the need for consolidation of services to improve efficiency. The discussion concludes with key takeaways for local government leaders on fostering resident engagement and trust to stimulate economic development.
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Show Notes
Takeaways
- CivicPlus serves over 10,000 organizations in the US and Canada.
- The company focuses on enhancing resident engagement and impact-led government.
- A majority of residents believe website quality reflects local government leadership.
- CivicPlus offers a wide range of solutions, including websites, mass notifications, and public records management.
- Operational transparency increases resident satisfaction and trust.
- AI is a growing topic among local governments, with a focus on efficiency and security.
- Accessibility is critical, with 26% of the US population having some form of impairment.
- Building trust with residents is essential for economic development.
- Civic leaders need to communicate effectively to dispel misinformation.
- Consolidating services with one provider can enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
Chapters
00:00 – Introduction to Civic Technology and Local Government Innovation
03:04 – CivicPlus: Empowering Local Governments
06:10 – The Importance of Engagement and Accessibility
08:54 – Diverse Solutions for Local Governments
11:55 – CivicPlus vs. Competitors: What Sets Them Apart?
14:58 – Lesser-Known Features of CivicPlus
18:12 – Crisis Management: Technology in Emergencies
20:50 – Trends in Local Government Technology
23:53 – Future of Civic Engagement and Accessibility
26:23 – AI’s Role in Government Efficiency
32:44 – Building Trust Through Transparency
33:21 – Enhancing Accessibility for All Residents
36:08 – Navigating Compliance in Government Tech
39:01 – Trends Shaping the Future of Government Technology
42:42 – Key Takeaways for Local Government Leaders
Transcript
Beau Hamilton (00:00.814)
Hello everyone and welcome to the SourceForge podcast. Thank you for joining us today. I’m your host, Beau Hamilton, Senior Editor and Multimedia Producer here at SourceForge, the world’s most visited software comparison site where B2B software buyers compare and find business software solutions. In this episode, I’ll be leading a discussion around how local governments communicate, engage and operate with the help of technology. There’s a lot of innovation happening in local government right now that’s often overlooked. It’s not just Silicon Valley or Fortune 500 companies. A lot of the innovation is actually made possible
via third-party companies that partner with local governments to help them better serve their residents. And that’s where CivicPlus comes in. CivicPlus builds the kind of behind-the-scenes tech that helps local governments run more smoothly and connect better with the people they serve.
And to kind of illustrate the point, if you’ve ever paid your water bill online or you signed up for like a city event or gotten a text alert about a road closure, there’s a pretty good chance tools like those were powered by CivicPlus. They help cities and counties keep things running in a way that just feels easier and more modern for both residents and government staff. So joining us today to talk more about the company and what they’re doing in the government tech space is Brenden Elwood, Vice President of Market Research at CivicPlus. And fun fact, he also serves on the North Bend Washington City Council.
So he brings a real insider’s perspective to the tech side. So Brandon, welcome to the podcast. Glad you could join us.
Brenden Elwood (01:30.84)
Yes, thank you, Bo. Thank you for having me. Looking forward to the conversation. Great introduction, by the way. Loved it.
Beau Hamilton (01:34.338)
Me too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have a lot to talk about, of course. So I just want to get right into it. And first of all, can you just tell us what is CivicPlus from your perspective? Who are some of your customers and what’s your role at the company?
Brenden Elwood (01:52.13)
Yes, great question. CivicPlus is an amazing company. Let me just start there. We’ve been serving civic leaders and local governments for over 25 years. Our team has grown significantly over that time. I think we’re over 1,000 team members right now. We’re actually within about 10,000 organizations, if you’re counting US and Canada, which means we’re serving or having an impact on 340 some odd million people, which is fantastic. The origins of our company were websites, and that’s kind of our bread and butter. We still do that. But we also recognize through the 25 years of experience that we have that there’s a lot more things that we can do. So during that time, we’ve grown quite a bit. We have a huge solutions portfolio.
We consider ourselves the trusted, impact-led digital partner for civic leaders. And I think that’s really important. Many of our folks that work at CivicPlus, like myself, do come from the public sector. So as we start thinking about the solutions we’re building, the problems we’re trying to solve for, they actually come from a place of knowledge, right?
We were in the driver’s seat at some point in time, and now we’re there trying to be the assisted driver, helping folks get the job done that they need to get done. And I think that’s the first part of the question.
Beau Hamilton (03:17.93)
It is. Yeah. So you lay down kind of you laid the foundation for who you work with. What it is, it plus does. I think the fact that you work with you mentioned indirectly or directly with three hundred forty million residents is pretty staggering. And obviously you there’s a lot of kind of ramifications with that. have to be obviously a trusted partner and really have a good kind of expertise and
You know, you just have to be a good trusted provider with the relationships you have if you’re dealing with that many different customers, right?
Brenden Elwood (03:56.436)
Absolutely. And you know, our philosophy is we are customer centric, right? So we put our customers front and center of everything we do, but we also recognize that our customers are public servants. And so we take great pride in making sure that our customers, customers and residents are actually getting the service quality that they need from our solutions. So when we think about our dynamic as a company, it’s people. People matter.
It’s increasing engagement. We want to optimize that experience because we know firsthand, and there’s plenty of research on this. In fact, we’ll be publishing a report here soon in the next few weeks where we surveyed over 8,000 US residents last year to really talk about what are their perceptions with local government. And what we find is as a majority, think it was like 53% of residents say that the quality of their website directly affects or reflects the quality of the leadership of that municipality. So if you think about it from a resident perspective, one of their ways to engage their local government directly is online. That could be pretty much the first stop in a lot of instances.
And we know about 70% of US residents do interact with their local government online. And that could be either from their mobile phone or from a computer. So that experience has to be important. And that’s where we take a step back and we’re like, OK, we have to make sure everything is efficient, it’s optimized, and we believe in universal accessibility. You’re not just serving little pockets of your community. In fact, if we get into the discussion a little bit later, I mean, there’s some data that talk about, you know, 26 plus percent of US population has some sort of impairment. So when they’re having to interact with their local government.
That experience needs to happen just like for anybody else. So these are the kind of things that we think about as we design our solutions. These are the topics that really matter to us is how do we stimulate that engagement because we know it can impact trust and satisfaction that the resident have with the municipality. And if we’re arming our customers with the right tools to make their experience efficient and optimized, they go to work happier.
Happier employees have a positive impact, right? And that’s our mission of ours is to make government work better. So when we think about all these different dynamics, it’s our philosophy. We need to put people first. What’s that engagement experience like and how can we make it better?
Beau Hamilton (06:28.802)
That’s a great mission statement. Yeah, I think my mind just goes to obviously the different modernizations from my local government and also the bigger picture of the politics around it. I mean, it’s often a major talking point politicians use, running for office is just all the things that need to be changed and upgraded and modernized. I mean, there’s so many examples from a local government standpoint, also a federal government standpoint of different aging legacy systems being used that desperately need to be modernized. know like the FAAs in the national spotlight for some big modernizations that need to happen with, you know, phasing out things like floppy disks that are still being used, you know, and even like fax machines are, yeah.
Brenden Elwood (07:14.308)
I actually ran into, I found one in my garage the other day and I was like, my daughter said, what is that? And I said, let’s have a little history lesson here.
Beau Hamilton (07:22.35)
Yeah, take a seat for this one, even like CD-ROMs and you know, so it’s a big problem, big talking point, and it’s important to get these systems right. I want to talk about some of the specifics regarding your product and accessibility and whatnot, but before then, I want to just continue to kind of lay the groundwork here. Maybe you can talk about, actually, maybe you could talk about just, yeah, overview of what are some of the products and services you offer local governments first and foremost.
Brenden Elwood (07:58.542)
So it’s a wide range of solutions. We have websites, obviously. We have accessibility software. That’s really important. And we have some different options available for whatever the needs are of that municipality. We have mass notification software.
We also really focus on compliance. We have a codification service. as city council or county council puts out new ordinances and laws, we make sure all of that information is updated.
Public records request is a big important thing, right? So we have NextRequest is a public records request software that allows clerks and so forth, whomever is having to address with that public records request, do it efficiently. We also have what we call social media archiving. And this is a fascinating tool actually, because a lot of municipalities and municipal workers think that if they have social platforms that they engage their public on, they often think that like Facebook and so forth archives some of that information.
Well, that’s not always accurate. And so if you have the public requesting something that the mayor put out six months ago or a year ago, whatever that is, you can find yourself in some hot water if you’re not able to fulfill that particular request. We have other tools like process automation tools, park recreation management software. have codification or a community.
Community development software that helps make permitting and licensing and all of that much more efficient on the internal side Trying to think what we have a great little mobile app. It’s a seek seek like fixed It’s our 311 CRM solution and what’s dynamic about this is that it’s a mobile app for non-emergency purposes so You download it if you’re a resident and let’s say you’re out there. You see a pothole. You see a broken water main graffiti something like that, you can take a picture of it and it sends it right into the department and a work order is generated.
And now the resident can actually track the progress of that particular work order, which is fantastic. And then once it’s complete, they become alerted to that fact. So that’s actually putting kind of the power, you’re empowering your residents with that kind of direct feedback with those type of tools. Yeah, does that answer your question?
Beau Hamilton (10:18.572)
Yeah, that’s great. Definitely. That’s, I mean, above and beyond. There’s a lot of different solutions you offer. That’s I like the illustration too of what, you know, the solutions you offer, but also what they translate to like, you know, fixing a pothole, for example, you take a picture, it goes right to where it needs to go to get that solution or get that get a solution for that problem. Right. I had that that issue not too long ago where I had a random kind of sinkhole that opened up in my driveway.
And I had to, it was like a Sunday and I, I took a picture of it and, you know, send it, send an email, didn’t use an app, but I sent an email and, maybe it was because of the gravity of the situation, a sinkhole could open up into something bigger, right. but they responded super quickly on a Sunday, which I was really surprised about. but those are, so you offer a lot of different solutions. I’m curious, like, do you, like, what are, what are some of the competitors in this space?
What would you say distinguishes CivicPlus from some of these other government tech providers, just in terms of the solutions and services you just outlined?
Brenden Elwood (11:28.344)
Yeah, that’s a great question. We do have a lot of competitors, and three things immediately come to mind. First is our robust portfolio of solutions. I don’t think any of our competitors offer the range of services and solutions that we actually have. We have high customer retention and receive great feedback from our customer base.
I think the other thing too that really pops into mind is our focus on our customers. We’re not just there to sell you something. We want to talk to you. We want to understand your needs, wants, and desires and make sure that we fit the right tool to the need that you need to get solved for, if that makes sense. And then the third thing I think is really critical is our own staff. CivicPlus leadership is fantastically caring and nurturing for all of its employees. I was just on an all hands call this morning and we have folks, account executives that are sharing some very intimate experiences that are really powerful. And the fact that we’ve put people first both internally and externally really makes us a dynamic company.
And like I said, our main focus is understanding needs, wants, and desires. And the other piece too is many of us come from the public sector. So we understand what it takes to get the job done. For example, we have former clerks who are instrumental in the development of our agenda and meeting management solution, which is one that I forgot to mention when I was listing everything that we do. And I myself, I have 15 plus years in local leadership. I served six years as a park commissioner, Metropolitan Park District.
I’m in my second year of my third four year term on city council. I’ve been on planning commission. So when we talk to customers and when our product dev folks start designing things, we really come at it from a place of knowledge and a place of care because the people come first. Does that answer your question, Beau?
Beau Hamilton (13:31.458)
Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. Absolutely. That’s important, right? Cause it’s like we all coming from that perspective of, you know, we all have our own community. Live in, we all, you’re from the greater Seattle area. I’m from Portland, knowing that like, you know, your solutions directly impact, you know, the community you, you live in, I think is just important to keep in mind. It’s different than the typical, you know, a typical business that works with clients from all around the world where you maybe don’t have that sort of tangible connection and like you see the solutions manifest, right?
Brenden Elwood (14:07.012)
Yeah, I think to expand on that, I mean, we solve real world problems. We deal with digital overload, resident frustration, resident engagement, staff inefficiencies. These are all real problems that every municipality has to contend with. And oftentimes, if you’re a city administrator, a city manager, a county administrator, county manager, you’re having to grapple between having the best solutions and tools available, but you also have resource limitations, budget limitations.
So where are those trade-offs coming from? How can you have the greatest impact with your community? That’s why we consider ourselves an impact-led software company, because we really get into the nitty gritty of those needs and try to solve those problems for our customers.
Beau Hamilton (14:55.01)
Yeah, it’s like that how you deliver things can matter just as much as like the what part of things, you know, especially in public service, right? Now you mentioned a bunch of different standout features and solutions, but I’m guessing there are a few tools maybe people overlook or a few solutions of yours that maybe listeners may maybe not know about. I’m curious, like what are some of the lesser known features CivicPlus offers local governments that they can take advantage of?
Brenden Elwood (15:25.368)
Well, I’ll go back to the C-Click fix is a big one. And the reason why I’m bringing that one back up, because they’re all very important. Within political science, psychology, if you will, there’s a phenomenon known as operational transparency.
And what this means is that when an agency kind of lifts the veil on how they operate and put the power in the resident’s hand to actually affect change, it increases satisfaction and trust with that municipality. So when you have that bi-directional feedback loop, it creates a virtuous cycle between you and your constituent base. So that’s one dynamic. And it’s a non-emergency app.
It’s things that you may drive by every day, it’s little things, but it’s these little things that add up because you’re able to, the residents are able to communicate and then you see a responsive government and they see the work getting done. So now they’re more actively engaged with your community. So that’s one that I’d like to emphasize.
Recreation management is another one, know, lot of park and rec programming, things like that. That is another solution that we offer, which is fantastic. So it enables residents to plug in and get what they need to get done. And it actually makes it more efficient for the recreational program providers, right? Because now you’re able to digitize it, you’re able to track things. It’s fantastic solution. Community development is another one. We launched that a couple of years ago. And so that allows more streamlining of the processes of permitting and licensing and so forth. So it really takes the edge off of a lot of the manual work that goes into satisfying permits and things like that.
We do have process automations and asset management solutions as well. And accessibility is a big one for us as well.
Beau Hamilton (17:18.828)
Now you alluded to some of the natural disasters or public health issues that local governments have to deal with, of course. How would you say CivicPlus uses its technology and expertise to help its clients handle these constant threats?
Brenden Elwood (17:34.584)
No, that’s a fantastic one and it should have been on my list because we have a mass notification solution that allows the government agency to communicate not only alerts, but also routine messages. And it keeps everybody informed. It’s multilingual, so we can communicate to different sectors, but that’s an important one.
And in fact, as we start seeing a little bit more changes in the weather, more hurricanes, more wildfires, mass notification is a critical thing. And it integrates with whatever tech stack that the municipality has the leadership of that community to really stay on top of how to inform their residents on things that are critical to them so that they can actually either live more safely. I mean, that’s the number one thing with local government, right? Public health and safety, that’s the number one mission. That’s why we pay tax dollars for that type of service. And so our mass notification software solution really fits the bill on that particular one.
Beau Hamilton (18:42.134)
Yeah, I mean, just being able to move quickly and keep people informed is huge. It can make all the difference in those situations. Like I live in the, we both live in the Pacific Northwest, right? And there’s a lot of concern around like the big one coming, the overdue earthquake along the Cascadia subduction zone.
And I know Portland, where I’m based out of is really a hotspot and it’s gonna suffer some consequences if or when that ever that happens. So that’s a big, you know, kind of thing that people are thinking about over here. And obviously we have wildfire season. That’s, I feel like it’s an actual season now that we can expect almost every year. And so these alerts are really important, right? They go out to the residents and then keep people safe. And yeah, it’s.
Brenden Elwood (19:31.084)
Absolutely, it helps, we help our civic leaders, you know, build public trust, right? We’re giving them the resources that they need to keep their residents informed. And that’s critical. And it can even be on our website, right? You know, you can do push notifications, things like that. But when it comes to an emergency, that’s vital.
Beau Hamilton (19:53.134)
Now zooming out slightly, what kinds of broader changes or trends are you seeing in what local governments are asking for these days? Is it how to incorporate AI or is it still just building out applications for some of the online services they offer? What are you looking at in particular? What are you seeing?
Brenden Elwood (20:18.07)
A variety of things. AI is definitely a topic, right, as we know, and it’s evolving rapidly. Municipalities are trying to figure out how best to incorporate it. They have to build policies around it. In our national survey, residents told us that a majority of them said they were OK with their local government exploring the use of AI as long as they know how it’s being used. And that’s the critical piece, right? So if you’re going to bring in new technology, have to communicate the rationale for that to your public and you got to bring them along on the journey.
Once you start talking about it as a civic leader and you make it a conversation point and you demonstrate what the ROI is on that, so we’ll be able to process things quicker. We’ll be able to stretch tax dollars a little bit more by bringing in these automated efficiencies. That’s one part of it. But the next part of it, the number one concern, which is an obvious point, is privacy and security. Is our data secure?
If you’re a resident that relies on services that are provided by your local government, you want to know that that information is secure. So you want to have it up to the best standards. So these are the kind of things that local leaders have to think through. I travel around to conferences and I interview people all the time.
And it was interesting when AI kind of started coming out and being, hey, this is here, it’s coming, blah, blah. I actually was thinking that there were going to be more civic leaders concerned about it. But just in my informal qualitative conversations, that wasn’t the case. People were really excited about it. They were excited about it because you talk to any city administrator, county administrator, and they’ll tell you their staff is maxed out their bandwidth.
So how are there things that we can bring into their day-to-day life that will make it a little bit quicker so that they’re not stressed out? The other piece too is hiring, right? Workforce.
If you have limited access to workforce, you’re going to need technology to fill that bill so that you can actually do more with less. So as I’m talking to these civic leaders, these are the types of conversations that I’m hearing. Within the local government space, people tend to retain their job. And so you’ll have an aging out of workforce and then you’ll have new folks coming in. Well, the new folks coming in have a different expectation of technology and solutions than perhaps the work force that’s actually leading.
So how do you marry those two differing approaches? For example, sticky notes work for some people, but maybe I want more of a digital automated system. So how do we integrate that? So the conversation about AI is definitely a trend. Resident engagement is another one. Last year when we surveyed US residents, 39 % of them said that they were planning to engage with their local government more this year than they did last year.
So there’s already a movement for that. Then when you take a step back and you look at what’s happening at the federal level, they’re pulling back grant money, putting more pressure on states and local governments to satisfy their resident needs local governments are gonna have to answer to their residents that need services and things like that.
So I’m expecting more of an uptick in the resident engagement, depending on their local government for services and so forth. Even if it’s just information, like if you are taking advantage of a certain service and you’re hearing rumors or talk that those programs will go away, you’re gonna be concerned about that and your first stop is your local government? How am I going to be impacted? Am I secure? How do I get the resources I need? In addition to that, I would expect more public records requests, software will be needed because folks want to be informed.
And as we get closer to the end of this next year and a lot of radical changes that may be happening at the local level, by radical, I mean budget decisions, things like that, different types of thinking that goes into how we can deliver the quality of services that we need to to our local government. That may leave local governments, you know, susceptible to more public records requests. I want to know as a resident when this decision was made, why it was made, and how it’s going to impact me.
And if I can go online and submit a request to get whatever that meeting information is or whatever that email thread is or whatever that social media posts that I think the mayor said a few months ago, that’s important, right? The other critical one, I think, is on the American Disabilities Act front, right?
So the Department of Justice last year issued website mandates to become accessible and for digital content. So if you think about it this way, we have all sorts of codes and ordinances that require buildings to be designed a certain way so that you’re not excluding any member of your public from access to any services, right? Sidewalks have to be a certain width, there have to be bathroom stalls and so forth. So now we’re on that front where digital content has to be equally accessible
And so there are federal laws in place and there are some hefty fines that go with that if you are a local government and you’re not compliant. So when I think about these kinds of trends, it’s giving more access to more people and really putting that as a priority of what you’re doing as a local government, being able to deal with this new volume of resident engagement, right? Those are all some important things that are coming, that I’m keeping a pulse on right now actually.
Beau Hamilton (25:59.726)
Yeah, there’s a lot, there’s a lot there and a lot to unpack. You know, I mean, it’s nice to hear that your residents are, are, are looking to be more engaged with their local community. And it’s always a plus and, um, always important, I think, because I think a lot of times you get so overwhelmed with what’s going on, in politics on a local, also federal, definitely a federal level, you kind of get just checked out and, you don’t want to engage, you know?
So I think it’s, that’s important and I think just generally leading with the, the, the idea that, you know, a lot of these, if, you want to slap on the term AI, the tools and solutions are ultimately making the systems more efficient, which is going to just make life a whole lot easier for not only government staff, but of course the residents being able to find information. It’s all, it’s all like going to translate to, better outcomes, I think.
Obviously, have to deal, CivicPlus has to deal with a lot more kind of privacy and accessibility issues dealing with the government and all the residents in a community. So that’s, you have to deal with that. But it’s interesting that you mentioned talking with some of the civic leaders about AI in particular and how kind of optimistic and sort of bullish they are on the technology, right?
I think that’s, there’s, there’s one in my discussions with, business leaders, it’s the same sort of attitude. They’re very optimistic about the efficiency gains and different, you know, positive outcomes with, with opening up kind of democratizing tool sets for, people and allowing people to kind of start their own business and whatnot.
But there’s also a divide I’ve noticed with talking with some of my family and friends who maybe don’t, don’t work with AI or maybe know much about it other than some of the headlines of they read about, right? And they’re a little bit more like they’re looking at it from a doom and gloom standpoint. So I think getting that messaging across about how it improves efficiency and then kind of just marketing the tangible aspects and outcomes from it I think is really important, right?
Brenden Elwood (28:15.768)
Yeah, and I think some of that, there’s plenty of examples out there on how AI, I mean, we have a chatbot feature that can be on our websites, right? And so if I’m going in and I’m trying to search, well, the chatbot will actually help me get to the information quicker, right?
That’s technology, newer technology. I mean, we didn’t have it that long ago, but now we have, right? That’s newer technology that’s helping make the discovery process for the resident more efficient. And they thank you for it, right? Because there’s a flip side here, especially dealing with local government. At the federal level, you see trust has been waning over time. But when you compare federal and then state and then local government, residents have more trust in their local government because you the proximity to them, right? And if the resident is looking for something online The first stop is your city’s website for example, and if it’s if it’s hard to find the content It’s hard to find the information.
There’s a couple things that may happen within the psychology of that process one could be it’s just not there. Why isn’t it there? It’s an old system. It’s outdated. And if we go back to the stat that I said at the top, where they look at the quality of the website as the quality of the leadership, that doesn’t bode well for the civic leaders. But the other thing, too, is being transparent and providing access to information in an efficient way. It builds that trust, because if it’s not there, they start to wonder why it’s not there.
Are you as a government agency intentionally withholding this information? Because there’s a lot of suspicion and things like that that are just organic in people’s mind and you don’t want your residents defaulting to a negative sentiment. And it could just be we don’t have funding, we don’t have resources, we don’t have the know-how on how to do something like that. But these are things that you can help satisfy your resident base with by communicating, okay, we’re recognizing the needs that we need to fulfill.
And here’s where we’re falling short. We’ve done really good, authentic, holistic audits of our systems. And we need money. We need resources. We need staff. Whatever those things are that they need to get up to speed so that they can provide better services to their resident, a resident likes to hear that information because now they’re seeing how their tax dollars are being spent. Now they’re recognizing, my government actually cares for me. And
A resident has the greatest, can affect the greatest change at the local level. And so that’s why it’s important that local governments really take that into consideration and do what they can to engage their residents and communicate more, especially if they’re needing support for more resident facing technology. In fact, in our survey and our report will be out a few weeks, residents that are more satisfied with their local government are far more supportive of investments being made in resident facing technology. It’s over 50 some odd percent. Right? So if you’re satisfying them and they see that you’re actually doing work that benefits them, they’ll be more supportive of those investments that you’re trying to make because they get why you are trying to do it. Does that make sense?
Beau Hamilton (31:32.044)
It does. It does. Yeah. And it’s a good, it’s good to reiterate that like it’s, communicating and, kind of dispelling any of the, kind of conspiracy theories for lack of a better term out there. Cause we, there’s all these different misinformation and, people just, I think people just like kind of entertaining these what if scenarios of like, what’s going on? Why, why isn’t this information here? Blah, blah. but when it’s just something boils down to a lack of resources, it’s, you know, I think it’s good to communicate that.
Brenden Elwood (32:05.5)
It’s funny because for pub conversations, it’s interesting to have all those conspiracy theories. But ultimately, if someone doesn’t know, they fill in the gaps with what ifs. And so as a civic leader, I want to make sure that I’ve already communicated enough to where those gaps don’t exist so that I’m arming and empowering my residents to actually have a response to somebody that may not know, right? Because that word of mouth is critical. And so that’s why we need to get ahead of it. That’s why CivicPlus, our primary mission is to make government work better. And you do that by building tools and solutions that enhance resident engagement.
Beau Hamilton (32:47.914)
Now, I know one area we’ve again alluded to and it’s an area that’s thankfully getting more attention lately is accessibility, right? Unlike a traditional business that serves a set of consumers, governments, they have to serve an entire population of residents of all ages, know, incomes, abilities, backgrounds. You have students, have seniors and underrepresented, underserved communities. The list goes on and on.
I’m curious, like what role does CivicPlus play in helping local governments just improve accessibility and inclusivity for all its residents?
Brenden Elwood (33:25.54)
Well, our software services, and we have really good partners. mean, accessibility is critical. If the stats are on it, which I think they are, about 26 % of the US population says that somebody within their household or they themselves has some sort of impairment. And if they’re not able to get access to the information that they need, think about it in terms of like this. If I’m a property owner, and I may want to do something different with my property. Maybe I want to develop it. Maybe I want to change the use or do something with the design side of my house.
And I go onto a website, my city’s website. So I’m looking around and I come across the zoning map. And that zoning map color differentiation, it looks the same to me because the color constructs that were on the zoning map are such that as a colorblind person, I can’t differentiate between the zoning.
So now I may say, well, I can’t do this. So I walk away. It’s not zoned. So one, I’m a little upset with the local government because I’m not able as a property owner to do what I want to do with my property. But two, that’s lost revenue for the municipality. Because if you lose the money on the permitting, it’s also lost income for workers in the area, right? So there’s something that just from a simple color change can have that kind of an impact. And that’s just one property owner. Imagine there’s more.
Beau Hamilton (34:57.548)
Yeah. When you multiply that out, yeah, it just, creates a, a lost revenue stream. Yeah. Interesting. I know. And really it’s not just a accessibility. It’s not just a, a check box. Obviously it’s just something that again, it just shapes people’s experience with local government. And, you know, the last thing you want is to make people, you know, more fresher with government. feel like there’s always that kind of, there’s always that, that give and take and, frustration with with government. I like that’s always going to be a thing, unfortunately, but I think continuing to work to make it better and work more seamlessly and be more inclusive is really the direction we want to see it headed.
Now, along with that, compliance is a big, another big concern, particularly for government workers. They have to comply with a wide range of federal, state, and local regulations covering things like you mentioned, data privacy laws, ADA compliance. There are public records, transparency, and also cybersecurity policies. That’s a big one, especially regards to AI and some of these chatbots.
In what ways does CivicPlus support local governments in meeting these different compliance standards and regulations?
Brenden Elwood (36:12.302)
Our account representatives, our sales folks and so forth, they’re very knowledgeable on all the different compliance standards that need to be met. And so when they meet with prospects or even customers that are looking to make a change, they can have a really good in-depth conversation and guide them to the right solutions, right?
And that’s where our teams are really excelled because they know what those standards are and they go out there and they talk about it firsthand and they educate. One of the big things from a CivicPlus standpoint is driving awareness, for example. When we mentioned the DOJ ruling on accessibility, for example. We conducted, we partnered with a nonprofit research agency called Civic Pulse, no affiliation to us, to interview civic leaders. And we surveyed over thousand civic leaders and the awareness of the in-depth awareness of the mandates that were coming out was very low.
It was really low. In fact, there was just kind of some awareness that the mandates even existed at all. So what we need to do as a company, again, putting ourselves as the partner to our customers, is to make sure that our customers are aware of whatever those compliance standards are. So we have those conversations and we educate, we inform, and we drive awareness. Even if we don’t get a sale on it, that’s okay. The point is, as a trusted partner, that means we’re offering information for free. We’re making sure that you’re up to snuff. We put you in contact with our internal folks that are the experts and whatever that solution may be, whatever that compliance need is.
And so then we’re able to walk through, even our professional services team can walk through everything that you have and what you have going on so that it’s a guided process to get you to where you need to be so that you don’t run afoul of any sort of legislation. You don’t run afoul of any sort of laws. You don’t find yourself in these frivolous lawsuits and things like that.
Beau Hamilton (38:24.046)
Yeah, I know that’s a constant full-time job, but it’s good to hear that you’re helping customers stay aware. Now, along with the same lines I’ve asked with the question earlier about the trends you’re monitoring in local governments, I’m curious if there’s a particular trend you think that will really shake things up in the government tech space over the next few years. And maybe you’ll rehash some of the things you mentioned with keeping up to speed with compliance and some of the AI things, but I just want to, you know, again, get your, get your take on what’s, what’s coming down the pipeline that you’re seeing, civic leaders really deal with and grapple with.
Brenden Elwood (39:06.67)
Thank you for asking that again, because there’s a lot of the things that I kind of talked about. But one that I failed to mention is as civic leaders start really taking a holistic look at all of their technology solutions that they have, what they’ll start seeing is there’s a lot of silos, right? There’s a lot of different providers that they’re getting things from. And not all of these systems work and talk to one another.
So if you’re trying to bring about greater efficiencies, both in staff time, access to data, data mining, insights, and budget, I think the future trend is to try to consolidate a lot of these services into one provider that can actually offer everything that you need to do to make your government run efficiently. And especially when you look at threats of federal funding, tariffs, things like that budgetary needs and even beyond that when you look at after COVID, there was a lot of mass migrations out of big cities.
There are some cities that, you they were built around industrial centers and they’re starving. People left. They don’t need to show up to work. Sorry, my smoke alarm decided to tell me that it’s time to change the Point being is that when people are coming and going and migrating to and from different cities, you’re going to have different impacts on your budget. So there’s a lot of economic pressure on local government leaders in the next few years to really audit what it is that they have and how best to deliver on the services that they need to deliver on while attracting the right workforce who wants to come to work, who wants to make sure that the resident population is satisfied with the services.
And I think when they start connecting the dots, what they’ll find is if we can go with one provider, that does majority of what we need, it’s simpler, right? I know who I have to go to for help. I don’t have to go through, I’m gonna date myself, a Rolodex of different provider customer support numbers. I have one number I can call, right? And then billing and so forth.
So that could be another trend that makes sense to me if I look at it from an economic standpoint, if I look at it from a US resident human migration standpoint, and if I apply some of my anecdotal, observations and experience at trade shows and just what I’m experiencing in my own community, a lot of these tough conversations we’re starting to have and so you’re going to want to find, know, we have all the, you know, local government agencies have limited resources. So how do you maximize it? And that’s going to be one way that in which you can maximize it.
Beau Hamilton (41:50.156)
Yeah, that’s a good one. I think of, when I want to look at like a CRM platform or just any, really any piece of soft software that I use, the integration aspect is huge and being able to tie into existing tools. Just it makes me gravitate and want to use the platform more. And so I think when you, when you translate that to local government and you know, all the different ways that can be translated, I think that just makes a lot of sense and being able to.
Again, just make everything more efficient and streamlined and just ideally having things work together more seamlessly is a big win and something you’re striving, always trying to get to. Now, as we come down to the final stretch here of questions, I want to give you the opportunity to hammer down one key takeaway or maybe a final message for listeners. If you had the chance to tell, you know, listeners, one key message, maybe it’s customers, civic leaders listening to this podcast right now. and maybe you can, you can imagine yourself shouting it from the rooftops, know? what, what would that one, what would that one key message or takeaway be?
Brenden Elwood (43:26.018)
I think an important one, if you’re looking to stimulate more economic development, one way to do this is by building trust and satisfaction with your resident base. And taking that one step further, it’s not just your residential residents, it’s also your local businesses.
And you want to improve that engagement. You want to make sure that they have direct access, so you’re able to satisfy all those needs, wants, and desires. That’s a critical thing. And that should be something that you strive for. Matter of fact, we have data that shows a little over 70% of residents that are satisfied with their local government are less likely to move.
If you have small business owners that are intimidated by the process or maybe they go to the website and it’s not easy to find something and they want to expand their business or entrepreneurs for that matter. Like now I have to spend time out of my day because I can’t find it online. Now I have to go make an appointment, go into, you know, go into the city hall or wherever it is. That’s taking time away from them actually developing their business. So you want to streamline that.
So I think the number one important thing is if you’re focused on economic development, which you should be, those are different things that you need to think about as far as building trust and having the right technology solutions to help you do that. Because once it’s up and running, it’s kind of like the Ronco way where you can set it and forget it. And then word of mouth spreads and then people want to do business with you as a city because you’ve removed those barriers. You’ve made it easier, more welcoming.
And so to me that as a city leader, that’s the most important topic that I have, and especially with my colleagues is how can we stimulate more revenue for the city so we can provide better services, we can provide more broader services to our constituent base than what are just limited tax base will offer. And if you’re special district, it’s the same thing, you know, because there’s a pecking order when it comes to taxes and how they’re doled out. And so, you know, if you’re state, you get all this, your county, city, special district, right, it just goes down and down and down.
So depending on what type of agency you are, you’re always thinking about how to stimulate more revenue and technology, efficient technology, impact led technology is the number one way to do that. mean, to me, it’s a no-brainer. It’s just getting past the internal hurdles of finance and things like that that you have to navigate. But once you’re up and running, you’ll start reaping the benefits of that type of investment long-term.
Beau Hamilton (46:14.318)
Yeah, that’s a good one. That’s a good one. And as a big picture guy, that really resonates with me, right? Because at the end of the day, you know, you have a city, you need to have residents, you know, contributing working businesses that ultimately help the city prosper. And then I think when you factor in the, you know, various challenges we face in today’s world, especially with remote working, where everyone’s kind of maybe, you know, able to get to work outside of the typical, you know, city boundary that kind of makes resources harder to come by and has its own sort of ramifications. So very well said. I like that answer. Yeah. Now for listeners or local government leaders curious to learn more about CivicPlus, where would you send them?
Brenden Elwood (47:01.902)
CivicPlus.com. Word of mouth is critical when it comes to municipal workers. So yes, you can check us out online. We’re there. We’re available. We’ve got a lot of great information. But I’d also say start talking to your neighboring communities attend conferences, trade shows, and really start talking to other folks.
And what you’re going to find is a lot of positive experiences that our customers have with our solutions. So yes, do your Google search. Do all your online research, as we call it. But definitely get connected with somebody that you trust that’s within your field with another agency. And really start probing to see what they’re using. And I bet we will be the top consideration provider, trusted partner of most of the people that you talk to.
Beau Hamilton (48:07.278)
I love that. I love that. Yeah, it’s good. Word of mouth is huge. And, you know, just talking with people, think face to face communications, even if it’s over a, you know, a video chat like this, I think that’s still a big plus because, we’re, we’re losing, we’re every day, we’re losing a little bit more of that human connection. I think with some of these tools and at the end of the day, it’s like we, um, you know, especially in the community, we all, we all live close to each other. We all live on top of each other and high rises and whatnot.
And, when you communicate in person and face to face, you realize we’re so much more aligned and similar and, you know, not as divided as we like to think we are online. So I think that’s a great takeaway.
Brenden Elwood (48:55.33)
Yeah, and as civic leaders really push for improving that condition, it makes the resident base proud. It really does. And they’re more supportive of what you want to do. And that becomes very, very critical if you have an emergency need or some big initiative where you need to go to voters for tax support, bond measures, things like that. So if you’re building that trust along the way by improving that engagement process, you’ll get their support.
Beau Hamilton (49:26.732)
Yep, absolutely. All right, well, thank you for all the insights you shared about CivicPlus. I really appreciate you taking the time to sit down and talk with us.
Brenden Elwood (49:35.214)
Thank you for having me, Beau. It was a pleasure talking with you.
Beau Hamilton (49:37.922)
That’s Brenden Elwood, Vice President of Market Research at CivicPlus. Thanks again, Brenden. Appreciate it.
And thank you all for listening to the SourceForge Podcast. I’m your host, Beau Hambleton. Make sure to subscribe to stay up to date with all of our upcoming B2B software related podcasts. I will talk to you in the next one.