Granicus Recognizes 14 State, Local and Federal Agencies for Effective Digital Strategies

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Granicus, the largest provider of cloud-based software solutions to government, today announced the recipients of the 2018 Granicus Digital Strategy Awards. The winners—both individuals and organizations—implemented digital strategies that demonstrated effective and innovative ways to streamline processes, transform access to services and improve the citizen experience.

"The Granicus Digital Strategy Awards recognizes government's greatest innovators," said Mark Hynes, CEO of Granicus. "Every year, we're thrilled to see how leaders and organizations are leveraging modern, digital technologies to transform how they deliver services and impact lives. Whether it's engaging more citizens, digitizing paper processes, bringing services online or increasing transparency, we're proud to celebrate each of this year's winners and champion the great work they do in their communities."

This is the ninth year of the Granicus Digital Strategy Awards. In 2018, Granicus is recognizing winners in six categories: Modern Digital Government Leadership, Continuous Improvement of Public Services, Environmental Stewardship, Excellence in Citizen Engagement, Innovator in Chief Award (Individual), and Website Innovator. Each category can include as many as four winners across federal, state and local government, and any government organization is eligible to participate.

This 2018 Digital Strategy Award Categories and Winners are:

Modern Digital Government Leadership Award - Digital transformation describes a profound change in government activities, processes and/or competencies through a mix of digital technologies. The Modern Digital Government Leadership Award is Granicus' highest honor of excellence for those leading the way in public sector digital transformation.

Winners:

• City of Olathe, Kansas: The City of Olathe, Kansas identified the need for an interactive performance dashboard for citizens. Since 2000, the city has conducted satisfaction surveys and reported results annually through its Annual Performance Report. Over the last year the city deployed a new interactive dashboard, Olathe Performs, that now provides the community a clear and immediate way to visualize city progress. Through frequent updates in key focus areas, Olathe Performs strengthens accountability and transparency, citizen engagement and employee awareness.
• Smith County, Texas: The County Clerk's office moved from a paper-based system for citizen filing to a digital one. Prior to implementing digital solutions, Smith County officials manually scanned, reviewed, copied, labeled and mailed documents using 10 full-time clerks with an average processing time of six days from the point of request. Last year, Smith County automated the task enabling clerks to process and handle customer requests immediately. By immediately returning the filed document to the filer at the counter, a tremendous saving was discovered on labels, envelopes, postage and man-hours.
• District of Columbia Department Consumer and Regulatory Affairs: District of Columbia Department Consumer and Regulatory Affairs "DCRA" created several applications, including online access to records and interactive text messaging, that allow residents and businesses of the District of Columbia to skip the trip to DCRA and conduct most business online. Residents and businesses that interact with DCRA get served faster and the DCRA achieves greater internal operational efficiencies.

Continuous Improvement of Public Services Award - This award recognizes organizations that made significant service improvements to enhance the citizen experience with reduced wait times or new records management to improve internal processes.

Winners:

• City of Roseville, California: Like all California cities, the City of Roseville is facing considerable financial stress due to changing consumer spending habits and increasing costs. To understand what the community values most, Roseville initiated an extensive, multi-platform public outreach effort called EngageRoseville. The community engagement indicated that the citizens prefer maintaining service levels by increasing revenues, instead of cutting or eliminating services. The information gained steered the creation of the FY2019 budget.
• Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority: One of the main challenges facing public transportation systems is providing immediate information to commuters. Metro launched Cincy EZAlerts, helping commuters stay up-to-date on travel information.  To launch the service, they created a marketing campaign, utilizing digital email and social media to generate more than 7.8 million impressions and engage over 28,000 commuters.
• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA): The FMCSA offers a Pre-Employment Screening Program (PSP) with access to driver-safety data so employers they serve can make more-informed hiring decisions and keep our highways safe. To streamline the process, FMCSA moved from a manual time-consuming process to an immediate digital process.  Due to the efficacy of the new application, enrollment reached a six-year high in 2017, with 80 percent of all applications submitted through the new system.

Environmental Stewardship Award - This award recognizes organizations that implement environmentally conscious office policies through the use of software, such as reducing paper use and distributing agendas electronically. The Environmental Stewardship Award honors an organization making changes that reduce their carbon footprint.

Winner:

• Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), Library of Congress: The Copyright Royalty Board adjudicates royalty rate-setting proceedings and royalty distribution claims and disputes, and engages in rulemaking. Until recently, the process was paper-based and costly. In 2017, the CRB launched an online litigation filing and case management system that guides filers through selecting a docket, uploading files, and offering contact information; in only a few user-friendly web pages, the filing process is completed. One year later, the CRB eliminated more than 17,300 paper filing packages, saving approximately 169,000 pieces of paper.

Excellence in Citizen Engagement Award - A recognition of organizations using digital engagement in creative ways including a unique campaign purpose, effective content and exceptional methods of connecting with citizens. The Excellence in Citizen Engagement Award goes to organizations using digital solutions to reach more people and drive them to action.

Winners:

• Office of the County Manager, Arlington County, Virginia: The Office of the County Manager in Arlington County published a simple six-step guide that helps its 220,000 residents understand the impact of capital projects throughout the county. By effectively engaging with residents and understanding their personal journeys through the life cycles of these projects, the office is able to assist those who might be most impacted.
• Texas Department of Transportation: TxDOT's approach to digital management contributes to a culture of transparency with a goal being that decisions reflect input from the public. TxDOT accomplishes this by developing a robust web presence; utilizing GovDelivery emails that provide a branded and measurable communication approach; launching an online engagement survey tool that reaches a broad demographic in a dynamic and visual way; and developing a comprehensive array of traditional outreach methods that enhance online engagement strategies.
• Office of Women's Health (OWH), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: To continue to make progress in women's health, the Office of Women's Health coordinates National Women's Health Week (NWHW) leveraging a full digital strategy including email, social media and web-based information. NWHW kicks off on Mother's Day with the aim of increasing awareness around women's health. While the ultimate outcome is healthier communities, OWH tracks engagement success on digital platforms including detailed reporting and analytics.

Innovator in Chief Award - This award recognizes the individual making a transformational impact on his/her organization through the use of modern technologies, setting an example for other public-sector organizations. The Innovator in Chief award recognizes a government leader who thinks differently, approaches problems and solutions in unique ways, and delivers results.

Winner:

• Stephanie Goodman, Deputy Commissioner for Public Affairs, Texas Department of Insurance: When Stephanie Goodman joined the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) she was determined to increase public awareness of important insurance issues that impact Texans. She did this by working with other departments to craft communication strategies that engage and inform the public using timely announcements sent through govDelivery. Since she joined in 2015, TDI's email subscription rate has more than tripled to 71,000 citizen subscribers who now receive important information that helps make insurance easier to understand and can be delivered in times of great need.

Website Innovator Award - This award goes to organizations delivering exceptional service and superior value to the people they serve through a modern website. This year's Website Innovator Award recognizes organizations that have designed and launched websites with the needs of citizens at the forefront, strengthening the relationship between government and citizens.

Winners:

• City of Greensboro, North Carolina: The City of Greensboro's website was antiquated, which limited its ability to serve as a citizen hub. During the redesign, they reimagined every element of the site, with the goal of creating a compelling design with an informative structure that provided the services and accessibility required by residents and businesses. After conducting several inter-department work sessions and analyzing, they created a design that met the needs of the entire community. The task-oriented website rolled out in February 2018 allowing citizens to process online payments and quickly get to the information they need.
• Columbia County, Georgia: Columbia County, Georgia considers itself an innovative government that's always pushing the boundaries of how they operate. When they developed their new website, they set out to break down departmental silos, simplify navigation, make all content accessible and make it easy for citizens to quickly find the information they need. The result is a journey-oriented site with consolidated information and a citizen-friendly approach to providing services like pet adoption, moving and starting a business.
• Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development: CareerOneStop.org is a widely used website that serves a national audience of job seekers and other workforce participants. One problem with a site as broad and deep as CareerOneStop is that it can be difficult for users to navigate and find exactly what they want. The site has 30 million visits a year from students, workers, businesses and others. Rather than undertake a redesign, CareerOneStop created a website chatbot as an innovative solution. For users who don't have the time or desire to tackle its navigational structure the chatbot simply connects them with the right resources to get help fast.

About Granicus
Granicus provides technology that empowers government organizations to create better lives for the people they serve. By offering the industry's leading cloud-based solutions for communications, meeting and agenda management, and digital services to more than 4,000 public sector organizations, Granicus helps turn government missions into quantifiable realities. Granicus products connect more than 185 million people, creating a powerful network to enhance government transparency and citizen engagement. By optimizing decision-making processes, Granicus strives to help government realize better outcomes and have a greater impact for the citizens they serve. For more information, visit granicus.com.

Media Contact:
Lynette Viviani
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