State and Local Government Can Mitigate COVID-19 by Quickly Bringing Forms Online, Including Relief Applications

The outbreak of COVID-19 has put state and local governments in a precarious position. 

Cities, counties, and states are tasked with maintaining business continuity, accommodating increased need for services, and rolling out relief programs while simultaneously promoting social distancing, managing the closure of government buildings, and working with limited staff.

Governments around the country are using CityBase technology to manage COVID-19 relief programs and maintain government continuity.

 

Digitizing Paper Processes is Fast, Easy, and Effective

Moving a process like relief applications to an online service is a low-lift effort with big pay-off. Using CityBase online form technology, you can replace a paper or PDF form with a mobile-responsive online form on your website in as little as a single day. 

“I configured a new form, and it took me two or three hours,” said Rick Johnson, a Project Manager in the Office of Digital Services for the City and County of San Francisco. “It would have taken me about two or three weeks to build that in Salesforce.”

Forms live on your government website, on a dedicated subdomain of your official URL. People can find your online services easily and trust they are submitting information to their own city, county, or state. 

 

Help People Get What They Need, Without a Commute

Putting important services online is a convenience to the people you serve, and it reduces unnecessary person-to-person contact. It means people can avoid a trip downtown, and it reduces the need for them to go from one department to another in order to fill multiple forms or get multiple approvals. 

Online forms improve the customer experience. Features like conditional field display mean that residents only see questions pertinent to them, based on the answers they provide. Follow-up forms send the next required form in a process proactively. 

Making complex government processes more intuitive helps residents get what they need faster, without a trip to City Hall. It also means your staff can focus their attention on providing services, rather than helping people to initiate a request.

 

 

Provide a Cloud-Based Solution So Staff Can Work Remotely

As more employers urge staff to work remotely when possible, state and local government can provide digital solutions so their employees can do their jobs from home. 

CityBase Screendoor is a cloud-based solution that helps government staff to manage applications, requests, and other form submissions. Workflow automation supports cross-team collaboration and tiered approvals. Messaging features allow you to set automatic messages when the status of a person’s application changes, or to write custom communications to applicants that are tracked alongside their original submission. 

Staff can access the software using a secure login from any computer. An intuitive interface makes it easy to onboard staff quickly, and begin collaborating using new digital processes.


Read more: How Indianapolis and Marion County turned their website into a Digital City Hall 

 


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