Mount Prospect, Illinois, makes cash and recurring payments easier for everyone
CityBase technology will streamline the online bill-payment experience and introduce self-service payment kiosks in Illinois Village
October 21, 2020 (Chicago, IL) — CityBase, a leading provider of government and utility payment technology, today announced a partnership with the Village of Mount Prospect, IL, to introduce no-contact payment kiosks and simplified online payments for their residents. CityBase is a business unit of GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GTYH) (“GTY”), a leading provider of SaaS/Cloud solutions for the public sector.
The Mount Prospect Village Board approved the partnership with CityBase in a unanimous 6-0 vote. The new payment technology, powered by the integrated CityBase payment platform, will unify online and in-person payment channels across departments. This will create a consistent user experience for residents no matter their payment method, and provide centralized, automated reporting and reconciliation across the Village and its departments.
Mount Prospect will bring water, sewer, and refuse utility payments live online and via an outdoor self-service kiosk which will be installed at Village Hall, 50 S. Emerson Street. The kiosk will extend in-person service hours to 24/7 for customers, providing a safe and secure option to pay bills while eliminating person-to-person contact. The Village plans to expand services in the future to support additional payments such as parking tickets and food and beverage, hotel/motel, amusement, and municipal motor fuel taxes.
“We do not have any platform today where we can allow people to file and pay their taxes online. We also do not have recurring payments that people can sign up for. And we do not have any 24/7 cash payment service today. We were looking at different options. Today we are recommending CityBase with their kiosks and online payment services,” said Amit Thakkar, Director of Finance for Mount Prospect, in an October 6 presentation to the Mount Prospect Village Board. “This will be much more user friendly, and we won’t have to be responsible for PCI compliance. We are hoping to capture savings of $50,000 or more annually.”
CityBase technology creates a streamlined and user-friendly experience for making payments via credit or debit card, by bank account, or via cash. Customers paying online will be able to securely store a preferred payment method and schedule future and recurring payments for utility bills. The CityBase platform will shoulder the responsibility of PCI security compliance, removing the Village from PCI scope. The technology will integrate with the Village’s existing financial system and will provide automated research, reporting, and reconciliation through a cloud-based revenue management solution.
“You can think of both of these channels as windows into the same system, which are designed appropriately for whatever you’re using them on. In the back office, it’s creating simplicity since it’s only one system,” said Mike Duffy, CEO and Founder of CityBase, in the October 6 presentation to the Village Board. “We’re a firm that’s dedicated to partnering with cities to make government more personal and responsive. Every facet of this is designed with the thought of getting someone to the information they need, to successfully complete a transaction, and giving them the confidence that they did the right thing to solve whatever challenge they had. The plight of the cash customer is very arduous, particularly this year. I can assure you that this investment for those people will be tremendously valuable, to allow them to pay when it’s most convenient for them.”
CityBase has worked with the neighboring City of Chicago since 2017, enabling the processing of payments online and via payment kiosk, and with Indianapolis and Marion County since 2017, helping the city-county transform their website indy.gov into a digital city hall. They recently partnered with Lawrence, IN, to introduce contactless kiosk payments there.
