Portage, IN, Transforms the Municipal Payment Experience for City Residents and Staff with New Cloud Technology
Partnership with government cloud innovator CityBase provides 24/7 self-service kiosks and online technology for safer, easier, and more efficient bill payment
December 8, 2020 (Chicago, IL) — CityBase, a leading provider of government and utility payment technology, today announced an agreement with the City of Portage, Indiana, to adopt improved payment technology that provides residents with safer, easier ways to pay their bills. An initiative of the Office of the Clerk-Treasurer, new self-service kiosks and online payments will allow people to securely pay their bills 24/7 while eliminating person-to-person contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. CityBase is a business unit of GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: GTYH) (“GTY”), which provides SaaS/Cloud solutions for the public sector.
“This is a win-win solution for citizen experience and operational efficiency,” said Nina Rivas, Clerk-Treasurer for the City of Portage. “We’re resolving an immediate need to make payments safer in a pandemic for both residents and City employees. And we’re making long-term improvements to our payment system that will streamline revenue management for the City and promote convenience for our residents. We partnered with CityBase because their technology makes payments easier for everyone.”
The new technology will go live in early 2021 and includes intuitive online payments and two self-service payment kiosks that will be accessible 24/7, located at Portage City Hall at 6070 Central Ave Portage, Ind. The payment technology includes a back-office revenue management system that drastically simplifies the research, reporting and reconciliation process.
City utility bills including trash, sewer and stormwater are the first payments that will be compatible with the new technology. The City is providing a free way for people to pay their utility bills by eliminating service fees for cash, check, and recurring credit card payments.
The City was allocated CARES Act funding for the new payment technology as a COVID-related expense, since it provides a no-contact way for people to make payments. The cloud-based technology enables staff to securely maintain government operations while working remotely.
“We love working with public sector innovators like Clerk-Treasurer Rivas,” said Mike Duffy, CEO and Founder of CityBase. “She is committed to improving the government experience for all residents, including those who must pay their bills in cash due to preference or need. She is helping to usher in a new era for Portage, where both residents and employees will feel the benefits of human-centric technology and streamlined processes right away.”
CityBase has worked with neighboring Indianapolis and Marion County since 2017, where they helped the city-county transform their website indy.gov into a digital city hall. They recently partnered with Lawrence, Ind., to introduce contactless kiosk payments there.
