Indianapolis Doubles Down on Digital Transformation Plan

Source: GovTech // Published: MARCH 18, 2021

Building on the early successes of moving citizen-facing services online, the city of Indianapolis is broadening digital transformation efforts, adding new facets through new partnerships.

Indianapolis, Ind., has teamed up with CityBase, eCivis and OpenCounter as part of a digital transformation plan that looks to streamline government and residential services.

The city first partnered with CityBase in 2016 after the company won a contract to make municipal services more accessible. The company would create a “digital city hall” at Indy.gov, where residents can locate information and complete tasks such as paying utility bills, filing land use applications and identifying open bid opportunities.

“Indy.gov is the fullest expression of a CityBase platform,” company CEO Mike Duffy said. “We parsed around 3,000 static pages with redundant content into the smallest unit possible in order to make it easier for residents to navigate the website.”

The benefit of this approach, he said, is it helps residents find, apply and pay for services they need and creates an open line of communication between citizens and local government departments and officials.

Indianapolis has also worked with eCivis and OpenCounter to further the city’s digital transformation goals.

Elliot Patrick, CIO of Indianapolis, said eCivis has provided a comprehensive grant management platform and assisted city-county agencies with transitioning to a virtual environment.

“Last year, we were tasked with getting city-county agencies to work remotely and helping our grants management team manage around $168 million in grants, which we were given through the CARES Act,” Patrick said.

At the time, Indianapolis was not fully equipped with the tools to administer and handle those dollars, Patrick said, so the city looked for partners to work with and saw that eCivis was a “top option.”