BasicGov / BLOG

Mobile computing is changing how IT services are provided in government.

Paul Strobeck, IT Manager for a local government in the San Francisco Bay Area and a contributor writer for TechRepublic, recently wrote an article about tablets in local government and highlighted many interesting and relevant factors in this transition.

• Increased Productivity – local governments that support tablets recognize that it adds to productivity by allowing staff access to access to their work systems in the office or remotely in the  field, at remote sites, or at home.
• Bring Your own Device (BYOD) movement – the iPad has put pressure on organizations, both private and government sector, to allow staff to BYOD for increased work efficiency but this also adds new IT challenges.
• Mobile IT strategy needed – “For tablets to be successful in our enterprise environment, we need to grow our skill sets and discover solutions to new issues” such as policies, security standards, enterprise mobility strategy, and application roadmaps.

Mobile computing is also fueling cloud computing

Mobile apps are also driving demand for cloud services on the back end, such as app stores, databases, and storage (source).

Organizations that have security figured out for cloud computing have the advantage for adding in more mobile computing.

It is encouraging to see local government IT professionals like Paul Strobeck with their embrace change attitude “In the local government, we try to follow what others are doing in the private sector with the mounting issues that tablets have introduced. We do our best to attend conferences and trainings to seek out the evolving policies and advice to support and manage tablets. We’ve discovered that many enterprises are going through the same wave of transition.”

Be on the lookout for news form BasicGov in the coming months for how we are responding to the needs for a mobile workforce in government.

Recently, we have been getting a number of inquires asking whether our web-based land management software can handle the ongoing registration and compliance of foreclosed properties and abandoned buildings that are now managed by banks.

The common functionality of the request involves the registration of the property by the bank with the city, with re-registration occurring every six months or a year.  During the period, the bank managed property must keep the building or home up to code.  If there are violations against the property the bank must bring the property into compliance or face additional fees, and or/higher re-registration fees.

The common challenge for these cities is the need for a higher-level view of all the properties to determine which banks are good and/or bad at keeping abandoned buildings in compliance upon registration so the city can be proactive in dealing with them at registration.

The additional challenge is doing is quickly, and at a low-cost.

The solution is straight forward, even if we are expected to import your parcel data.  Setup can be as quick as three weeks if this is all that is needed to start with, and the ongoing cost is a low monthly fee per user.

The end solution can be called any number of things:

• Foreclosure Management Software
• Abandoned Buildings Tracking Software
• Foreclosure Compliance and Registration Tracking

Whatever it is, we can get you up and running quickly so you can start managing the banks and keeping citizens happy that their neighborhood property values don’t go down.