BasicGov / BLOG

As of last week, the new BasicGov Citizen Portal is now available.  The Product Development team at BasicGov been hard at work on the portal over the summer, and we are looking forward to implementing it, and seeing how it is used in action.  Our Implementation team is hard at work preparing for upcoming implementation as well, to make sure that this transition is as fast and easy as possible for our customers.

The Portal allows citizens to apply for permits, register complaints, submit planning applications, apply for licenses, request inspections, and download documents, online over the web.  The Portal directly interacts with the BasicGov system, so that as soon as citizens or developers apply for permits (or complaints, planning applications, or licenses) on the Portal, this information is immediately reflected in BasicGov, so that the city users can immediately see the permit, schedule inspections, and update the citizen on the status of the permit.  The Portal is a fast and easy way for citizens to get information to the city, and it is a great way for the city to immediately let citizens and developers know when the permit information has been updated.

The Portal is configurable for each city as well.  Each city can work with BasicGov to configure the information that is displayed for permits, complaints, licenses, and planning applications.  This means that the fields on each screen are configurable, as are the header information, and the messages that appear on each screen.  The technical architecture for the Portal enables BasicGov to configure this information quickly and easily for each city.

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SaaS and Privacy Policy

What’s the difference between privacy and security?  Security is all about who can access your data.  Privacy is about what people can do with the data they do have access to.   How do SaaS providers ensure privacy?

Because personal data is handled and stored by your SaaS application provider, you would want to know that they hold your data in as high or higher regard than you do. What governs and restricts how, when, what can be done with your own contact data and your municipalities’ constituent data (it is your data) is referred to as the privacy policy.

As a SaaS provider with a Salesforce.com partnership, local government software subscribers, not only have their privacy policy aligned with those of TRUSTe, the internet privacy giant boasting the strongest and most trusted privacy policy model in the business, but with Salesforce.com it is actually certified by TRUSTe.  This ensures that subscribers enjoy privacy protections in accordance with TRUSTe’s strict privacy principles, and that all customer information is respectively treated as though it were sensitive and not made available to 3rd parties for their own use.  Data is managed responsibly, while ownership of the  data remains firmly assigned to the municipality.

Click here to read last week’s post about SaaS and security.