Azure-powered CitySourced delivers government right to your mobile device
As a former City of Philadelphia employee and lifelong resident, I have downloaded and used the local 311 app to report problems, such as trash that needs collecting. Yet, like many mobile device users, I’ve experienced “app fatigue” and don’t use half the downloaded apps that I once thought were indispensable.
Microsoft partner CitySourced also recognizes that citizens are looking for more personally impactful interactions with their local government. While CitySourced has one of the most powerful and widely deployed communication apps, serving more than 40 million residents of hundreds of local governments in 11 countries, the Los Angeles-based company is focusing its next wave of innovation on a mobile platform as a service, built on Microsoft Azure Government and Dynamics CRM. The goal is to make the mobile phone an integral part of city living, going beyond service requests. “Mobile can improve countless things, like attending city events, finding city jobs, accessing city assets,” said Paul Malin, VP of CitySourced Business Development. “The mobile phone can be a remote control for a city.”
Microsoft CityNext agrees and we’re excited to see CitySourced help deliver the full power of a digital city. “We remain a best-of-breed service solution but we’ve started to evolve,” Malin said. “We’re creating one platform that cities and their partners can use to build the mobile experiences that are meaningful to them,” such as using a smartphone to pay for parking in a city lot, reserving the neighborhood tennis court or receiving a notification that it’s raining so sprinklers should be turned off.
Established in 2009, CitySourced has found success working with Microsoft, first through BizSpark, which supports more than 100,000 startups with free tools, resources and expertise, and now as a partner. “Addressing graffiti, lights out, potholes—that was revolutionary in 2009,” said Andrew Kirk, VP of CitySourced Sales & Marketing. “Today, there’s a whole host of services that fit nicely on a mobile device to make it a single point of entry for citizens.”
Local governments praise CitySourced for making it possible for citizens to obtain city services anywhere, anytime, as we wrote in this partner story. Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Longview, Texas, Marana, Ariz., and Salt Lake City are just a few examples of U.S. governments that rely on CitySourced for their branded mobile apps. “Choosing CitySourced to provide a mobile app to our citizens was an easy decision to make,” said Brian Stein, Marana’s technology manager – applications. “Their ability to leverage the features of all the latest mobile devices is one of the best in the industry.”
Kirk adds that CitySourced customers are avoiding costs and improving the quality of service to the community. For example, calls to Longview’s 311 call center average $5-$8 per transaction while the self-service CitySourced channel runs under $1 per transaction and includes authoritative geographic information system (GIS) data to ensure accuracy in addressing the issue.
We’re gratified that CitySourced has found the Microsoft stack, including Azure and Dynamics, to be key to its evolution. “With Azure, we can say to our customers ‘here is a world that scales with you, that is safe and secure, that comes with countless services partners,’” said Malin. “CitySourced is connected to systems like Dynamics at the core, and that will make using the next generation of Azure tools, like BI as a service, that much more powerful.”
If it’s time for your city to better connect with citizens by simplifying and expanding their mobile experience, I encourage you to get to know CitySourced by taking advantage of a free, personal demonstration of their platform.
