City Explains Reasons for Website Redesign

By Gordon HopkinsThe Fairbury City Council has voted to redesign and upgrade the city's website to add additional features. While some city council members expressed concern about the cost, it was decided the additional features were worth the extra expense and would likely save the city money in the long run.The company that currently provides the website is CivicPlus, with headquarters in Manhattan, Kansas, and specializes in local government digital systems.At a meeting of the city council on Tuesday, March 1, project manager Mary Renn said, “The City of Fairbury is eligible for a redesign every four years at no cost and the benefit of that is to give the website a fresh look. There are upgraded features that we can take advantage of.”The additional costs for the upgrades are expected to be $11,500 for the first year and $5,200 for each year after that.Renn explained, “So it might seem a little pricey, it's $11,500 for the first year. That's because the product has to be developed and customized. And then there's an annual user subscription, so to speak, every year thereafter. We do currently pay a subscription every year.”The current module used by the city is called CivicEngage. The new module is called CivicRec. The city pays approximately $4,000 a year for the current subscription. The $5,200 annual cost for the upgrade would be on top of that.Renn talked about some of the additional features that the upgrades would offer.“There's a request tracker feature,” said Renn. “And that is a feature that allows any forms that are submitted online by the citizens to be tracked. There are automated responses that would be provided to the citizen who submits the request, for example, your request has been received, your request has been reviewed and it has been resolved and closed. And in addition to that, on the city side, the city administrator (Robert Messbarger) has the ability to manage those and see which ones are open, which ones are being addressed and whether or not they're being addressed timely.”Another benefit is the ability for users to make reservations online. Renn said, “The CivicRec module can be used for reservations. It can be used for services. And those could be cost associated or non-cost associated. The cost associated reservations would be camping, Girl Scout cabin, Boy Scout cabin or the community building. And non-cost associated reservations could be something like a reservation of a baseball field, softball field or even a pavilion.”Regarding how much the city's website is used, Renn noted, “Over the last year calendar year, there were 32,000 visits with 64,000 page views. And that was a 57 percent increase over the previous year. The average visit was just under two minutes and you'll notice that most of the visits were on the agenda. And second place was online pay. So, it looks like, you know, an online reservation system would probably be attractive to our citizens.”Renn said, “You can use it for services. Could be dog licensing, permits and water park passes. It could also be gift cards. There are several municipalities that do use gift cards. And they can be used for any of the city services.”“One of the benefits of having a service online like that is to allow the citizens of course to reserve things ahead of time,” Renn continued. “They can access that information immediately, see if it's available or not and lock in that date. So, it may be an opportunity to increase revenue as well.”Renn pointed out another benefit, “It's available 24/7. It's not restricted to office hours, and it streamlines and reduces operating costs.”Renn indicated it was difficult to quantify the financial benefits of the upgrades, “There's no return on your investment, so to speak. Again, it's not tangible, but you do have soft dollar savings, where you can redirect your staff to work on different projects. They stay more focused, and you can increase efficiencies. So, there was a soft dollar measurement.”Despite this, some members of the council balked at the price tag.“To me it's a lot of money,” said councilperson Phil Rogge. “Is it something that's a must have?”“I think there are definitely benefits. You know we get interrupted throughout our day constantly with things such as dog license permits,” said Messbarger. “We're always getting interrupted, so it would definitely increase our productivity. To what extent, that's up for you guys to decide if it's worth it or not.”Rogge said, “I need to think some more.”Councilperson Brian Schmidt concurred and made a motion to table the item until the next meeting.The city council met again on Tuesday, March 15.“I like what the package brings to the table as far as efficiency,” said Fairbury Mayor Spencer Brown. “And it's a lot easier for people to handle things online.”The city council then voted unanimously to go forward with the purchase of the new module.

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