Transparency, accountability, and effectiveness drive local government operations today. With constant pressure to demonstrate effectiveness to a scrutinizing public, failure to provide results can lead to decreased public trust. Yet demonstrating effectiveness can be a challenge when working within resource limitations common to local government operations.

Performance management is vital for the municipal leader looking to improve service delivery, earn public trust, and meet increased demands with current resources. With an emphasis on data-driven decision making and continual refinement, performance management allows managers and elected officials to identify what’s working, what’s not working, and adjust strategy to meet goals accordingly.

Challenges with Performance Management

In order to drive transformation and provide results, performance management must have clearly outlined goals to measure against. Yet identifying the true target – the core goal behind the actions – can be a challenge for many agencies. Performance management is a means to an end, rather than an end in itself, and agencies that focus on metrics without an understanding of the change they are hoping to effect will struggle to be successful.

In their article Government Performance Measurement Should Focus on What Matters, the National League of Cities advocates for utilizing the five-fold why approach – simply asking “why” over and over until you reach the heart of the issue you are trying to solve. They also advise letting go of the idea of a perfect indicator for measurement and focus instead on a consistent approach to gathering and analyzing data.

Data Constraints

Accessing high-quality, accurate, and timely data for decision making is also a persistent challenge in performance management. For many municipalities, the bulk of information for analysis comes from individual departments that operate in separate systems. Unless these systems are integrated, compiling one unified data set from multiple silos of information can be a painstaking process. Each department may have their own method for collecting and transferring data, and without automations in place, these manual processes can result in data sets that are prone to error and even unintended bias.

For departments that lack modern technology infrastructure, paper-based record keeping systems also leave the door open for additional errors. Something as simple as two pages sticking together in a binder can result in overlooked orders that create an information gap that leads to skewed datasets.

Separate systems may format data differently as well, creating a lack of standardization that throws up one more barrier to compiling a master dataset for comprehensive analysis.

The Effect of a Modern Technology Infrastructure on Performance Management

Centralizing departmental data can simplify data management in order to enhance performance management activities. Comcate’s Citizen Request Management (CRM) software not only serves as a centralized platform to collect data from multiple departments, but can also enhance data visualization to help local leaders better analyze ongoing performance.

CRM software serves an entry point for external stakeholders (residents, businesses and other constituents) looking to get in contact with the government. By integrating with backend systems for asset and work order management, CRM solutions can serve as the “connector” piece that hooks up different silos of information to create a more unified dataset for performance management evaluation.

For example, by integrating CRM with an asset management solution, your agency can create a two-way flow of data that creates a single source of performance history for metrics such as service request response times, labor and costs associated with the requisite asset management, and even customer satisfaction with the service and communication received.

Schedule a Meeting with Comcate Today!

Learn how Comcate can help make government delivery simple, and offer a modern digital experience to help you increase transparency, efficiency, and performance across your departments. If you have any questions about implementing our software, please fill out the form below or call us directly at (415) 632-1248.