Municipal permitting offices are always busy processing requests from Canadians who are tackling projects around their homes, from building that garage to repairing their fence to taking down the old tree in the front yard. As a result, many cities deal with a high volume of permit applications from both contractors and residents, especially during the warmer months.
There has never been a better time for city governments across Canada to think about how to improve their processes. Public servants have to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, and one way to do that is to spend city budgets more wisely.
Given the latest advancements in technology and security, one of the easiest ways for cities to save money is to convert old, outdated, time-consuming, and needlessly expensive workflows into new, fast, streamlined, and cost-effective ones. How? By going paperless! Read on to learn just 3 of the ways going paperless is helping cities save precious dollars and work better.
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eZsign was recently invited to speak at a public sector networking event about why it’s the perfect time to become a paperless city.
When thinking about how much cities spend to provide public services, there are two very different but equally important types of costs: hard costs (dollars and cents that come out of the city’s coffers) and soft costs (intangible, indirect costs). The actual cost of keeping a municipal permit office supplied and staffed (from personnel to paperclips) is a hard cost, but the cost of waiting, repeat trips to file permits, improperly filled or filed forms, and administrative inefficiency are soft costs. As any city employee can tell you, their work involves a lot of needless soft costs.
Paperless processes help slash soft costs by boosting efficiency. One municipal eZsign customer reported they can complete many of their previous processes up to 10 times faster. Imagine how much wasted time your city could save if it could approve contracts or issue permits in one-tenth of the time.
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our customer improved its processes and reduced costs!
Today, consumers expect easy, remote access to services, instant replies, and information on demand. For cities, residents are the consumers of municipal government products and services, and they expect to be able to access services quickly. Digital, paperless processes not only allow governments to meet and exceed residents’ shifting needs and expectations, they also help them serve residents better.
Recruiting and retaining top talent is a priority for all employers, including city governments. All levels of government today need to find ways to improve employee wellbeing, and one easy way to do that is to leverage technology to help streamline their work. Paperless processes are shown to be smoother, less complicated, and easier to automate, and the addition of an e-signature solution like eZsign can further improve how teams work, boosting job satisfaction.
The cities we’ve helped go paperless report a significant increase in employee satisfaction after the switch. Employees say they are tied up with fewer menial tasks and can focus on more meaningful, value-added work. Happier employees mean lower turnover, and lower recruitment costs, all benefits that help keep expenses down.
Now’s the time to be a paperless city! We know that change can be challenging, which is why we’ve leveraged our experience helping cities just like yours go paperless and developed a proven change management plan to help make the transition as seamless as possible. Download The Paperless City, our free guide for cities, to learn more!
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