Integrative software programs stitch together plethora of government service applications

From paying parking tickets to pulling up property cards, there’s an app for just about every digital service these days. That’s convenient for constituents, but perhaps annoying for the administrators who must keep track of all the different passwords—especially if they’re trying to manage municipal business across a plethora of platforms via a legacy framework. 

“All these applications need to connect to other systems of record where the transactions actually occur. If you’re doing a payment, it needs to go into a third-party credit card company,” said Joe Flynn, of Boomi, a Pennsylvania-based software company that manages a bi-directional cloud-based program for government organizations that can integrate various digital services onto a single platform. 

Integrative platforms “exist to help organizations connect everything,” Flynn said. Similar to the way there are many different video streaming services offered to consumers—“Netflix, Amazon Prime, Roku TV, NFL Sunday ticket—these are all stand-alone systems”—these software programs that are designed for municipalities act like “your Xfinity Flex experience” for apps that allow constituents to renew their hunting and fishing licenses. 

In talking with administrators across the United States, Flynn said he’s heard firsthand the challenges local governments encounter. Unlike private businesses, government entities can’t close their doors when the going gets tough (as the pandemic revealed). Instead, when posed with the impossible, they must find another way to continue providing services. 

In this endeavor, the digital era has opened unprecedented opportunities for communities of all sizes: “There’s been this unprecedented growth of distributed applications” designed for local governments, Flynn said.  

These days, permits and tax bills are a click away. But this move toward digitization comes with its own set of problems, especially for regions outside metropolitan zones. With staffing stretched thin, connectivity spotty at best and county lines covering wide swaths of open land, rural regions face a particularly difficult challenge in overcoming the digital divide. 

Sometimes, the only reliable internet connection in town is at the local library. 

Integrative interface programs like Boomi, Apigee, which is part of the Google Cloud; MuleSoft Anypoint Platform; Jitterbit; Cleo Integration Cloud; and SnapLogic allow administrators the ability to manage multiple internet-based applications on the same screen, without having to be connected all the time. According to Flynn, Boomi exists in the cloud but can be managed from a Java-based application “that can sit anywhere. It could sit on a PC, it could sit on a small hard drive, it could sit on a mainframe.” Business can be conducted periodically through batch jobs. 

As an example, Flynn pointed to a project in Cary, N.C., that’s currently experiencing “a fast population growth.” Meeting these challenges, city administrators created a robust smart-city strategy that’s focused around enhancing traffic flow and parking, among other things. To that end, the city installed sensors and cameras to better understand and react to changing traffic patterns, with Boomi installed to stitch everything together and manage it all. From there, the integrative software program was leveraged to monitor the city’s water system, giving department of public works administrators the ability to shut down water mains remotely and alert customers via text message.

As cities and counties increasingly evolve into the digital realm, integrative platforms that can bring everything together into one place are changing the way constituents interact with government.