Last week, the SimplyAsk team exhibited at the Municipal Information Systems Association (MISA) BC Conference in Whistler from September 9 to September 12, 2024.Â
For those who are unaware, MISA BC is the premier conference to attend to speak with municipal IT leaders of all levels in British Columbia and beyond. It is a fantastic place to learn about their business needs, pain points, and to discuss potential solutions and collaborations.Â
This was our second consecutive year at this event. After attending MISA ON back in June 2024, we were excited to once again connect with government decision-makers, listen to their problems, and explore how our AI-based smart automation solutions could help them.Â
Here were some of our learnings and outcomes from attending MISA BC 2024.Â
Making valuable connections MISA conferences are the best place to connect with Canadian municipal directors and leaders looking to drive real change in their communities – and this year was no different.Â
Our team had the great opportunity to speak with municipal staff from many municipalities across Canada. We deepened our conversations and had in-depth discussions about how to drive positive change, growth, and quality of life for residents across British Columbia and other municipalities – even after-show hours.
The opportunity to network with individuals who are shaping local governance and community development was truly invaluable. We’re looking forward to working with some of these connections to help explore ways to improve the lives of their constituents.Â
Expanding our understanding of municipal problems Talking with municipal officials at MISA validated and expanded many of our assumptions and understanding about what issues municipalities see as critical. Some examples include:Â
Finding practical and smart ways to use AI AI continues to be a big topic for municipalities, and many directors, while interested in the potential of using AI to improve the operations of their municipality, first want to ensure they have a strong strategy regarding where and when to use AI.Â
We’ve spoken before many times about how this is a good way to pursue using AI – and our team provided many examples of where municipalities can use AI to improve constituent satisfaction and expedite operations, among many other things.Â
Reducing usage of Microsoft Power Automate Microsoft Power Automate is a popular tool within Canadian municipalities for automating routine tasks and processes. However, speaking with municipal staff revealed that many people – from directors to clerks – struggle to use Power Automate for their operational needs for the following reasons:
Coding experience is required to use Power Automate to its fullest extent , which acts a barrier for many non-technical staff within municipalities.‍ Power Automate does not easily connect to non-Microsoft apps unless power connectors are used, which again involve coding and the presence of technical staff.Speaking with municipalities about the future of “Citizen Development” (or “Community Development”), where anyone in an organization can implement optimization for their own processes, revealed that many directors are eager to find no-code automation tools that easily integrate with external apps and allow their non-technical staff to play a role in optimizing operations. Having easy ways to get started with using AI is also a bonus.
Outdated legacy systems Municipalities, due to security and budgetary constraints, are often slower to evolve their tech stack compared to other industries. This means they suffer the most from operational inefficiencies as they are forced to work with slow, outdated legacy technology.Â
Many municipal staff have agreed with us that a partial or complete modernization of their tech stack would result in massive operational improvements. However, they worry about factors like cost and whether modernization would disrupt essential municipal operations.Â
Poor constituent communications Municipalities exist to serve their constituents. However, due to their outdated tech stack, many municipalities suffer from poor constituent communications.Â
Constituents seeking to obtain information about specific bylaws may struggle to find it in old websites. Those trying to communicate with municipal staff may find they have to use “Contact Us” forms or emails, many of which have long response times, resulting in constituent dissatisfaction and some problems never being fully resolved.Â
Speaking with municipal staff revealed that outdated technology and lack of internal team capacity are the two main reasons behind this. Many municipal staff want to improve these processes but are bogged down by other tasks and priorities.
Inefficient permit / development approval processes Many approval processes are critical to shaping municipal infrastructure and systems, such as permitting processes. However, much of the time and resources that go these processes are wasted due to inefficient business processes that fail to:
Connect constituents and their proposals to decision-makers in a timely manner Make proper use of municipal staff once a development is qualified Receive feedback and concerns/objections from the public Our team has discussed permitting with municipal staff numerous times across municipal conferences like MISA and found that in each stage of permitting, there are processes done manually that can be expedited through automation and AI technology to improve constituent-staff interaction and speed up each stage of this process.Â
Guaranteeing security and governance Many municipal staff are forward-looking and want to optimize their operations to better serve their constituents. However, given the nature of their work, no optimization can be done without a guarantee of its security and how its governance will be structured.
This was a point that we heard loud and clear at multiple points during MISA BC – and it is something we will continue to prioritize in our municipal solutions at SimplyAsk.Â
Improving and tailoring our solutions Attending MISA BC and speaking with municipal decision-makers confirmed to us that there is growing interest in our comprehensive AI solutions and services tailored for municipalities. Our solutions are uniquely positioned to address each of the problems brought up by municipal staff (and more!):
Symphona vs Power Automate: Unlike Power Automate, Symphona is no-code, with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor so people of all technical backgrounds can easily create automated workflows. Furthermore, Symphona can easily integrate with any external software tool with a third-party API. Modernizing Legacy Systems: Our consulting services leverage AI to help municipalities partially or completely upgrade and integrate their systems to improve performance.Enhancing Constituent Communications: Municipalities can implement our Symphona Converse generative AI agents across all their communication channels (chat and voice) to provide better, faster, and more intelligent service.Streamlining Permitting: Municipalities can use Symphona Flow’s no-code workflow automation editor and Symphona Serve’s task management to automate and optimize processes like development approval by reducing manual tasks and speeding up decisions.Comprehensive QA Services: Our consulting services can ensure high-quality service delivery with our E2E Quality Assurance services, combining expert QA Engineering with AI-assisted test automation.Overall, attending MISA BC 2024 was an incredible and valuable experience for the SimplyAsk team. We’re once again grateful to MISA BC for giving us the opportunity to exhibit at the conference another time. Attending conferences like these allow us to continue improving our offerings for municipalities so staff can spend less time on routine tasks and more time on work that directly improves the experience of their constituents.
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