Objectives

The town of Algonquin Highlands was working with an eight-year-old website  inadequate to the current needs of its residents. The community was dissatisfied with the lack of ecommerce functionality, and a complicated and multi-layered navigational menu structure that made it difficult for residents to easily find what they needed. The township was also looking to expand its digital service offering to provide residents with more convenience. In addition, they wanted to match the general look and feel of the websites of the amalgamated township to which they belong.

Overview

Leveraging more than 20 years of experience, GHD Digital built the Govstack ecosystem to make it easier for governments to better inform, serve and connect with their residents. With its CMS/website builder, Forms, Events and Citizen Portal solutions all centralized in a single, scalable platform, Govstack empowers governments to better control their on-line presence and provide a highly satisfying resident experience.

Challenges

• Lack of ecommerce capability
• Difficult navigation system
• Older website in need of a refresh
• Desire to make the site similar to others in the tri-area

Benefits

• Ecommerce capability for the convenience of residents
• More intuitive navigation system for residents to easily find what they need
• Expanded digital service offerings through a more widespread use of electronic forms

Solution

By using the Govstack platform, Algonquin Highlands is now able to offer their residents a modern, dynamic website that is consistent to the look and feel of its neighbours and simplifies navigation. The new site provides an expanded digital service offering and supports ecommerce with Govstack Forms. This makes it easy for administrators to create forms and provides convenience for residents to apply and pay for services online.

The implementation process

The Township of Algonquin Highlands personnel were very hands-on throughout the implementation process. In particular, Chad Ingram, their Communications Coordinator, was instrumental in the integration of Govstack Forms to expand their service offering and in the improved layout of their website.

Chad appreciated the responsiveness of the project manager, the knowledge of the trainers, and their willingness to provide information and guidance throughout the implementation process.

The Govstack platform is built on over twenty years of experience working with governments to understand and address their pain points. The long-term goal of Govstack is to provide public sector organizations with a platform and digital ecosystem that enables limitless possibilities in effectively informing, engaging and serving their communities online.

Ali Carden,

Global Practice Director, GHD Digital

The Result

1. Improved resident engagement with a significant increase in the use of electronic forms especially in the Treasury Department.
2. With no coding required, administrators can add and change content on the web page and navigation menu. This helps keep the website current and makes it easy for residents to find what they need.
3. A more robust built-in notification system has made it easier for the tax administrator of the township to get information in a timely and concise fashion. It is cutting down on the use of paper.

We wanted a company with expertise in the area of municipal website creation and we were impressed with what GHD Digital did for other websites in our county.

Chad Ingram,

Communications Coordinator,

Algonquin Highlands