« iLegislate Connects Government Agendas to the iPad to Cut Paper Costs and Boost Meeting Efficiency »

Granicus has expanded its government agenda functionality to the iPad with today’s release of iLegislate, a free application now available to Granicus customers on iTunes.

There has been a lot of speculation about the release of this product. Several months ago, we recognized a tremendous opportunity to use tablets as an efficiency and cost saving tool in government—particularly to reduce the dependency on paper in the legislative process. In our research, we found that there was a significant cost associated with printing and managing the delivery of agendas. We also found that while tools existed to make the process paperless for staff members and citizens, the tools for lawmakers required significant staff time to be truly effective. Our new iLegislate app gives lawmakers a productive, streamlined way to review meeting agendas, capture notes, and view supporting materials. It also gives agencies the tools they need to save on costly agenda printing, without spending valuable time wrestling with clumsy, poorly integrated apps.

iLegislate is the newest feature of Granicus’ Government Transparency Suite. This suite is designed to give agencies rich tools to maximize openness and accessibility of government meetings and records—it currently combines meeting video, agendas, and minutes. It is our hope that adding iLegislate as a free upgrade to this suite will enable government officials to make bottom-line efficiency and cost-saving improvements to their agenda process while reducing its environmental impact.

Key iLegislate Features:

• Simple, Easy UI

  Leverage a simple and focused interface with no unnecessary features. Anyone can use it with little or no training.

• Integrated, Seamless Synchronization
  

  Automatically sync agenda data from Granicus into the iPad app for quick and convenient access anytime, from anywhere, even when offline.

• Rapid Agenda Review
  

  Get a snapshot of each agenda item and suggested actions from a single interface.

• Note-Taking
  

  Record notes pertaining to a particular agenda item and find them quickly later for reference.

• Supporting Material Review
  

  View supporting materials, such as staff reports, quickly and easily.

• Bookmarks
  

  Mark agenda items that require special attention—for instance, if they require immediate follow-up, more research, or a decision.

• Automated Backups
  

  All notes and other data is automatically backed up.  If you lose your iPad, you do not lose your data.

Granicus Customers Leverage iLegislate

Among the several clients piloting this app for Granicus is the City of Williamsburg, VA. They have a successful track-record with using iPads as a cost-saving measure. Now, they are looking to extend functionality beyond just reading agendas on the iPad. Mark Barham, Director of Information Technology for the City of Williamsburg noted that iLegislate was “extremely simple to use and offers the ability to get a quick snapshot of each agenda item and mark relevant follow-up tasks.” Mark will be giving us feedback on what other features they want to see in iLegislate. (Thanks Mark!)  Williamsburg also just announced their launch with Granicus’ streaming solution, check-out Williamsburg’s press release here.

Also, last week Dekalb County, GA starting testing iLegislate live during their meeting and received overwhelmingly positive responses from elected officials noted Natasha Kennedy, Senior Deputy Clerk. She said compared to the thick, 300-400 page agenda packets they were printing out, the iPad functionality offered them “a simple way to keep track of notes and action items.” Natasha is also part of our pilot group and will be submitting feedback to us along the way. (Thanks Natasha!)

Comments

[Timesheet]

It’s really the digital media or digital data always help improving the process, its really efficiency and cost-saving while reducing the environmental impact as well. Now days some of the SAAS system made it simpler and risk free to manage your daily work. Lets take 2 minutes extra to think about environment before taking such kind of steps.

[Rhett]

i have the Government Transparency Suite and an iPad. Is there documentation on setting up iLegislate. Thanks.

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