CivicCentric(TM) Features

CivicCentric™ works to design, develop, and launch Internet-based services. We are the best local government web site designer. We work with our clients to make sure we know what their goals are, and then we achieve them. We love what we do, and we work hard to help our clients enjoy the process, too. Almost all of our projects are intended to enhance our clients’ ability to make or save money. Where possible, we track this so we can measure success.

Our goal is to help your city grow using Internet and Web technology.  Here are the following services we offer, which will integrate technology to your city website:

We are introducing our New Product, which is CivicCentric™ 2.0. Built on the .Net Framework.  CivicCentric™ 2.0 was built to deliver more control, performance, and powerful features to customize the development of your city website. With support for enterprise features like Single-Sign on, Content Management, E-mail, Business Process Management, CivicCentric™ 2.0 puts even more features at your fingertips.

News & Events: The News & Events feature is where the city website can post important information. This is for public viewing and has a very easy to use interface. Our RSS feed will allow you to post news articles and events and publish it to your City’s Facebook site. This will help the community cover major media and communication strategies, such as advertising, public relations, and news review. Our goal is to provide real-life experience to people in your city. With its easy to use interface, posting of news articles and events (as well as publishing them to your website) is as easy as ABC. The content preview feature allows you to see what your article will look like before you post it. Staff have the option to reject content that are inappropriate for your site. You will also have the power to schedule email reminders, especially for those special events.

Content Management: Our Content Management System provides social networking software that encourages visitors or the community to register on your city website so that they can submit content and connect with other users.  With this system we will provide you the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users.

Requests: This feature is very useful for the community where citizens can actually submit request for permits that can be processed online or other requirements that folks need. This is developed from ongoing input for local government. This software will speed up the requests and will make the citizens lives easier. This will also help the community to stay connected with the constituents. Also, you can submit complaints, concerns, suggestions and requests. A comprehensive report will be created that includes:

• Status of request after being given an issue number.

• Initial contact and request.

This is created to maintain the relationship with the people and improve the service. And if there are concerns regarding the site, it is automatically transferred to the websites’ moderator or help desk.

Documents: One of the neat features we offer on developing your city website is the documents where you will have a list of files for download by users. These documents are very important; we put a high security on this because it plays a key role in the construction of social reality and social community improvement. The documents will be accessed and are shared online from external website or portal and it can be secured using the core role-based security. It will archive and publish council agendas and minutes with ease.

Administration: This feature allows you to access your administrator page. You can choose or create a username by filling the necessary data such as basic information like your First Name, Last Name, E-mail Address and your chosen username. You can alter access rights in this feature anytime. If by any possibility you forgot your password, you can also use the Forgotten Password Services to retrieve your access code. This will allow you to manage and maintain your city website.

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As quoted on our blog, https://civiccentric.wordpress.com/. “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that really matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.”

There are big city web developers out there, but in a big company it’s often hard to figure out who knows the answers to the questions you have. In us, you have the assurance that we can definitely give you better quality, and spend less. We have a lot to offer, like friendly staff that is very approachable and willing to help you with all of your needs. We always make sure customers are satisfied. Now you’re ready to decide. Why settle for less, when you have the best? The answer is now up to you.

Small vs Big

It was once said, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight that really matters, but the size of the fight in the dog.”

Similarly, when choosing a company that will design your city’s website, should you judge the organization based solely on its well-known name or huge manpower? Or will you go for a less popular and smaller organization to do the work for you? There are 2 factors one should consider first before making a decision: Quality and Budget.  Let’s make a quick comparison between the two. For large companies:

• Can provide quality (not everyone, though)
• Since they already made a name for themselves, payment is mostly HUGE.

For small companies:

• Can also provide quality
• Smaller company means smaller budget

During this time where our economy is at an all time low, definitely budget is a factor. We can’t just ask those trendy companies to work a design cheaper. A smaller company can provide you work for a lesser quantity and can also give your project more focus mainly because their clients are not that many.  So you’ll have a website that can really show what you want. By choosing a smaller company for your web design and development needs, you will have a website that can really show what you’re all about.

You want to capture the unique personality of the city and show everyone what your city has to offer. Since your city has many things to offer, a smaller company will research the best ways to capture the information about your city and then project that information onto a custom designed website in a positive image that is most easily marketed to website visitors.

In larger companies, you have more bureaucracy and it will take a lot to get them to change the website and give it a small home town feel.  With a smaller company, you will have an easier time, less hassle and fewer things to deal with.

A smaller company will be able to research more in depth to prepare for your website. By researching to gather all available information, a smaller company will promote your entity better. Getting a large company, with a huge set of accounts and customers, they are less likely to promise proper research and design as they have a lot of work. Surely you don’t want that.

One example about how much a smaller company cares is CivicCentric™. We offer friendly staff that is approachable and willing to help you with your needs. City webpage design is one of our expertise and our planning and execution is at par with the well-known web design companies. We always make sure customers are satisfied.

So you are now ready to decide. Do you want quality services with a high price tag or a company that gives quality services with at a fair price? The answer is now up to you.

The Government Starts using Social Media

As social media is gaining popularity and proving to be the best way to advertise, many companies are still resistant to start looking into making the switch to social media or at least checking out the benefits of using social media to sell your product and get your point across. The Government started to publicly acknowledge its participation in social media in 2007 and 2008. Today, social networks are growing in popularity with the common known social sites such as Facebook (www.facebook.com) , Myspace (www.myspace.com), and Twitter (www.twitter.com) but  some not so common sites are starting to appear such as Friendster (www.friendster.com) , Orkut (www.orkut.com), and Plurk (www.plurk.com) .

The US Government is even educating the general public on social media through their sites www.usa.gov and http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/technology/other_tech.shtml. Since the US Government started creating blogs and other forms of social media, the voice of the Government has been heard around the world and most importantly is the fact that the Government is keeping up with the times. Since many pop culture things such as twitter (www.twitter.com) occur in our lives, it’s not often that the government would involve themselves but this time, the US government is jumping in head first and even supplying people with a list of websites (http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Reference_Shelf/News/blog.shtml) they are using for social media.

The questions the US Government may have about social media can easily be answered when you look at the results of targeting certain groups of people and then analyzing the results. Clearly, social media marketing has benefits that surpass the profits of traditional marketing. If you are an individual or a company and you want to get your product or points sent out to a mass group of people, then usually you will think about how you can effectively distribute information. The US Government has done just this by creating a series of blogs and that allows you have an open forum where you can comment and make suggestions such as http://blog.usa.gov/roller/. I tend to think of Social media as the modern way of handing out fliers on the street.

Social Media is the way of the future and you look at the results of what the amount of income is produced by a company or government agency that engages in social media and compare it to a company or government agency that does not take on the same method and you will find that generally, the ones advertising using social media is well known and trusted by more people.

By adding social media marketing to the Government’s current marketing campaign, they will surely gain a more reputable stance in the community and gain viewers. If you’re looking to reach out to more people, take a look at how Smarter Social Media (www.smartersocialmedia.com) and other sites help the government and other companies or organizations get their name out and be known to the people. The Library of Congress has (http://www.loc.gov/blog/) and when you start to look around you will find that the Government has enabled many channels of communication and attempting to mesh more with the community.

The US Government has proudly started engaging in social media as a way to release thoughts and topics into the community in more of a social way and by using tools such as twitter, Facebook and even their own blog (http://blog.usa.gov/roller/), the government is gaining more and more support on a variety of subjects.

Convenient Information

People like to have information delivered to them in a convenient fashion.  CivicCentric is developing a feature that will allow users to author, approve, and publish content for the city website from their cell phone.  This allows staff and constituents to make good use of technology to connect and represent their community.  Additionally, we are working on a strategy to offer local governments a safe and convenient way to integrate social networking tools offering civic leaders an informal casual conversation from one to many.

Service Provider or Innovator

Technology provides many services but the competitive advantage is innovation.  A goal of local government is to get more for less while providing citizens, constituents and businesses with the best possible services.  CivicCentric(TM) can provide the additional resources to help achieve these high expectations.  Look at how today’s business model will change tomorrow.  Learn the the business priorities.  Find the right people.

Engage your City

You no longer need to leave the comforts of your home to be engaged in your community.  You can engage local government on the Internet and contribute in how it is shaped.  By using surveys, wikis and blogs folks can engage government and those that serve.