Enhanced Data Transparency in Bloomington, Indiana
- Industry: Municipal
- Location: Bloomington, Indiana
- Number of Employees: 1,100
- Population: 79,107
- Tyler Client Since: 2015
- Tyler products/solution used: New World ERP, Enterprise Permitting & Licensing, Tyler Payments, Data & Insights
The City of Bloomington, Indiana, is a thriving community with a strong commitment to transparency and data-driven decision-making. Their goal is to improve the city’s efficiency, engage the public, and provide valuable information to stakeholders. Before implementing Tyler Technologies’ Data & Insights solution, the city faced challenges in publishing its data, which was spread across spreadsheets, non-integrated sources, and a change in communication methodology that was not possible with the existing data portal software.
Challenge:
As the pandemic unfolded, Bloomington determined that the existing data portal, built on CKAN open-source software, did not have the visualization, public communication, and automation capabilities the city wanted to present data as data narratives and dashboards or to enable non-city staff to create their own visualizations using the city’s data. Additionally, the city wanted to implement automation to reduce time-consuming manual data entry and management processes. The outbreak of COVID-19 served as a catalyst for the city, elevating the publishing of public data from an “as time allows” priority to a critical need for an integrated, datadriven approach to publishing and communicating citywide information. The city needed a better platform for visualizing and communicating vital information related to the public health crisis, and this need aligned perfectly with Mayor John Hamilton’s initiative to prioritize data and transparency.
It no longer makes data a burden to staff and that’s big because ... we’re getting more data, better data out there with less effort and less worry
Greg Overtoom
Assistant Director for Enterprise Applications, City of Bloomington
Solution
To improve data publishing and accessibility, and in line with the mayor’s initiative, the city chose Tyler Technologies’ Data & Insights solution, leveraging their experience with Tyler’s Open Finance application which was already used to publish data from the city’s New World ERP system. The implementation process took approximately six months, during which city Information & Technology Services staff worked closely with stakeholders across all departments to determine the most relevant data to migrate to the new system. As part of the process, city Information & Technology Services staff identified and implemented changes to improve data publishing including automating datasets, simplifying processes, and integrating data sources. The city’s new Open Data Portal is now integrated with Tyler’s Open Finance, New World ERP, Enterprise Permitting & Licensing, Identity, and Payments. The platform also has seamless integration with city ArcGIS datasets, providing dynamic mapping capabilities and a dedicated GIS portal. “We’ve completely taken down most of the static maps that we maintained,” said Greg Overtoom, Bloomington’s assistant director for enterprise applications. “Instead, we created a GIS data portal with live connectors to our GIS. That’s been huge for our GIS team.”
Tyler’s Data & Insights platform helps us engage the public and City of Bloomington staff with our data, increasing public transparency.
Rick Dietz
Director of IT, City of Bloomington
Results
The implementation of the Data & Insights platform has significantly improved the City of Bloomington’s ability to share information with the public, automate data extraction and publishing, and increase overall efficiency, fulfilling the mayor’s vision of data transparency. A prime example of this is the city’s COVID dashboard. Staff members are now able to focus on more value-added tasks, and the city has seen a reduction in manual data entry workload. The open data portal has fostered greater engagement with stakeholders, including Indiana University faculty and students, community members, and the press. Beyond the COVID dashboard, the city has launched several initiatives, such as a Climate Action dashboard, to provide accessible and valuable information to the public. The city has received positive feedback from staff and the public, citing the availability of data and increased trust in the city’s transparency efforts. Additionally, the user-friendly platform has allowed non-city staff to create visualizations, leading to more eyes on the data and a better understanding of its clarity and usefulness.