Technology's Role in Breaking Down Access Barriers

Tyler Tech Podcast Episode 105, Transcript

The Tyler Tech Podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.

Show Notes

In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, we begin a special two-part series on the concept of access, exploring how technology helps organizations break down barriers and provide equitable access to services, resources, and opportunities. We welcome four experts from Tyler Technologies, each sharing insights on how technology can improve access across different sectors.

Kristine Lim, product manager in Tyler’s Data & Insights Division, explains how data-driven tools can measure and improve access to public services. Urvi Pandya, general manager of workforce case management, discusses how technology can create safe, accessible work environments. Industry Engagement Consultant Kim Martin provides a perspective on making student transportation more inclusive and accessible, while Daren Jackson, senior vice president of disbursements, shares how payments technology fosters financial access and inclusion.

Whether your organization is just beginning its journey toward improving access or looking to expand current efforts, this episode offers practical advice and real-world examples. Don’t miss the conversation, and stay tuned for part 2, where we explore how technology can further drive meaningful access and inclusion.

Be sure to subscribe to the Tyler Tech Podcast for more insights into the technologies shaping the public sector today.

We also detail our latest white paper about how artificial intelligence (AI) is empowering public sector agencies to tackle workforce shortages, modernize outdated systems, and navigate budget constraints. You can download that here: Revolutionizing the Government Workforce With AI

Learn more about the topics discussed in this episode with these resources:

• Download: Driving Financial Equity With Technology
• Success Story: Chattanooga’s New Public Safety Vision
• Podcast: Student Transportation Tech Solutions
• Video: Introduction to Workforce Case Management
• Blog: Transforming Government Payments Through a Unified Platform
• Blog: Building Trust Through Effective Case Management
• Blog: Unified Case Management Streamlines Processes
• Blog: Harnessing Data and Insights for Community Development
• Blog: Data, Equity, and Policing

Listen to other episodes of the podcast.

Let us know what you think about the Tyler Tech Podcast in this survey!

Transcript

Urvi Pandya: Especially after COVID. A lot of people work from home. A lot of people telework part time, full time. It's become even more critical to have that open and safe environment where, again, doesn't matter where you are, but you feel part of a work community.

Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, it's the Tyler Tech Podcast, your source for insightful conversations with thought leaders addressing key issues impacting the public sector today.

I'm Josh Henderson, part of the corporate marketing team here at Tyler, and we're excited to have you with us.

Every episode, we explore the technologies, trends, and strategies shaping our communities and highlight the people and innovations driving the public sector.

If you enjoy our podcast, please consider subscribing, giving a five star rating, and sharing the podcast with others. Today, we're bringing you the first part of a special two part series focused on the idea of access and how technology can expand access to essential services, information, and opportunities for all.

In this episode, we're joined by four expert voices from Tyler, each sharing how technology is breaking down barriers and creating more equitable access in different sectors.

First up is Kristine Lim, product manager in Tyler's Data and Insights Division, who discusses how data driven tools help organizations measure and improve accessibility to public services.

Then Urvi Pandya, general manager of workforce case management, talks about creating safe, accessible work environments through technology.

We'll also hear from industry engagement consultant, Kim Martin, who offers insights into how student transportation is becoming more inclusive and accessible for all students.

And to wrap things up, Daren Jackson, senior vice president of disbursements, highlighting how payments technology is fostering financial access and inclusion.

From overcoming challenges to sharing best practices, our guests provide real world examples of how improving access can transform organizations and the communities they serve.

Whether you're looking to expand access within your organization or seeking inspiration for new strategies, this episode offers valuable insights you won't want to miss.

Be sure to tune in to our next episode, part two of this series, where we'll continue exploring how technology is driving access for all. Until then, my conversation with Kristine Lim. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Kristine Lim: Obviously, diversity and diversification of the people that are creating policies that serve their constituents is so important because we are a diverse population. It's not fair to say this homogeneous group, you're going to make the decisions for everyone else who has had different life experiences just based on your race or ethnicity, you know, sexual orientation, etcetera. And so, I would say that the diversity of the people who are making the policy is so important because, really, the policy should represent the people, and it's awesome to when that comes into fruition.

It's really important to remember that.

Josh Henderson: What would you say are some common challenges organizations face when trying to implement these types of initiatives and, you know, how can technology solutions help overcome those challenges?

I really do believe there's a spectrum of challenges. With data, it covers many industries. So, there is the spectrum where you have customers who are not sure where to start.

And having that much information can be daunting and almost, like, understanding what should I even be measuring when you're faced with that question and you're just starting your data management program. It's a little bit jarring. So, we at Data and Insights have a technology solution that almost allows you easier access to some of those answers right out of the box. So, we have preconfigured dashboards that would allow you to maybe see these commonly asked questions.

But the challenge still lies in sharing out that data with the public. There is a very huge, common issue, which is community awareness. On issues such as inequity in health, in housing, public services, like access to parks as an example.

And so, that is a shared problem that we see a lot of our customers face.

I'm curious if you have any examples that you can share of best practices that you've seen organizations use in terms of implementing technology to promote equity and inclusion.

Yeah. And I love talking about this example because it's public. So today, you could go online and look for it yourself. But that's Chattanooga's open data portal. And so, in light of the very obviously tragic events that had happened in 2020, there was an outcry for, accountability and transparency into policing tactics. And so, I would say Chattanooga had this beautiful response where they, one, collected that law enforcement data, and they used that to create metrics like arrest by race, the types of citations that were being, given out, and then also displaying on a map, like, a concentration of where police force was being utilized. And so, they made all of these metrics available so that one, they could, utilize this internally to understand the demographics that they were serving, but also not just have a feeling of what was happening, but actually being able to measure and baseline, like, this is what we are typically running into.

And then the second part of that is publicly, they were able to share that information. So, I'd mentioned the desire for accountability and transparency.

On this data portal, they were able to share this publicly so that constituents or anyone really with access to the Internet could go online and see Chattanooga's, efforts when it came to policing and racial equity, especially when it comes to the use of police force. So I would say they are an awesome example of a customer who used data not only to measure internally, but then was able to take that data, aggregate it, and then share that with the public so that they could, you know, create that transparency and also remove themselves from that equation of having to respond to all of those questions that kept coming in and really provide, like, a unified platform for everyone to see that information.

Josh Henderson: Next, we'll hear from Urvi Pandya who will explore how technology can create safe, accessible workplaces and improve access to opportunities and resources for all employees.

Urvi Pandya: So, it's every employer's responsibility to establish a harassment and discrimination free workplace and take prompt actions when issues do occur. Unfortunately, things happen. And that allows them to, form thriving workforce, positive working environment.

Obviously, that creates higher productivity, and then ultimately healthier and thriving communities. Everybody should be treated equally. They should feel that.

And if they notice something, they should feel comfortable bringing it up. Without that, there is no open culture, and then you especially after COVID.

Lot of people work from home. Lot of people telework part time, full time. It's become even more critical to have that open and safe environment where, again, doesn't matter where you are, but you feel part of a work community.

And, again, leadership needs to establish that culture, take actions, and show improvements too to win that employee's trust. So, these things are complex to understand and master and really figure out how do you implement that in terms of processes and tech technology solutions.

So, agencies struggle with that. Also, employees move around from one agency to another, and then they lose the subject matter expertise.

So, it’s that human aspect, the people aspect. On the product side, these agencies also lack technology solutions. So, they have manual legacy processes. Most use spreadsheets to track harassment cases, discrimination cases. And you can imagine manual processes lack transparency, visibility to management.

So, it's hard enough to be reactive to these situations. And on top of that, then without proper tools, proper data insights, proper reporting capabilities, these agencies cannot be proactive in making personnel and process decisions.

So, they really struggle that. And as a result of that, they easily fall out of compliance to a lot of these, rules and regulations, may even end up as a front page news item for the wrong reasons.

Sometimes they may end up losing, federal grants if they are not compliant. So, yeah, I mean, some of these challenges we see day in day out, and that's where we come in and kind of help them overcome these barriers. I'll talk a little bit about the products we offer in this area. So, all our products are case management systems.

So, intake of cases, case processing, reporting on these cases, and then we have the employee persona, the case, processor persona, and then, obviously, management. So, we serve these three personas.

And each, product and solution we offer has this employee access portal, which empowers employees to file complaints and even anonymous complaints, which is honestly a very powerful tool where people really feel comfortable just, you know, self-registering, submitting a certain claim, complaints, or even a simple inquiry about reasonable accommodation or some sort of grievance they might have versus having to talk to somebody about a painful experience.

So, again, process.

People aspect where we bring subject matter expertise to these agencies and say, look. We have figured this all out, and we're going to help you stay compliant.

Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech podcast.

I'm here with my colleague, Jade Champion, to discuss a crucial topic, how AI is transforming the government workforce.

Jade Champion: That's right, Josh. We just released a white paper that explores how AI is empowering public sector agencies to tackle workforce shortages, modernize outdated systems, and navigate budget constraints.

Josh Henderson: Exactly. From improving field operations to automating workflows, AI is enabling agencies to work more efficiently and deliver better services. Jade, what are some of the standout ways AI is making an impact?

Jade Champion: AI driven solutions are enhancing decision making, streamlining document processing, and even helping agencies better allocate their budgets. It's all about future proofing government services to meet rising expectations.

Josh Henderson: Interested in learning how AI can transform your agency? Be sure to check out the episode show notes for links to helpful resources, browse our solutions at tylertech.com, or you can reach out to us directly at podcast@tylertech.com.

Jade Champion: Thanks for listening. Now let's get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.

Josh Henderson: Now let's shift to Kim Martin, who brings a unique perspective on how access and inclusion are critical in student transportation and how technology can enhance accessibility for all students.

Kim Martin: Every operation, every transportation director, if you will, is always striving for a couple of, common goals. And that is to provide the safest, most reliable transportation experience they can to the students.

But, also, that type of atmosphere is like no other. I always say that unlike the airlines, k twelve transportation does not have the luxury of canceling flights. They have to get the students to school. It's that important. So, when you're constantly being reactive to all day longer situations, it's hard to find that time to say, how can we be more inclusive to our community?

So that's why it's so important to keep in mind, but it's such a busy atmosphere that can be tough. One of the challenges recently is that there is a driver shortage crisis. I add the word crisis to that because we've always had a driver shortage, quite frankly. We were never not hiring, if you will.

But now it's really worse than ever. And times are changing. If somebody wants to be a professional driver, they might go work for, Amazon or Uber where they have technology.

So, the public drives the demand, and we're expected to provide that technology. And I'm really lucky that I work for Tyler because we do. We have onboard technology in these things. So, when we can provide that to the team, we can streamline processes through, the use of software, then transportation departments everywhere can concentrate on how can we be more inclusive to our communities.

When it comes to implementing, you know, one of the things is, not maybe so much a best practice, but if I can share some stories of success rather.

So, for me personally, when I was a director, I used to route by hand. I didn't have software and things like that. Once I partnered with Tyler and I got software and hardware, it allowed me to concentrate on those other things.

So, one really great example was, I had the privilege of serving a community that used wheelchairs. So, I had a large number of students that used wheelchairs. And one of the challenges that they faced was they couldn't go out into the community like their classmates for, like, a forty, forty five minute quick trip into the community for a learning experience.

It was just really tough to have only a bus that could provide space for one chair.

So, when I could concentrate on these things, now I could order buses with tracks all the way down. We could remove seats and bring out up to six chairs at a time. And now they could really have that same experience.

So, things like that is what are what it's all about.

During the pandemic, our clients had to route students different than they ever have in their careers.

So, if you've never worked in transportation and I asked you to route a group of students to school, you would probably start in a geographical area. That would be the kind of most logical, and that's how you would tackle it. Well, our clients were asked, hey. We're bringing the students back to school, but we want to do it in a different fashion. We want to route them by homeroom.

So, we're keeping the same students together all day. Well, we had the only product on the market and still do that allowed our clients to say, show me the students that are in this homeroom, map them out, and they can get them routed quickly and easily. It also allowed them to provide things like Wi Fi, deliver meals that students would not otherwise get during that time, so very rewarding. And all of those things that are unexpected.

They have access to the same things and the things that they were used to having and that they should have. They have a right to have. That's the most important thing.

And so that time, you know, really showed us, hey. We've got to be prepared. We're going to have for the unexpected more than ever.

So, when you know, I know that those are, some success stories. But when it comes to implementation, you know, luckily, those are the things that everybody strives for. We're implementing this.

The public drives the demand. And so, you've got to have the community involved. Got to have the kids involved, quite frankly because they benefit from the outcome. So, it's a wonderful thing to see.

Josh Henderson: Finally, we'll hear from Daren Jackson, who will share how payments technology can be a powerful tool for expanding financial access and supporting inclusive opportunities.

Daren Jackson: There are certain populations, particularly when it comes to payments, that they don't want you know, they don't trust banks, or they're worried about paying minimum fees, or they're, you know, young and inexperienced with their, you know, their financial, acumen, so to speak.

Maybe some have done things in the past that their financial behavior puts them on in a situation that they can't actually access financial services and those types of things. And so, the challenge for me as you implement it from a government is you have to, number one, understand the why of why people are in the situation that they're in. And then you ultimately, the beauty of technology is it's only captivated by the imagination of the creator.

And so, if and I think that, if you're very thoughtful about understanding the why, how did people end up in these situations, these are people that need servicing just the same as everyone else.

And the beauty of technology is that it enables governments to actually address it. It's actually just about being thoughtful about everyone that's part of the equation and then developing solutions that actually address that from the beginning instead of trying to not address it and then only to find out that you weren't thoughtful in the way you built your solution.

Josh Henderson: I'm curious if you can speak to the idea of data and how organizations can effectively use data and analytics to measure and track and, like, any sort of progress that's been made?

Daren Jackson: Yeah. You know, data obviously, the world has become much a data driven world. We have data points and an aggregation of data, you know, the creation of big data.

Truly, what is the driving factor behind AI is the ability we now have to really understand what we as humans do at a at a micro level, which we always we always it was always there, but it was never aggregated toward you. Then you could actually create meaningful solutions, around kind of the microeconomics of human life. And so, I mean, the critical piece of all of this movement that's occurring, it's all based on data. And it's and it's based on very much that, you know, peep that we now have the tools to actually aggregate and to understand human behavior.

Data will tell us that we have, you know, these populations that maybe aren't fit within the, you know, two standard deviations or the ninety nine point nine percent. But there's still these, you know, these outer, areas and individuals that need to be serviced. And I just go back to kind of what I said before. Like, we have the data.

We have the tools. This is about being thoughtful in how we implement the data and the tools. So, it's as far as data goes, it's critical to develop these solutions, but the human element of developing them versus and just being thoughtful is what the meaningful part of addressing this challenge is from my perspective.

Josh Henderson: I hope you enjoyed these conversations with Kristine Lim, Urvi Pandya, Kim Martin, and Daren Jackson.

If you'd like to learn more about the ways technology is expanding access to essential services, be sure to check out our show notes for additional resources.

As organizations continue to prioritize accessibility, it's clear that technology plays a pivotal role in breaking down barriers and driving progress.

From leveraging data to create more transparent and accessible public services, to using technology to foster safe, inclusive environments, there are many ways to make a meaningful impact.

Tyler Technologies offers solutions designed to help public sector organizations improve access across various areas, with experts ready to support you in navigating these efforts. If you're interested in learning more or have questions, we'd love to hear from you. Feel free to reach out to us at podcast@tylertech.com to connect with a subject matter expert. And don't forget to share your thoughts and what you'd like to hear more of on future episodes by filling out the audience survey in the show notes.

This was part one of our two part series on access.

We'll be back with part two in just a couple weeks.

For Tyler Technologies, I'm Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining the Tyler Tech Podcast.