How small towns can access big ticket cloud services
Connecting state and local government leaders
Workforce management technology might be beyond the budgets of smaller municipalities, but a shared services marketplace in Oakland County, Mich., puts it within reach.
As governments look to implement new technologies, solutions that increase employee engagement and also improve operational benefits are growing in relevance.
Labor costs relative to the operational budgets are fairly large, and in a time of tight budgets, the fact that most governments still track employee time -- regular, overtime, and leave -- with paper time sheets or spreadsheets is surprising. Automated workforce management solutions, including time and attendance, human resources, payroll, employee scheduling and labor analytics, can help governments increase productivity, improve compliance with a variety of labor laws and enhance employee engagement with more fairness and accuracy in processes.
Workforce management technology provides a number of benefits to government HR managers:
Make better labor decisions. Having real-time visibility into and control over labor decisions with an automated workforce management solution gives municipalities windows into the true costs of providing services.
Address leave liability. Seeing leave liability in real-time is crucial to making sure employees are taking only the time off they have earned.
Meet compliance requirements. Technology makes accurate application of federal regulations far easier and consistent and mitigates compliance risk.
Track accurate audit data. Workforce management technology delivers a better way to track employees’ time and alleviates audit worries.
Many municipalities considering workforce management technology might not be able to afford the software or bear the burden of a lengthy procurement. But Oakland County, Mich., built a cloud marketplace where other municipalities can easily procure cloud services already in use by the county. Its Government-to-Government platform, G2G Cloud Solutions and G2G Marketplace are designed to bring big, innovative technologies to small and midsize governments.
By simplifying the purchase and licensing process with pre-negotiated blanket purchase agreements, the G2G Marketplace gives government agencies a way to more easily access technology and services quickly.
G2G Marketplace makes a number of different solutions -- both free and commercial -- available to government entities. The solutions, which range from cloud computing to workforce management services, have been accessed by more than 30 entities.
The results have been extremely positive for all involved. Small to midsize governments can procure larger technological solutions at a lower cost, which help make their operations more efficient. Oakland County has benefited through reduced pricing, because other governments buy from various contracts in the G2G Marketplace. Even the private sector has benefited, by opening an entire market of smaller governments ready and willing to implement their technology.
In this case, sharing technology led to a win-win-win relationship. Rarely do such partnerships exist.
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