The Municipality of Meaford, ON has received national recognition for its “Report a Concern<https://form.foreaction.cloud/submit/meaford>” website portal from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA). The Municipality was presented with the 2021 CAMA Willis Award for Innovation, in the Under 20,000 population category, during a Virtual Awards of Excellence Ceremony held today.
“CAMA is pleased to recognize the Municipality of Meaford for the innovation and best practice being demonstrated by their website portal,” said Jake Rudolph, outgoing president of CAMA and Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Nanaimo, BC. “Using technology that allows residents to report their concerns online is a great way to enhance limited resources, put the customer first, and gather data for planning purposes.”
Launched in January 2020, this new, simple-to-use tool has allowed the municipality to effectively track, respond to, and monitor resident requests, allowing for enhanced customer service, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The introduction of the website portal stems from the municipality’s mandate to improve responsiveness to its citizens. It is in keeping with a Council strategic priority to “explore new partnerships with third party organizations to benefit the community” by providing enhanced services to residents and heighten community engagement with new online tools and technology.
Meaford identified the need to adopt technology that would integrate and provide a streamlined process in managing citizen requests. As a result, the municipality partnered with AccessE11 for the implementation of a cost-effective, robust, cloud-based software solution focused on the supporting the municipality’s requirements related to customer management. This is a “lean six sigma” software solution, which is deep-rooted and focused on addressing the needs of the customer first.
One year later, Meaford recognizes the significant benefits that have come from having a system that allows for tracking, responding to, planning for, and analyzing requests, while at the same time eliminating duplication of effort and paper-based processes. The Municipality continues to review ways to use the portal and the associated data to improve customer service and reporting.
The capacity gained from some of these efficiencies has helped to address other challenges and shifted focus to enhanced responsiveness and services for the community and visitors.
“There were 35 submissions from across the country entered in to this year’s CAMA Awards of Excellence program,” said Marc Melanson, Chair for the 2021 CAMA Awards Jury, CAMA representative for New Brunswick and City Manager for the City of Dieppe, NB. “The scope of projects, from municipalities both large and small, was impressive and I extend my congratulation to the winners, as well as those who took the time to enter a submission.”
To find out more about the Municipality of Meaford’s award, as well as the other 2021 CAMA Awards of Excellence winners, visit www.camacam.ca/awards<http://www.camacam.ca/awards> and look for the award recipients link.
