AgendaQuick

The acceptance of ‘Hosted’ plans for municipal applications – such as agenda management systems - has been increasing over the last several years.  This is due in part to a better understanding of what SaaS (Software as a Service) can and can’t do as well as the fact that more and more applications that people want or need, are now offered this way – they’re becoming commonplace.

But why consider a Hosted plan?  Well, these plans offer convenience – no equipment to buy for instance.  Hosted plans are generally very accessable – meaning, if you have access to the Internet, you have access to the applications.  Hosted plans can be less expensive initially – sort of like leasing a car.  Often, the cost of hosted programs falls under operational budgets vs. capital budgets and can be quicker and easier to get approved.  Hosted plans are basically ‘Plug & Play’ systems – very easy to start using.

But there are other points to consider.  Hosted plans by design, reside on someone else’s equipment – you won’t have the same amount of control over your data as you do with ‘Non-Hosted’ or client installed systems.  This isn’t necessarily bad, just something to keep in mind and plan for.  Hosted plans don’t always have the same degree of customization available as Non-Hosted plans.  Again, not a big deal if the application has everything you need, just another point to ponder.

So which is better?  The answer is neither and both.  Assuming the same application is available both ways, (like AgendaQuick), the difference is really preference.

In the end, the choice usually boils down to cost and comfort.  Cost, in that Hosted plans are nearly always less expensive to begin with but generally more expensive over time.  Comfort, as in whether or not your IT Department feels comfortable with the idea of not having total control – is everything really safe?  How you feel about cost and comfort will ultimately determine which you choose.

The idea of going paperless at council and commission meetings sounds great, but the practicalities of actually doing it often get in the way.

For many organizations, going paperless involves providing laptops to the members, setting up the network, training the members on how to; log on – load the document – find the document - store their notes – etc, etc, etc.  With some members, the thought of using a laptop or computer can be a traumatic event and cause some to demand their old paper copies.

But there is an alternative that’s gaining ground - electronic books or e-readers.  They offer big advantages over laptops such as size, weight, ease of reading, ease of use and cost.  For many users of e-readers the experience is really like reading a book, just a little more high-tech.

From AgendaQuick, your agenda packets can be loaded on to these devices in the form of a PDF and, depending on the device, even allow comments and notes to be added by the reader.  The training required to use the device is minimal and the ongoing support and maintenance from your IT department is also a lot less than a computer or laptop.

Some of the devices you may have heard about are: Amazon’s Kindle line of e-readers, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Que from Plastic Logic and the iPad from Apple.  Costs per unit vary a bit but are generally in the $300 to $800 range depending on options.

If going totally paperless is ultimately your goal, e-readers may be worth a closer look.

Unfortunately, for many organizations there really isn’t any alternative.  Fewer people, less available money and more demands on time seem to be the current reality.  The challenge then is to get more out of dwindling resources while at the same time responding to the public’s need for more and quicker access to information.

The question is: ”How do we do this?”

With many city and county organizations, the need to keep the public informed and professionally serviced is one of the top priorities for administration.  A happy, well-informed public can make everyone’s life a little easier – we don’t even want to think about what happens when they’re not. 

Public meeting information, especially concerning the agendas and minutes, is one of the most visible and sought after pieces of information the public wants.  Agenda software, like AgendaQuick, streamline the agenda creation and distribution process.  These programs also place more information at the fingertips of requestors; cutting down on the number of inquiries and giving the requestor the information more quickly & efficiently. 

But the public’s thirst for information goes way beyond agendas and minutes.  AgendaQuick and the underlying software designed to power the program is used by our clients to provide a variety of other services.  From public records requests to registration and reservation systems to constituent reporting forms and more, the versatility of the software provides our clients with a very powerful public interaction tool – allowing them to do much more with less.

One of the biggest advantages to an electronic agenda management system is the potential streamlining of your entire agenda process.  In other words, use the software as reason to re-think how you create, prepare, publish and distribute your agendas in order to take advantage of the more efficient options available to you.

For lots of reasons, we’re often asked to replicate the current agenda and minutes process clients have been using.  Maybe it’s a comfort thing or perhaps tradition dictates the process.  We understand this and designed AgendaQuick so that we could in fact give folks exactly what they did have – only better.  However, it’s when they start thinking about newer, better ways of doing things that the software really starts to perform.

Agenda automation when fully utilized is a beautiful thing.  It saves time, hassle & money.  So sit back, put on your thinking cap and put together your own version of the perfect agenda system.  Then call us and we’ll help you  build it.

It seems to be a standard reply these days that when talking to folks about agenda management software they say “sounds like something we could really use, BUT, we don’t have any money”.

Well, in some cases this is literally true – they’re broke and no amount of creative thinking is going to change things. But for most, it’s more a function of LIMITED resources and trying to figure out how to get the most bang for the buck. This is where a little creativity and an open mind might make it possible to get what you need and want.

The first thing that comes to mind is to make sure the software option you’re considering is realistically priced. Unless you’re looking to completely customize an agenda package to fit very specific needs, anything over $30,000 would be suspect. For example, pound for pound and feature for featue, AgendaQuick is one of the most affordable, fully functioning agenda management systems on the market – at well under $30,000 – really!

Secondly, even though “leasing” carries a bit of a negative connotation for some, it does offer the advantage of immediate cash flow savings and allows you to use the actual savings agenda automation creates to pay for the system. You end up paying a little more in the long run, but it is sometimes easier to get a lease payment into the budget for a few years versus the entire purchase price all at once.

Something else to consider is breaking the application into bite-sized pieces and buy just enough to get you started down the automation road. Some programs, like AgendaQuick, are readily adaptable to the modular approach and can make buying in stages very easy. Start with the agenda piece, and then add the minutes component at a later date – it’s easy.

Agenda automation does save money. Many of our clients have reduced their costs by as much as $15,000 to $25,000 a year – and that’s some serious money.

OK, chocolate has nothing to do with managing the minutes process, but what if you had a minutes management system that made you feel almost as good?

The terrific thing about an integrated system for agenda/minutes management (like AgendaQuick) is that the minutes feature automatically incorporates the information from the agenda into your minutes template.

The process of preparing your minutes becomes a lot easier by eliminating the ‘cut & paste’ of going from the agenda to your minutes template.

Minutes templates can be set up beforehand to further reduce the amount of effort spent.  Shortcuts for recording motions and votes as well as the ability to quickly make last minute changes means less work and more time for life’s simple pleasures – like chocolate…

It isn’t always easy to get folks to change their ways. In fact, when it comes to the topic of paperless agendas, sometimes it can get down right confrontational .

We often hear comments like “…my council would never think about electronic agendas, they insist on having a paper copy to work from…” or “…some of our council members really aren’t comfortable with computers nor the idea of a paperless agenda…” Do these comments sound familiar?

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing decision. In fact, simply reducing the number of paper packets and automating the process at the staff level can have a tremendous impact on productivity and cost.

And, the easiest way to do this is with an electronic agenda application – like AgendaQuick.

The advantage of AgendaQuick is that in addition to reducing the number of your paper packets, it will incorporate many of the time-saving features you wish you had with your paper agenda process.

For your staff, these applications make creating and distributing agenda items much faster and more convenient. Since they already use word processing applications and other software products, getting acceptance at the staff level is usually a lot easier than you think – especially when the application is easy to use and the forms are similar to your current paper process.

And who knows, maybe your council will see just how easy it is and decide that paperless is the way to go!

What exactly does it cost to produce an agenda?

 Well, it depends…

 Agendas come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they consist of a dozen agenda items and maybe 100 to 200 pages of supporting documents.  Other times they may have 80+ items and over 2000 pages of documents.

 But they all share common characteristics and we can calculate a fairly reliable rule of thumb based on a few assumptions.

 To begin, paper & copying costs will average about $.05 per page.  That’s a nickel for every single sheet of paper used in your packets.

 You’ll also need to factor in the time for copying and collating the packets.  Depending upon who is actually standing at the copy machine and doing the collating, this cost could vary dramatically.  Often, this is an all-day event for one person.

 Distribution costs go into the mix as well.  Who actually delivers the packets, how many are mailed and how the packet is delivered to the local media all must be considered and calculated.  Even if you use your patrol officers to deliver packets to council members and others, the time and cost of this service should be figured.   

 Alright already, so how much does it cost?

 Generally, you can figure that if you produce 2-3 agendas per month, your annual costs will equal $1,000 times the average number of packets you produce each meeting.  In other words, if your city or county meets 2 to 3 times per month and you produce an average of 25 packets for each meeting, your annual costs would be about $25,000.

 If you meet weekly, you can use $1,500 per packet and if you meet once a month, $500 works out to be about right.

One of the larger cities in the South we spoke with recently spent over $90,000 last year producing the 60 packets for their weekly meetings.  A mid-sized city in the Northwest producing 18 packets every other week spent about $19,000.  As rules go, we’d have to give this one a big “thumbs up”!