In 2011, the WOLF pack – Wyckoff, Oakland, and Franklin Lakes – reviewed a presentation by Revelstone concerning their new Compass software system described as, “…an intuitive Web-based solution designed to allow local governments to measure and improve their municipality’s services performance.”
Wyckoff at the time declined to buy into the program citing “reasons that included cost ($4,000 start-up cost and $400 per month), and the limited utility to make decisions from the statistical information.”
Wyckoff is one of the leaner municipalities in Bergen County, if not the leanest. While home to a larger population than either Oakland or Franklin Lakes, Wyckoff regularly employees less people in its municipal workforce. This equates into substantial present day savings, and also future savings with less retirees; understandable they might see little value in assuming the additional monthly cost.
Franklin Lakes and Oakland did decide to move forward with contracts.
The Revelstone press release quotes Gregory C. Hart, Borough Administrator of Franklin Lakes, NJ as saying, “It is no longer acceptable to just give some subjective “feel good” assessment. It is expected, and rightly so, that departmental performance be measured based on data and objective criteria…we are now beginning to measure performance in a meaningful manner. From this data, we can learn and work towards developing efficiencies which will bring us closer to our performance goals. ”
The Revelstone website features a more indepth insight concerning Oakland. According to the company website, immediate cost saving are on the horizon as, “…it plans to use the solution to analyze the most expensive services for its town, such as garbage collection and police, by cost per capita to see how Oakland’s services compare to those of towns with similar populations. This type of comparison can be made in almost any department, and down to specifics. Oakland can assess the costs of plowing snow, sanding or salting as compared to like towns.”
According to Revelstone, Oakland will be implementing the software first with the police department, DPW, and construction code permitting, with plans to expand to other departments. You can read the 2 page PDF case study of Oakland by clicking here.
Revelstone benefited from the Code For America program which seeks to encourage and support efforts that improve civic life and efficiencies. Their most popular effort known to the general public is SeeClickFix which allows citizens to report a variety of issues from potholes to graffiti via a website.
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Revelstone was one of several other companies that were highlighted by Code for America as holding potential for governments and communities. You can click here to see some of the other civic efforts which target government, schools and the wider community of citizens.
Revelstone is still relatively new, and the comparision feature – as displayed in the screenshot of the dashboard – will be most effective only if enough towns participate in the program and make comparable data available to each other.
If the estimated $400 a month subscription fee stays in place, towns will be paying approximately $4,800 a year after start-up costs; and, then they will need to evaluate any identifiable cost savings or improvements in municipal services performance.