The pandemic has swept through our nation and ravaged our economy, sending a shock wave through public opinion, local policies, and government services. Tax revenues plummeted and the need for services skyrocketed, leaving city and local governments struggling to do more with less. On top of that, many agencies found that the massive shift to remote work made their outdated paper-based and manual procedures nearly inoperable, making automation a pressing need.

Here are seven key processes ripe for automation—along with tips for state and local governments looking to implement them quickly and affordably.

1. License/permit applications processing

Simplify and streamline permits and licensing

Businesses need permits and licenses for everything from running a daycare facility to erecting a skyscraper. But many application processes remain highly manual making them repetitive, time consuming, and error prone. Nintex helps organizations build powerful, responsive electronic forms that applicants can use to start the application process.

Once submitted, a permit application is routed for review and approval and the permit or license is automatically generated and sent to the applicant—quickly, simply, and smoothly.

Benefits

SPEEDY RESULTS

Automated application submission and approval deliver permits and licenses to businesses faster.

HAPPY CUSTOMERS

No more inconvenient paper forms. Businesses and agency staff save time and reduce hassles.

INCREASED ACCURACY

No more inconvenient paper forms. Businesses and agency staff save time and reduce hassles. Automated process get the right permits with the right information to the right people—the first time.

2. Incident reporting and response

Accelerate response times and better serve constituents

Incident response is one of the most important—and challenging—government responsibilities. From filling potholes to emergency disaster relief, incident response can make the difference between safety and catastrophe. Most incident response involves organizing departments and agencies across multiple, sometimes incompatible, systems. Add resource constraints, and you’re almost guaranteed delays. But when stakeholders collaborate to map and automate processes, they support swift and decisive response.

Benefits

FASTER RESPONSE

When incidents can be reported from anywhere, response happens faster.

BETTER COORDINATION

Linear notification is replaced by simultaneous alerts, avoiding missed connections.

INCREASED VISIBILITY

Everyone from dispatch to response is connected, with the visibility they need— from alert to resolution.

3. Public records requests

Keep citizens satisfied, informed, and empowered

Paper-based, manual public records requests keep constituents waiting while overburdened staff work through the queue. Antiquated processes can lead to errors, compliance issues, and dissatisfied citizens. Nintex lets citizens easily and quickly request records with a simple online form, which is automatically routed for approval. No paper, no manual steps, no delays or bottlenecks—just satisfied citizens.

Benefits

STREAMLINED PROCESSES

No more paper forms or manual request handling.

TIME SAVINGS

Stop shuffling paper— get results with just a few clicks.

INCREASED ACCURACY

Capture required information Automated process get the right documents to the right people, the first time.

4. Financial aid distribution

Help citizens impacted by COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected citizens around the world. Many countries have distributed relief funding to state, local, and tribal governments, much of it earmarked for citizens directly affected by the pandemic. Automating the application process helps agencies ensure that submissions are complete and citizens meet evaluation criteria before processing aid, greatly reducing time spent on each application.

Benefits

PRESCREENING REQUESTS

Prequalify aid applicants before submissions.

LESS MANUAL REVIEW

Automate validation with advanced logic and integrated OCR.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

Process benefits
faster with fewer errors.

5. Employee agreements

Simplify employee agreements and eliminate paper

Internal, employee-centric processes exist in just about every organization—but they’re often the last to be automated, with government employees routinely filling out paper forms and routing them for approvals and signatures. Digitized forms with electronic approvals and signatures significantly streamline the execution of everything from policy and procedure reviews to work-from-home agreements. And fully automated HR processes can open up powerful insights into benefits across the organization.

Benefits

EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION

Eliminate paper forms and manual routing.

TIME SAVINGS

Stop shuffling paper— get agreements signed and filed with just a few clicks.

BETTER REPORTING

Get insight into process performance with easy-to-use analytics.

6. Employee self-screening and immunisation tracking

Help employees feel safe and confident in the office

Many agencies are using self-screening and immunization tracking to help employees stay safe and healthy at work. With Nintex, agencies can automate daily health checks, trigger protocols for elevated or critical responses, and ensure that only healthy employee come in to work. An audit trail can also help HR and case management systems track infections.

Benefits

EMPLOYEE SAFETY

Keep employees with health symptoms at home.

EMPLOYEE CONFIDENCE

Employees know that only healthy colleagues will be in the office.

INCREASED EFFICIENCY

Automatically generate waivers for employee signature.

7. Asset acquisition and retirement 

Make asset reporting, compliance, and security more accurate

Maintaining assets across an agency is a huge challenge—one made more difficult
in remote work environments. Staying on top of how assets are used, maintained, disposed of, and retired is crucial for financial reporting, compliance, safety, and security. Mobile forms streamline routine asset inventory and inspection. Gathering asset data triggers an automated workflow that cross-references and logs assets into systems of record (often with the help of an RPA bot), flagging inconsistencies for review. Nintex lets you deploy such tracking in just days—saving significant time and freeing staff to work on high-priority initiatives.

Benefits

EFFICIENT PROCESSES

No more paper forms or manual asset reporting.

TIME SAVINGS

Stop shuffling paper— get complete inventory records with just a few clicks.

INCREASED ACCURACY

Automated processes improve the accuracy of compliance, financial reporting, and security.

Join the automation movement

More than 10,000 public- and private-sector clients in 90 countries use the Nintex Process Platform toincrease efficiency, better serve customers, and break down information silos.

CITY AND COUNTRY OF DENVER

PROFILE

Home to more than 700,000 people, the City and County of Denver is the capital and largest city in the state of Colorado. Located at the base of theRocky Mountains, it is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S. and City and County of Denver employs more than 11,000.

SOLUTION

Denver used Nintex Forms to quickly bring 65 paper forms online, enabling EOC workers to continue to work productively from home. Denver

also used Nintex Mobile to create a symptom monitoring application for all Denver staff that had to report in- person for work during the pandemic.

BUSINESS SITUATION

Denver’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) had to quickly move
its operations online to ensure productivity while EOC members worked from home during COVID-19 social distancing measures.

CITY OF GARLAND, TEXAS

PROFILE

The City of Garland, Texas is located northeast of Dallas with a population of more than 240,000. The City’s 45 business units are responsible for providing services to its residents.

SOLUTION

Nintex Premier Partner DataBank helped the City of Garland implement the Nintex Process Platform and provided training to the city’s IT and business users. Now a group of citizen developers across business units are building and deploying their own Nintex process automation solutions, saving the city $4 million.

BUSINESS SITUATION

The City of Garland needed a no- code process automation tool that could be leveraged by business users across business units to build their own digital business solutions, without relying on IT.

NATIONAL GALLERY SINGAPORE

PROFILE

The National Gallery Singapore oversees the world’s largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art. With nearly 1.8 million visitors in the last year, the National Gallery Singapore is the most preferred museum in the country.

SOLUTION

Weeks before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the Gallery’s IT Team built a new visitor registration form using Nintex Workflow Cloud in just 3 days. Details from visitor forms are recorded in a secured SharePoint list. Now, the National Gallery Singapore can capture additional information from all visitors without additional strain on employees and the organization is equipped to provide data to the relevant authorities if contact tracing is required. Through this process, the organization captured information from 50,000+ visitors while protecting their health and safety.

BUSINESS SITUATION

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Gallery Singapore needed to support updated business contingency requirements. The Gallery needed to implement a new visitor registration form as a precautionary measure to support contact tracing if needed.