Getting ahead of the Covid curve
A nerdy joke was circulating widely on social media a few months ago:
The underlying insight is that a crisis provides a powerful opportunity for change—more powerful even than formal organizational power (CEO) or legitimizing knowledge and experience (McKinsey).
One thing that you will have to think about in the coming months is whether your organization will be compelled to transform digitally—to do things in ways that you have not done them before simply because the old ways are no longer feasible. Will social distancing rules allow you to accept cash payments for city services? Will your parks crew be permitted to meet face-to-face each morning to get their assignments?
In all this uncertainty, the budget is certainly a concern—preparation, communication, and formal assent. How, for example, will you pull together your budget documents if key staff are caught in a second wave of infection, or if a second wave leads to new rounds of remote work? How will you communicate with your council or board if you are required to stick with virtual budget meetings? How will you engage the public without public open houses?
Analytics as a Service does not solve all these problems, but it can help solve some. First, because Benchcube’s automated routines do much of the work of transforming your working budget into a visual, interactive, and meaningful presentation of information, your team is freed from the task of passing around massive and fragile spreadsheets. Second, because the dashboards are interactive, you can use them to walk through a visual narrative using remote meeting technology. You can be prepared, without preparing.
While we all work to flatten the curve, now is a good time for local government finance departments to get ahead of the other curve. Contact us to learn more.