How Solution Accelerators Are Changing Public Sector Software

The public sector is changing faster than ever. Amplified by the pandemic, this rapid change is only possible with the support of technology. It isn’t a question of if local governments and communities will need to adopt new technologies but a matter of when. Software as a service (SaaS) solutions are already leading that transformation.

SaaS solutions in the public sector are all about keeping up with the needs of citizens in a modern world. But the kind of solutions needed can vary widely depending on your community’s requirements and capabilities.

What one city needs in a technology platform may be totally different than what other needs.

The public sector demands flexibility and specificity in its SaaS solutions.  

This can be difficult to achieve with off-the-shelf SaaS products and fully custom software solutions that generally require significant time and resources to implement and maintain. That’s why solution accelerators are often the ideal solution for unique needs – sharing the advantages of off-the-shelf products and custom development while mitigating their downsides.

What is a Solution Accelerator in Software?

Solution accelerators are best described as pre-defined building blocks for software applications. Generally supported by an underlying software platform, these building blocks can be used by themselves or combined to quickly implement a new software solution.

Unlike off-the-shelf SaaS products, solution accelerators aren’t meant to be complete solutions in and of themselves. Instead, they provide a starting point that’s much farther along than having to fully develop an application from scratch. By configuring and adding to solution accelerators, you can create a robust software solution for your unique needs more quickly and with less resources than ever before.

Few fields are as nuanced as the public sector. IT leaders know this better than anyone, especially if they’ve worked for several different communities. While organizations and government agencies have many similar needs, each also has unique missions, circumstances, and stakeholders.

This is why solution accelerators are so important to modern digital transformation in the public sector.

Accelerators can be created to handle the functions, processes, and integrations that are commonly needed, while leaving plenty of room for customizing the solution to your specific needs.

For example, many functions of public sector organizations and government agencies require some level of case management. But the specific case management processes can vary significantly, as can the needs surrounding those case management processes. A platform with a case management accelerator provides the backbone of the case management functionality right away, while allowing for extreme flexibility in how that functionality is configured and extended in the ultimate software solution.

When to Use Solution Accelerators

The fastest way to understand the value of solution accelerators – and how they’re different than other types of solutions - is to look at scenarios where they make sense to use. The featured reasons below should help illustrate exactly where solution accelerators fit on the public sector SaaS spectrum.  

Solution accelerators are the right choice if your organization needs:

• Quick Deployment: You need a custom solution fast and don’t have the time or resources to expedite a fully custom development project.
  
• Customization: Every out-of-the-box solution you’ve looked at is missing something essential (and you’ve probably looked at quite a few options).
• Affordability: With resources tight, you might not have the budget for the implementation or maintenance of a solution that was developed from scratch.
• Low Risk: With a custom-developed solution, you risk delays and the solution not being what you need it to be. It also may be difficult to maintain or update later, especially if it wasn’t built with future updates in mind. Solution accelerators start with the bones of a pre-built solution that’s meant to be customized and added to, reducing up-front risk and ensuring greater extensibility.
• IT Expertise and/or Bandwidth: If you don’t have an extensive IT department or your IT resources are already maxed out, you might not have the personnel to create a custom solution in-house. Solution accelerators reduce the need for custom development and are generally built on platforms with IT essentials like cybersecurity and integration capabilities already taken care of.

Solution Accelerators Well-Suited for the Public Sector

Accelerators on platforms that aren’t commonly used in the public sector may seem like they’re good enough, but the public sector needs SaaS solutions that are built with an understanding of the unique qualities of public sector operations.

Solution accelerators that have been put to the test in the public sector, such as the ones available on our 3Di Engage platform, provide your team with the exact solutions it needs – and in an incredibly short amount of time. They can be deployed quickly, configured to your unique needs, and easily scaled up.

The team who developed 3Di’s solution accelerators understands the public sector at a deep level, having supported solutions from Los Angeles to Norfolk, Virginia, and many cities and states in between for more than two decades. While these solution accelerators are also used in the private sector, they’re built with a strong understanding of what the public sector needs in a modern software solution.

Here are the solution accelerators available on 3Di Engage that are commonly used by public sector organizations and government agencies:

Inspections: Perform more inspections in less time with dynamic digital tools. The quality and quantity of inspections your team can conduct depends on the tools they use. Give them mobile-friendly technology customized for their daily needs, and your team will be much more effective and efficient.

Incident Management: Track, resolve, and report on incidents with an easy-to-use system. The incident management accelerator helps your team resolve incidents quickly and gather insights that can help to reduce the amount and severity of future incidents.

Case Management: Create cases, automate processes, and get real-time reporting and analytics. SaaS solutions that specialize in the public sector enable you to take control of case management for good.

Customer Self-Service: Engage your community using a CRM that’s well suited for the public sector rather than trying to adapt a CRM solution that was narrowly designed to support for-profit sales organizations. Give your customers, citizens, and/or other stakeholders the experience they expect by providing simple access to the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it.

Field Service Automation: Empower your team to do more from the field with robust mobile solutions. The easy-to-use solutions built with the field service automation accelerator can help your team to do all their work from a phone or tablet, while making their jobs much easier and more efficient.

You may already be able to imagine how one or more of these solution accelerators could be put to use in a software solution in your organization. But the full solution you’re imagining is likely quite different than what another reader envisions.

That’s the magic. With accelerators, you get powerful building blocks to a wide variety of solutions and the flexibility to create something truly unique. The only question is what will solution accelerators make possible for you?