Performance Management Software for Local, Municipal, and State Government

What is Government Performance Management Software?

Local, municipal, and state governments must be able to track performance on an ongoing basis for initiatives and the money that drives them. Government performance management software is a tool that creates reports and tracks analytics on financial and non-financial metrics in order to improve government performance and efficiency. Performance tracking allows for departments to improve budget allocations via a continual process of updating and reviewing metrics monthly or quarterly.

How Performance-Based Budgeting for State and Local Government Saves Time, Resources, and Money

The 22+ million US government employees (state, local, and federal) are tasked with judiciously appropriating public funds to align with strategic objectives that supply safety, health, transportation, power, and other key services to more than 326 million US citizens.

By reviewing targets monthly or quarterly (and not waiting months and months), departments are able to adjust accordingly and save time, resources, and money. With performance evaluation software, metrics are pouring into a centralized place. It would take one person weeks to aggregate data–and by the time it was collected, it might be too old for optimal effectiveness. Software is able to record over time and keep data fresh for when it’s needed.

Government Performance Management Tools & What They Do

Within government performance management systems, public sector administrators are able to easily set targets, goals, and measures for a range of services. Information can be visible in a variety of ways, including reports, metrics, and dashboards. Without a drawn-out process, users can continually link program spend to outcomes, and update metrics across departments, from the local level (police, fire, 311, parks and recreation departments, city works) to state level (Health and Human Services, Department of Transportation, Auditor’s Office, Office of the Treasury).

Top Performance Management Software for Local Government

Transforming complex financial and non-financial data into visuals, and tracking progress toward agency goals, the most popular government performance management software include:

• OpenGov
• Envisio
• Socrata
• Questica
• Tableau
• Domo
• Birst
• Adaptive Insights

Outcome Budgeting for Long-Term Success in the Public Sector

When it comes to the government strategic planning cycle, budgeting and performance management work in tandem to move essential services from conception to completion. As citizen demands continue to increase, staff sizes drop, budget pressures mount, and economic competition grows, it is more important than ever to ensure budget dollars are visibly allocated to the areas of highest impact.

The starting point for traditional government budgeting is what was spent last year. That base budget is moved forward incrementally. High-value services end up getting punished and low-value services may fly under the radar.

The approach of an outcome-based budget, however, ties budgeting directly to performance:

• The budget is based on outcome goals for the future.
• Priority outcomes and how those outcomes will be measured are agreed upon.
• Data guides budget proposals from departments and agencies.

The public administration of towns, cities, counties, districts, and states rely on feedback loops to gauge success. Performance software can be used internally for transparency within departments to reallocate funds based on results.

Performance management is not just about optimizing your operations but also focusing on complex, triple-bottom-line governance that prioritizes economic, environmental, and social outcomes.