Modernizing civic services

City of Oakland Empowering Civic Engagement

The City of Oakland (CoO) sought to modernize its civic services and in partnership with valantic leveraged the OutSystems low-code platform to develop two transformative solutions. The CPRA app revolutionizes citizen engagement by providing a public website for complaint reporting and real-time monitoring, alongside a comprehensive back-office system streamlining case management.

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Young man on the street of big city , waiting taxi, chacking his smartphone, for news or new messages. Or looking for map instructions. Carry backpack on one shoulder. Dusk time. Casual dressed. Street lights in background.

The Challenge

To continue improving its relationship with residents, the city needed more modernized services, including the apps used in their everyday lives. But the CoO’s systems and processes were old and outdated, and most required residents to complete forms manually and in-person. Because not all residents have the time, transportation, or childcare support to visit city offices during business hours, the manual systems were a deterrent for residents to make that effort.

Oakland wanted residents to be able to reach city services from the comfort of their homes. But the question was, “How to get it done?” An internal team of five developers had to deal with inefficient and under-supported legacy systems, which meant projects took too long and frequently failed.

One of the critical apps that needed an urgent replacement was the one that supports the complaints management process against police officers. The CoO needed to provide a modern online mechanism for citizens to submit complaints and a digital case management solution for investigators and agency officials.

The Solution

To address these challenges the CoO partnered with valantic to build the CPRA app and the OAKAPPS portal using the OutSystems low-code platform.

The new CPRA application consists of a public website where a citizen can report a complaint and monitor its status. In addition, CoO created a back-office case management app that supports the complex process of taking on a complaint, assigning it to an investigator, collaborating with Police Internal Affairs, and bringing the case to closure. The CPRA application replaces a legacy, paper-based process to give residents unprecedented transparency and easy online access.

OAKPAPPS is a resident-centric, single sign-on portal that houses all new and future city services applications (including CPRA), giving the City of Oakland the autonomy to continuously improve their e-government strategy.

Besides bringing both solutions to market, valantic played a critical role in kicking off the transformation and familiarizing the in-house team with the OutSystems platform.

City of Oakland Application on various devices

The Result

The CPRA application was delivered in 16 weeks with three developers, saving an estimated 32 weeks if built by hand. The main benefits to the business include:

Allows residents the unprecedented ability to file and track complaints of police misconduct online via phone, tablet, or computer
Provides a case management infrastructure so intake and investigatory staff have a centralized location to build and store electronic case files, and supervisors can track the progress of investigations as well as staff workloads and workflow
Provides back-office functionality to perform advanced analytics on data related to investigations

Other key business outcomes from the OAKAPPS portal include:
Faster app development and deployment makes the CoO’s digital transformation a reality
Single sign-on increases access to city services and gives the CoO a 360-degree view of each resident for meaningful cross-promotions.

Highlights

Responsive Web Application

Complex Integrations

Fast Time To Market

Security Compliance

Andrew “Pete” Peterson
CIO/CTO, City of Oakland

”The system revolutionizes CPRA work and makes it easier than ever for the public to hold our police officers accountable. As part of OAKAPPS, it offers residents fast, secure, and private online access to CoO programs and services—anytime, anywhere, from any device. Resident-centric digital transformation is now a reality in our city, and valantic gave us the boost we needed. They fully understood our pains and came out with the best possible solution, ensuring us the autonomy to evolve, and they’re always available for any support we may require.“