Paperless and modern Agenda Management - City of Granbury, Texas

Granbury is a dynamic and fast growing community approximately 30 miles Southwest of Fort Worth, Texas on US Highway 377, often referred to as the NAFTA Highway. Nestled around Lake Granbury, wich was created in 1969 by damming the Brazos River, Granbury offers a unique dichotomy of both historic attractions and present day accommodations and shopping. The historic square remains in many ways just as it was in the late 1800's. Many of the buildings on the square are registered historic landmarks, including the Granbury Opera House.

In contrast to the historic Old Town is the IT department, headed by Anthony Tull, which focuses on mondern technology and innovations. Granbury was one of the first cities in the United States to give citizens and visitors throughout the city wireless Internet access. Granbury has been dedicated to utilizing modern information services in recent years, and this project serves as another flagship of modern communication within the city.

Included among several sales and presentation activities in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metropolian Area was the Agenda Management Software from PROVOX Systems, with headquarters in Dallas, Texas and Springfield, Missouri, presented to the key users in the City. Until that time the City of Granbury had the same problems with meeting management as many U.S. cities.

Modern session management requires ever more information in less time. This increases not only the preparation costs, but human ressources. Therefore, the leaders sought an efficient, paperless agenda management system capable of saving both time and money.

After a succesful presentation, in which all involved administrative staff where present, the decision was taken to quickly implement Agenda.NET. This decision was also based on the large scale and performance and 14 years of expertise offered by PROVOX Systems.

Agenda.NET is a product completely based on Microsoft.NET and therefore integrated perfectly into our existing infrastructure. Two days after the decision, Agenda.NET was installed on the server.

It took only an installation script for the agenda server. The respective clients receive the software automatically; it needs only the Microsoft.NET Framework 2.0 or higher.

Another advantage was that the administration of different versions of Microsoft Word could be operated with no additional work. Additionally the included Internet and Intranet module was also direct-installed. Using this module we can replicate automatically selected information into the Internet without manual effort. The installation and configuration was completed within an hour, so the training could get started.

After the training a competent project team of Angela McCafferty and Rick Norman was formed.

Angela McCafferty is responsible for the Planning & Zoning committee.

This committee has the most extensive agenda and thus also the most invitations, records and meetings.

The rapid implementation of the project was due primarily the great expertise of Angela McCafferty and Rick Norman. After a test phase was launched in autumn this year Agenda.NET was adopted and implemented for session management.

"After a short time we recognized that through the use of Agenda.NET, and its included Internet module containing numerous workflow processes, a more effective and paperless agenda and meeting management can be realized with little human effort."

"It is projected that through the use of Agenda.NET the first year cost fo around 60% will be saved. Furthermore, using the Internet and Intranet module (which is completely database based), allows us to provide the elected representatives more extensive important information faster and release the information to the Internet automatically."

The customized Internet and Intranet module of Agenda.NET can be adjusted within a day at the existing sites of the City of Granbury. The replication of relevant data is carried out every five minutes.

Agenda.NET provides an automatic replication of relevant data into the internet. On every replication, the program will send the new and/or changed information to the web server. The replication works via a secure connection. Citizens and elected representatives can access information on the Internet.

The representatives receive a user name and password for secure access. In their comments they receive, among other things: past and upcoming meetings, all new documents since the last registration, closed session information, numerous research facilities and the opportunity a personal meeting packet with all relevant documents (including the annexes to agenda items and agendas).

"With Agenda.NET we have found a very flexible and easy to use product. It is easy with a few mouse clicks to adapt the application to the existing organizational structures and is therefore in our view, useful for cities and organizations of any size. The scope of the product is so great that even later demands and desires can be mapped through Agenda.NET.

With Agenda.NET we have found a mature, practical product with a lower cost than other similar offerings"

City of Granbury, Texas

October 27, 2008

prepared by: Anthony Tull (IT Manager), Angela McCafferty (Planning & Zoning), Rick Norman (IT Department)