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It’s 2019, which means that your personal email is overflowing with offers for warm-weather vacations, winter coats and weight-loss workshops.  

Although these personalized marketing efforts are familiar, what might be surprising is that your hometown could be using these same techniques to sell their city to tourists, residents and most importantly, large businesses and corporations seeking to relocate, and by default, jumpstart the local economy.  

Cities and towns of all sizes and locations are discovering the need to engage with citizens and businesses in the same way that retail companies personalize a variety of services for consumers. The days of waiting in line at a government service center or sitting in a holding pattern on the phone are long gone; now, citizens expect to swipe or talk to their smart devices to get the services they need. 

At Oracle, we are developing a number of cloud services to help agencies streamline workflows and engage digitally with customers to drive smarter, more connected government.  We are focused on:

• Modernizing government: Improve the business of government with integrated mobile, social, and analytic technologies to exceed rapidly evolving citizen expectations.
• Connecting the citizen journey: Guide citizens through government interactions, from initial contact to resolution. Integrate mobility, IoT and intelligence derived from machine learning to increase efficiency and reduce costs.
• Increasing availability and consistency: Create an omni-channel experience that allows citizens to interact with government in anytime, any place and on any device.
• Enhancing flexibility: Provide a common and adaptable standards-based platform to solve real-world problems -- today and tomorrow. 
• Enabling faster better decisions: Use a comprehensive citizen view, analytics and social media insights to improve decision-making.

These leading-edge capabilities manifest themselves in the most ordinary ways, transforming previously ponderous government interactions into seamless and smooth operations. For example, we have launched a community development solution to help streamline and expedite the cumbersome work of obtaining building permits for construction, with planning and zoning improvements rolling out shortly. We are providing state and local economic development offices the power of our marketing offerings to attract new businesses and entrepreneurs. And we are turning that very same digital access into a force for social good, by providing a multi-channel experience for people seeking to find assistance for substance use disorders.

Constituent communications within government are being redefined by digital at a remarkable pace. With exponential growth in connected devices and related data, digital capabilities are transforming citizen engagement from the traditional event-based linear model to dynamic real- time experiences. 

It’s time to help local governments extend their digital welcome mat to city hall, and allow customers to connect with government anytime, anywhere in a unified digital experience.