CPRA Application
Saved an estimated 32 weeks if built by hand
Challenge
The City of Oakland (CoO) is a vibrant and growing community in northern California located in the San Francisco Bay area. 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 But the CoO’s systems and processes were old and outdated, and most required residents to complete forms manually and in-person.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.
Solution
To address these challenges the CoO partnered with Do iT Lean 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, Do iT Lean played a critical role in kicking off the transformation and familiarizing
the in-house team with the OutSystems platform.
Results
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
