Dictionary · Government technology
What is GovTech?
Govtech, short for government technology, is the software and services public agencies buy to run their work and serve residents. For a city, county, transit agency or MPO, it is the tools behind citizen engagement, public meetings and agendas, permits and records, data and reporting, and the security that protects all of it.
Civic tech is technology that helps people take part in public life, built by governments, nonprofits or volunteers. It overlaps with govtech, but govtech is defined by the buyer: a public agency, under a contract.
More terms in the PublicInput dictionary.
Why govtech matters
Residents expect to reach their government the way they reach any other service: online, by phone or text, at a time that suits them, and in their own language. Staff are asked to meet that with the same headcount, while every comment, agenda and record still has to satisfy open meetings, public records and accessibility law.
Good govtech closes that gap. It takes manual steps out of work staff repeat every week, keeps one record of what residents said and what was decided, and puts the same information within reach of everyone. Poor govtech does the opposite: another login, another spreadsheet, another place where a resident’s comment can get lost.
Types of govtech local governments buy
Most agencies buy govtech in five areas. The first two face residents directly. The other three run behind them, and all five handle public data.
Tools residents use
Engagement and outreach
Project pages, surveys, interactive maps, comment forms, and email and text updates residents can subscribe to. The useful ones keep every comment from every channel, online, by phone, by email or in person, in one record staff can report on. This is where long-range plans, budgets and rezoning engagement happen.
Public meetings and agendas
Agenda building, request-to-speak sign-ups, hybrid meetings people can join in person, by browser or by phone, live captions, and minutes. For a clerk, the test is whether the agenda, the speaker list and the record of the meeting live in one place, or have to be stitched together after every meeting.
Systems that run behind them
Data and analytics
Dashboards, GIS and reporting that show what was said and who said it. In engagement, the most useful question is who you have not heard from: comparing participants with census data by area shows which neighborhoods or groups to reach next. When Revere, MA redrew its wards and precincts, it used interactive maps to explain the changes and answer residents’ comments, and the council adopted the new maps by unanimous vote (How Revere, MA increased public trust).
Records, permitting and administration
Permitting and licensing, service requests, finance and HR systems, records management and public records requests. These are often the largest contracts an agency signs and the hardest to replace, so how data gets into and out of them shapes every other tool you buy.
Security and identity
Single sign-on, role-based access, encryption, monitoring, and filters that stop bots from flooding public forms. Security is less a category of its own than a requirement every other category has to meet. On a public survey, for example, automated responses can drown out real residents, so engagement tools need to catch them before they reach a report (Bots, spam and community engagement).
Govtech vs. government IT
Government IT is a department and the infrastructure it runs: networks, devices, email, the help desk, identity and security. Govtech is the wider market of products built for public agencies. Much of it is bought by a department such as planning, the clerk’s office or communications, with IT approving how it connects and how it is secured.
| Term | Who buys or builds it | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Govtech | A department, through procurement | Engagement platform, agenda system, permitting portal |
| Government IT | The IT department | Network, devices, email, single sign-on |
| Civic tech | Governments, nonprofits, volunteers | Open data apps, volunteer-built service maps |
How to evaluate govtech
Buying govtech usually means a formal procurement, such as an RFP or a cooperative contract, and a commitment of several years. Six steps, in the order most purchases run.
- Start with the problem and who it affectsWrite down the work that takes the most staff time today and the residents your current tools fail to reach. That is your requirement list, not a vendor’s feature list.
- Bring in IT, the clerk and legal earlySecurity review, records retention and accessibility sign-off take longer than a demo. Starting them at the beginning avoids a stalled contract at the end.
- Put the hard requirements in the RFPAccessibility, security, data ownership and integrations, below, are the questions that separate tools built for government from general business software.
- Ask for a demo of your own scenarioGive every vendor the same real project, such as a rezoning case or a budget survey, and watch your staff run it, not the vendor’s.
- Call references that look like youAsk an agency of similar size and staffing how long setup took, what support is like, and what they would do differently.
- Plan for the end of the contractAgree how you get your data back, in what format, and how the vendor deletes it, before you sign.
Questions to ask every vendor
Accessibility
Ask whether the product meets WCAG 2.1 Level AA, on staff screens and resident pages alike, and ask for a recent accessibility conformance report. The Department of Justice’s 2024 rule under Title II of the ADA made WCAG 2.1 AA the standard for state and local government web content and mobile apps, including what a vendor provides under contract. A 2026 interim rule set the compliance dates at April 26, 2027 for governments of 50,000 people or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts (ADA.gov fact sheet). More in ADA compliance in public engagement.
Security
Ask for the vendor’s SOC 2 Type II report: an independent auditor’s review of its security controls over a period of months, not on a single day. Then ask where data is hosted, whether it is encrypted in transit and at rest, and whether staff sign in through your own single sign-on with role-based access. How PublicInput keeps your community’s data safe shows what a complete answer covers.
Data ownership
The contract should say the agency owns its data, including residents’ contact details and comments. Ask how you export all of it, in what format and how quickly, and how the vendor supports public records requests and your retention schedule.
Integrations
List the systems the new tool has to work with: your agenda or legislative management system, GIS, website, email and identity provider. Ask which connections work today at another customer, and which are only planned.
Reaching every resident
Ask how people without a computer, or with limited English, take part: phone and text options, translation, and paper or in-person comments staff can add to the same record. A tool that only works for people who are already online measures the wrong community.
Customer examples
Govtech in practice: four public agencies
What these tools change looks different in a city, a county and a regional planning agency. Four published examples, each from a different part of the work.
City of Raleigh, NC: an $80 million housing bond
When the pandemic ruled out in-person forums, Raleigh moved its affordable housing bond outreach online, with a survey, recorded virtual meetings, translation and a phone-in option, and engaged more than 4,800 residents. Voters approved the bond with nearly 72% support. Read the Raleigh story.
San Diego County, CA: Board of Supervisors meetings
Meetings ran six to eight hours with hundreds of participants, and speakers were tracked on paper slips and separate online forms. With one system for agendas, speaker sign-ups, phone and in-person queues and transcripts, the Clerk of the Board cut meeting prep and post-processing time by 26%. Read the San Diego County story.
King County, WA: one survey in 10 languages
Nearly 30% of King County residents speak a language other than English. The County ran its lake swimming beaches survey in 10 languages, each with its own link so it could track language preference for future outreach, and reached more than 1,400 residents. Read the King County story.
Genesee Transportation Council, NY: a nine-county MPO
With a small staff, the region’s MPO used one platform for registration, email campaigns, a livestream and the follow-up survey of its first Regional Transportation Safety Summit. It drew more than 180 survey participants and more than 120 new subscribers for its Safe Streets and Roads for All planning. Read the GTC story.
- Residents engaged on Raleigh’s housing bond
- 4,800+
- Less meeting prep and post-processing time, San Diego County
- 26%
- Languages in King County’s beaches survey
- 10
Figures as published in How the City of Raleigh increased their reach, San Diego County modernizes public meetings and Community engagement and language accessibility (King County, WA).
Questions people ask about govtech
What is govtech?
Govtech, short for government technology, is the software and services public agencies buy to run their work and serve residents. It includes engagement and outreach tools, public meeting and agenda systems, data and analytics, records and permitting systems, and the security that protects them.
What is a govtech company?
A govtech company builds products mainly for public agencies, such as cities, counties, transit agencies, regional planning agencies and state departments. Selling to government means meeting public procurement rules, accessibility law, records law and security reviews, so these companies build for those requirements from the start.
What are examples of govtech?
Examples include a project page where residents comment on a rezoning, an email and text alert service, an agenda and hybrid meeting system with a phone-in line, a permitting portal, a service request app, a GIS dashboard, and single sign-on for staff.
Is govtech the same as civic tech?
Not quite. Civic tech is any technology that helps people take part in public life, and it is often built by nonprofits or volunteers. Govtech is technology a public agency buys or builds to run its work. A resident feedback tool that a city licenses is both.
What is the difference between govtech and government IT?
Government IT is the department and infrastructure that keep an agency running: networks, devices, email, identity and security. Govtech is the wider market of products built for public agencies, often bought by a department such as planning or the clerk’s office, with IT approving how it connects and how it is secured.
What accessibility standard does govtech have to meet?
Under the Department of Justice’s 2024 ADA Title II rule, state and local government web content and mobile apps, including those a vendor provides, must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The compliance date is April 26, 2027 for governments of 50,000 people or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller governments and special districts.
What should a govtech RFP ask for?
At a minimum: WCAG 2.1 AA conformance with a recent accessibility report, a SOC 2 Type II report, agency ownership of all data with a full export at any time, the integrations you need already working at another customer, and references from agencies of similar size.
Bring engagement and meetings into one record
PublicInput gives each project and meeting its own page, reaches residents by email, text and phone in their language, and keeps every comment in one record your staff can report on.
See engagement solutions