Georgia’s IT agency selects vendor to streamline web accessibility work
To streamline the process of meeting web accessibility requirements that will come into effect next April, the Georgia Technology Authority has announced it’s using a new digital government operations platform from the software firm Civic Roundtable.
The state IT agency’s new partnership, which comes about five months ahead of the Justice Department’s deadline for states to ensure their websites are accessible, will see the state IT agency use the software as “the operational backbone” of the transition. Georgia’s tech shop will rely on the firm’s workspaces and “built-for-government” customer relationship management tool, according to a news release.
The CRM will serve as a hub to identify and manage agency contacts, coordinate outreach and track engagement. It also can power bulk email messaging and information synchronization across updates for agency personnel, and provides a method of management for those contact lists and data across the state’s nearly 100 agencies.
The goal of Civic Roundtable, which is a brainchild of the business incubator Harvard Innovation Labs, is to help consolidate often sparse and fragmented data in government that prevents leaders from collaborating, find and share information or measure progress and success.
Nikhil Deshpande, Georgia’s chief digital and AI officer and the head of the state’s Office of Digital Services, said Civic Roundtable’s technology will enable technology staff to better coordinate the accessibility effort across governmental partners by consolidating people and resources into a singular platform.
“Roundtable’s built-for-government CRM gives us an actionable view of our network, ensuring we can easily reach the right stakeholders across every organization we partner with,” Deshpande said in the news release. “With Roundtable’s AI-powered workspaces, integrated contacts and communications, and engagement tracking in a single platform, our team can focus on what matters most — making Georgia’s digital services accessible to everyone.”
