As a local government body, resident satisfaction is of utmost importance to the City. Every decision we make, policy we implement, program we fund, service we deliver, and investment we create in the community, all lead to the same end goal - ensuring a better quality of life for the people in our community. Cityline has always been a portal to communicate with the residents, understand their concerns and find ways to address them, but a strong program is only successful if it continues to meet the needs for which it was intended, and for that, it has to be relevant, easy to use, and efficient.
Why did we change it?
The previous version of Cityline was established during the administration of Mayor Tom Young. During the last 4-5 years, we made significant progress in becoming a Smart City and that transformed the way we functioned in many ways. These efforts changed the way we perceive and interact with data, privacy, ethics, equity, and make decisions based on that data. All this change is bound to shed light on the gaps and areas of improvement in our processes and Cityline was one of them.
Cityline is our main resident engagement tool, with a primary goal of identifying and addressing quality of life concerns around the community. It is a process that needs to be efficient, transparent, user-friendly, and data-driven.
How is the new Cityline different?
The new Cityline portal (now called SYRCityline) is powered by SeeClickFix, a market leader in government technologies, specifically, resident engagement tools. The new SYRCityline can be accessed via a web browser and a mobile application. Here is a list of everything that has changed:
The mobile application gives more power to residents; they are now able to submit service requests on their phones instead of waiting in line for someone to answer their calls.
The mobile application also gives residents the ability to see all the requests they submitted at a glance and track the status of those cases.
Residents who have downloaded the app will now be able to receive push notifications about notices issued by the city. These could pertain to road closures, delayed services, emergency notifications, and other service-related information.
Residents will be able to submit a request on their own time. Submitting a complaint is super easy, you can do it the moment you notice something while out in your neighborhood or driving across the City, rather than making a phone call to CityLine or sending an email.
The mobile application also gives you the ability to call city departments, including the Syracuse Police Department, the City Payment Center, and the Water Department from the links on the home screen. You can also follow SYRCityline on Twitter and provide feedback from the same page.
Please feel free to watch this tutorial video on how to set up and use the mobile app: SYRCityline Mobile App Tutorial
Please feel free to watch this tutorial on how to use the web portal from our website: SYRCityline Web Portal Tutorial
Please feel free to review this fact sheet for all other Frequently asked questions.
How is this going to make a difference to the residents?
The new application will make a big difference in our service quality. We have already been getting great feedback from residents who have used it.
When you submit a service request online, you will receive an email confirming that your request has been received by the system. The email will also show you who is taking care of your request to ensure transparency and accountability
Residents will be able to interact with the assigned city staff person addressing their concerns in the comments section. We hope that this will create a sense of community and provide clarity to the network of services the city provides.
We will soon be publishing data from SYRCityline on the City’s Open Data Portal. This integration will allow community partners and stakeholders to see and understand the data, quality of service, and use metrics for other use-cases to improve the quality of life for our community.
How is this going to make a difference to the City?
Implementation of this new tool has also driven change within the organization. We have transformed the way we use technology, receive and store data, and make decisions to improve services.
The flow of work from receiving a service request to assigning it to a department and tracking it through resolution is increasingly transparent, swift, and standardized.
The new process will decrease the likelihood of errors and create clear channels of assignment and communication.
We will be able to use the data to benchmark and improve our service resolution times and increase the quality of services provided
We will be in a better position to increase our engagement with difficult-to-reach areas in the city and encourage community involvement.
We will be able to identify bottlenecks in resource allocation and direct them to areas in need.