About The Town of Palm Beach Website
Palm Beach Island is revolutionizing its online communication. The Town launched a website on October 1st, 2013 in hopes of making communication between Town staff and Town of Palm Beach residents easier.
In the summer of 2013, Deputy Town Manager Jay Boodheshwar led a Town committee (comprised of representatives from all Town departments) to develop the Town’s new website, using the CivicPlus platform. Jay is the main overseer of the site but, it is monitored by a variety of staff members to ensure that it is up-to-date and accurate. This website is a new and improved version of what the Town previously had but, the amount of traffic the new site has received is incredible. Boohdheshwar told us, “There have been approximately half a million views since the launched in 2013, which is more than 20 times the number of visits during a similar time frame with the old website.”
The goal in publishing this more user-friendly website has been to make communication between the Town and residents more efficient and simple. The home page contains the information and links to the most frequented destinations, based on the analytics of the previous website. Boodheshwar explained, “The addition of the “Spotlight” column on the right side of the home page provide us the space to highlight matters of importance or interest for a shorter period. The “How Do I?” section includes a variety of items that visitors of the website are consistently seeking so we’ve assembled them there to make it easier to find in one place.” Furthermore, the calendar updates automatically post to the Town’s Twitter feed which now has over 500 followers.
About The Town of Palm Beach Website
Residents seem to be responding positively to the online communication, “Immediately after we launched the new website, we noticed residents were signing up to the various email lists to receive information from the Town and were visiting various sections of the site for lengthy periods of time,” says Boodheshwar. He went on to say, “We actually received the first ‘Tell the Town’ email from resident John David Corey [founder of Palm Beach Walks] within the first couple of hours after launch.”
Boodheshwar believes that the popularity of the Town’s website will only continue to grow. He detailed, “The ability to download documents and forms from the website (over 254,000 downloads since the launch), as well as the ability to renew parking permits and pay fines and fees on-line certainly has made it easier for residents by avoiding a trip to Town Hall. We’ll continue to look for ways to make it easier for residents to do day-to-day business with the Town, without having to drive to Town Hall. In addition to the time savings they’ll have, it also reduces related vehicular traffic and the need to find parking, which is always a plus.”
This website has certainly made things easier for Town of Palm Beach residents and Town staff, alike. Booheshwar says that he is very happy with the increased use of the site. In a closing statement he said, “We especially urge residents to sign up to receive emails and emergency alerts from the Town, as they will be able to receive breaking news information about traffic, police activity and hurricane warnings.”
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