“A vision without action is a hallucination.” - Financial Foundations for Thriving Communities, GFOA
In the effort to enable PBB communities, ResourceX built a framework to address potential opportunities, The PBB Blue Print. This framework is available for application to programs in OnlinePBB through the Program Commenting exercise.
Programs can be tagged with opportunities and the actions required to accomplish these opportunities can be described in the Budget Comments. This new layer of data creates a collection of potential opportunities that can be put into action. This exercise can be completed by all PBB users in the OnlinePBB tools, and ResourceX offers a workshop format to facilitate this exercise onsite or via web interface.
A case study in the onsite facilitation of Program Commenting: City of St. Albert, AB, Canada Super Users: Paul Edginton and Dawn Fedorvich January 2020 - Total Program Count: 152 - Total Opportunities Identified: 300+
In January 2020, ResourceX met with all 12 Departments of the City of St. Albert, AB, CA over the course of three days. The purpose was to filter every city program across all departments through the PBB Blueprint with the objective of tagging each program with one or more specific opportunities.
These future-focused recommendation opportunities include: What is the future of the program? Is it a program to invest more into and increase service levels? Is it a program where an opportunity exists to divest resources away (through efficiency, or partnership, or service level reduction), in order to make those resources available for reinvestment? Is it a program for which revenue maximization opportunities exist (from cost recovery, or in-sourcing a regional solution for revenue)?
Ultimately, Team St. Albert identified over 300 recommendations across approximately 150 programs, setting a record among the PBB client community.
I was particularly impressed with the amount of staff preparation for each department meeting. Every department came prepared with recommendations. Each department seemed genuinely enthusiastic to help define the future of the programs they are responsible to deliver. This translates to a very healthy organization clearly dedicated to residents and the future of the community.
St. Albert Super User, Dawn Fedorvich, provided this feedback, "Over three days, with the help of ResourceX, we were able to meet with all twelve of our departments and start brainstorming over 300 potential ways to apply the blueprint. City staff have been very creative about opportunities for revenue generation and ways to be more efficient.
What’s been especially interesting is how integrated each department’s ideas are. The work one group is planning will solve issues felt in another. This cross-departmental teamwork is really exciting and helps us build PBB up as a business planning tool. We now look forward to prioritizing the potential blueprint applications and start implementing the quick wins."
Congratulations to St. Albert for moving from Data to Insights! Can't wait to see your next Action steps!
If your organization is interested in a Program Tagging exercise (creating insights to take action on applying your PBB data), please contact us here.
2020 PBB Summit!
The 2020 ResourceX PBB Summit is presented in partnership with the Alliance for Innovation.
