When the time comes to find a new software provider, the process can be daunting for anyone in parks & recreation management. The City of Davenport, Iowa was no exception – but when they started looking in early 2023 for a new provider to reduce tedious manual tasks, provide enhanced customer service, and increase accessibility to their facilities, they took the time to diligently consider every option.
As the team sought out potential providers, they realized some aspects of their ideal technology were non-negotiable:
Cloud-Based Management
After a decade with the same server-based provider, the City of Davenport Parks & Recreation Department was ready for the innovations of cloud-based management, which include enhanced security, stability, and accessibility – so they went on the search for something to fit the bill, coming back with eleven different bids from potential providers.
“We had been with the same recreation software for about 10 years, so there were a lot of advancements in user interface in server versus cloud-based software systems.” – Becca Niles | Senior Administrative Services Manager, City of Davenport Parks & Recreation Department
Enhanced Customer Experience
For Becca Niles, senior administrative services manager of the City of Davenport’s Parks & Recreation Department, it was imperative to find a platform that would enable the team to provide excellent customer service – which meant an enhanced user interface, online reservations and forms, and a responsive support team.
“We were looking at what would allow us to provide better service for our customers, especially online.” – Becca Niles | Senior Administrative Services Manager, City of Davenport Parks & Recreation Department
Affordable Pricing with Robust Value
As with any municipal entity, the City of Davenport had a budget to stick with – but they didn’t want to sacrifice quality for cost. So, when the time came to choose their provider, pricing was an important factor tempered by the reality of their need for all-inclusive, capable software.
“Some of it came down to the pricing bundle. We really liked that RecDesk was all inclusive – you just had access to all of the modules regardless of whether you were going to utilize all of them.” – Becca Niles | Senior Administrative Services Manager, City of Davenport Parks & Recreation Department
When Niles and her department chose RecDesk from among the eleven providers that submitted bids, they discovered it offered every feature they were looking for – plus several others “we didn’t even know that we needed in our lives.”
Read on to find out what those extra features were, and how implementing RecDesk led to a “huge increase in online sales” for the City of Davenport Parks and Recreation Department!
