Case Study: City of Fort Collins

A few years ago, the City of Fort Collins decided it was time to overhaul their special event permit application and approval process. With a paper-based application process, their Special Event Office staff found that approving permits was cumbersome, time intensive, prone to errors, and often frustrating for the applicants and other City staff.

Some of their challenges included:

  • Too many paper applications – applicants were required to complete up to seven paper applications (depending on the size and scope of an event) and hand deliver the various forms to each City department.
  • Slow manual processing – applications were being scanned and emailed to City staff across various departments. Emails would be missed, details fell through the cracks, and miscommunication was commonplace.
  • Excessive communications – during the approval process, the Special Event Office struggled to stay on top of numerous meetings, phone calls and emails with each applicant, as well as with City staff and other approving agencies.
  • Frustrated applicants – applicants were always calling to see where their application was in the approval process.
City of Fort Collins: a client of Eproval

City of Fort Collins

POPULATION 103,588

Internally and externally, Eproval gives added legitimacy to our special event permit program, especially because it is an easy and intuitive process which isn’t always the case in government. We have become the model for other areas of the City, and other cities.

Jan Sawyer
Special Event Coordinator

The implementation of Eproval provided the City’s Special Event Office with a competitively priced solution to overcome their challenges. Eproval’s easy-to-use, event-specific platform provided the City with the following benefits:

  • Online application and approval process – event organizers can now access their application anywhere, anytime using Eproval’s one-stop-shop solution. City Staff and other approving agencies can also access applications online, read comments from other approvers, and communicate directly with the applicant. Yes, that means no more paper!
  • Centralized digital storage – now all users can view accurate, safe and timely application information online. Approvers can also retrieve past event applications for historical context and event organizers can duplicate a saved application for future years. This means the City has drastically reduced the number of meetings, phone calls and emails with approvers and with event organizers.
  • Real transparency – applicants can log in and see where their application is in the approval process, every step of the way, anytime!

Prior to Eproval, there were at least three full-time equivalent (FTE) staff working on the administration of special event permits in the City of Fort Collins. With Eproval, the City has reduced the number to 1.5 FTEs, and now administers and issues special event permits with greater efficiency.

Check out the City of Fort Collin’s Eproval System.