Innovation
The Innovation Lab is a small, collaborative workspace that offers 10-20 employees the time and resources to document and then “lean out” an existing city process.
As a creative problem solving tool, the Innovation Lab helps agencies achieve:
- Targeted, substantial efficiency gains through leaner and smarter operations
- Better and faster service delivered to citizens
- Increased capacity for handling big problems more effectively, and getting positive results
Process Improvement
OPDA frequently partners with city departments to utilize data and evidence-based practices to examine, challenge, and improve upon processes to enhance city services. From modernizing the city’s permitting processes to enhancing customer service, OPDA guides departments through the steps of identifying and bettering long-held practices that may be hindering efficiency.
Project Management
OPDA’s Project Management team provides active support and management of projects, both short- and long-term, to empower departments to improve processes and systems across city government. Projects have included:
- OpenCounter
- Short-term Rental
- CAGIS Edge
Shift Cincy (Continuous Improvement)
ShiftCincy is a newly created immersive training program focused on continuous and quality improvement within the City of Cincinnati government. As a participant in the program, City employees will learn the tenets of Quality Improvement in order to apply techniques in their own departments and processes.
Projects
Eliminating Duke Utility Late Fees
Progress is already being made in the InnovationLab! The iLab's pilot project focused on eliminating late fees accruing from 200+ MSD and Water Works utility accounts with Duke. Owing to innovation and collaboration, the City now expects to save $133,000 per year in avoiding late fees.
Streamlining the Permit Process
Our next lab focused on reducing the time it takes businesses to get a building permit. The permitting process used to take 10-12 weeks, but thanks to hard-work in the Innovation Lab, it has been cut down to 3-5 weeks. This success will surely save the City money and help foster economic growth.
City Collections
This iLab focused on improving the city’s strategy to collect on delinquent accounts. Ensuring that the city is properly paid for services provided allows the city to redirect resources to areas other than covering revenue shortfalls. Key changes included eliminating a redundant collection notice, a streamlined collections process, a focus on worst offenders, and bundling debt. After an immediate $100,000 + surge in collections resulting from confronting customers with delinquent accounts the average collections rate has been steadily increasing.
Revocable Street Privileges
As an overall effort to improve the city’s permitting functions, this iLab focused on ensuring quick turn around and proper validation of revocable street privilege issuance. Improvements included the development of pre-screening checklists, updates to the fee structure, system modifications to attach contracts, and the elimination of conditional approvals that put the city at risk for liability, among many others. Please see the chart below for improvement metrics:
Special Event Permits
Another component of the overall city permitting function included improvements to the special event permit application process. We are currently working on centralizing information under one location in the city’s website, adding a more user-friendly calendar, allowing for writable PDF applications, including a matrix that shows the amount of insurance based on event size, and overall process improvements.
HR Standardization
OPDA, leveraging both the InnovationLab and Stat process, has been working with HR since October 2018 to execute the Administration's plan to centralize and standardize human resources efforts. This project aims to create alignment in HR practices throughout City departments.