Ramsey, MN Digitizes Recreation Management System, Saves Hours of Manual Administration

After an increase in resident participation in Parks and Recreation programs, staff members needed to reevaluate the efficiency of their manual logging system.

To coordinate reservations, the Parks and Recreation department was using a combination of manual documentation and Microsoft Outlook. If residents wanted to register for the city’s recreational activities, they had to use a separate platform. This sign-up process was inefficient, as residents would often be redirected to the Parks and Recreation department to complete registration due to confusion within the platform. This created a constant cycle of inconvenience for residents and an increased amount of work for the department’s limited staff. 

Ramsey’s Parks & Recreation Assistant—who was half of the department’s two-person staff—was spending 24 to thirty hours per week on the phone with residents coordinating facility reservations. According to Jason Fredrickson, City of Ramsey Information Technology Manager, when graduation season approached annually, the peak season for facility reservations, the Parks & Recreation Assistant’s time became nearly entirely consumed with manual request management and scheduling.

Without a dedicated recreation management system, the Parks and Recreation department knew they would be constantly backlogged with requests from residents, taking away time from their other workflow tasks.

Ramsey implemented a cloud-based recreation management system with online resident self-service functionality for registrations, reservations, and online payments.

The City of Ramsey wanted to integrate a new website solution to their existing software, CivicPlus, that would allow for a self-service facility scheduling option. This tool allowed Ramsey’s Park & Recreation assistant to spend significantly less time taking calls to coordinate facility reservations in their busier seasons. 

During the implementation process, Ramsey’s IT Manager, Jason Frederickson, was able to be hands-on and lead the integration of the city’s existing data to the new platform. This made the process more efficient, accurate, and helped the city’s small IT Department to quickly complete onboarding and training to manage the new website. 

“Our Assistant’s days are a lot less hectic,” said Fredrickson. “We went live with [the software] at a time when she would normally be flooded with reservation calls,” said Fredrickson. “To help facilitate the transition, we notified some of our busiest and most tech-savvy groups and people of interest in advance about [CivicPlus.] We watched the phones and monitored the online system closely during that first month. We immediately saw a reduction in volume and call duration. Having [the software] available for people to go online and self-service their reservations allows us to expand the window during which people can place reservations.”

In addition to the self-service scheduling option, the software allows for more efficiency in managing the city’s services. Ramsey offers recreational programs and activities for all ages and has been able to adapt the platformfor residents to complete their registration on the same site as they can reserve a facility. Additionally, the city’s Parks and Recreation department has been able to use the site to process refunds to residents when applicable. 

The Parks and Recreation Department is able to customize the website for the city’s specific needs, and is available to the community 24/7. Since the website’s launch, resident feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with how convenient it is to use one system for multiple tasks.