CASE STUDY · WEBSITE & ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS
Village of Olmsted
Sometimes a better system can be a very simple one.
Visit the Village of Olmsted
01
WHY THEY CAME TO US
The Village of Olmsted needed a website.
The Village of Olmsted is a small community with a small staff responsible for a wide range of services.
They needed a new website that would make basic information easier for residents and visitors to find without creating another complicated system for Village staff to maintain.
As we worked through the site, we also looked at some of the routine tasks that were still requiring direct staff involvement.
02
WHAT WE LEARNED
They needed a way to handle the flow of information.
Two good examples were campground reservations and fishing permits.
Neither required a giant municipal software platform. But both involved information moving back and forth between the Village and the person making the request.
The Village also had an existing payment system that needed to remain part of the process.
So the question wasn’t, “How much can we automate?”
It was:
How can we make this easier without creating more work somewhere else?
03
WHAT WE SAW
This didn’t need to be complicated.
Some very simple technology could remove several repetitive steps.
A good form could collect the information staff actually needed the first time. Automated messages could give people instructions and confirmations without someone manually writing the same response over and over.
At the same time, there were places where keeping a person involved still made sense.
For campground reservations, for example, the Village still needed to confirm availability. There was no reason to replace that sensible human step with an elaborate reservation platform just so we could call the process fully automated.
04
WHAT MADE SENSE
Use what already works. Improve what doesn’t.
We worked within the systems the Village already had rather than asking them to replace working tools simply because something newer was available.
The goal was a straightforward website, simple forms and carefully chosen automation.
Automate what helps. Leave the human where the human is useful.
And, just as importantly, don’t solve a small administrative problem by giving a small staff a complicated new technology problem to manage.
05
WHAT WE BUILT
We built the routine work into the website.
The new Village website makes commonly needed information easier to find and gives residents and visitors clearer ways to complete routine tasks.
Fishing permit and campground processes use online forms to collect the necessary information, existing payment methods remain part of the system, and automated communication handles appropriate instructions and confirmations.
Where staff judgment is still needed, it stays in the process.
06
WHAT CHANGED
More can happen without going through the Village office.
People can now do more for themselves without requiring the Village office to personally walk them through every step.
Staff receives better-organized information, repetitive communication is reduced, and the existing payment system continues doing the job it was already there to do.
Nothing about the solution is particularly flashy.