For more than a decade, SiteHatchery has developed, hosted, and supported a subscription platform that transportation agencies use to manage project funding, documentation, and community input. Agencies subscribe by contract, each has its own account, and our team provides training, documentation, and support. Running software for public agencies over that long a stretch teaches lessons that a single build project never does. Here are the ones we would pass on to any agency buying subscription software, and to any team building it.
1. The launch is the beginning
Most of the value, and most of the work, comes after go-live. Funding programs change, reporting requirements change, staff turn over, and new agencies join with slightly different processes. Budget for continuing improvement and support from the start, and be wary of any proposal that treats delivery as the finish line.
2. Configure, don’t fork
Every agency believes its process is unique, and partly it is. But a separate custom version for each customer quickly becomes impossible to maintain. The sustainable approach is one product with configuration: per-agency settings, categories, roles, and templates. When a request comes in, the first question is whether it can be a setting that helps everyone.
3. Accounts and roles matter more than features
Agency software is used by administrators, program staff, partner agencies, contractors, and sometimes the public. Getting roles and permissions right, and making it easy to onboard and offboard people, prevents more problems than any individual feature. Staff turnover is constant in the public sector; access should never depend on one person’s login.
4. Training and documentation are part of the product
A capable system that people don’t know how to use is a failed system. Short guides, walkthroughs for common tasks, and a real person to contact when something is confusing keep adoption up and support requests down. Agencies should be able to manage their own work independently, with help available when they want it.
5. Small, regular releases beat big ones
Agencies depend on the system during busy cycles such as funding deadlines and board meetings. Small releases on a regular schedule, with changes demonstrated before they go live, are far less disruptive than occasional large upgrades. A predictable rhythm also makes it easier for agencies to plan training.
6. Treat the data as the agency’s record
Project histories, funding records, and documents may need to be retrieved years later for audits, reports, or public records requests. That means reliable backups that are actually tested, clear retention rules, careful data migrations, and the ability to export an agency’s data if it ever needs to leave.
7. Hosting is part of the responsibility
Subscription software only works if someone owns the servers, patches, certificates, monitoring, and incident response. When the same team builds and hosts the system, problems that cross application code, databases, and infrastructure get solved instead of bounced between vendors.
8. Contract subscriptions are still SaaS
Public agencies often buy software through contracts and purchase orders rather than a credit card on a sign-up page. That does not change what good software as a service requires: shared infrastructure, per-customer accounts, continuous improvement, and dependable support.
What to ask a vendor
- How long have your current customers been using the product, and can we talk to one?
- How do you handle a request that only our agency needs?
- What training and documentation are included, and who answers support requests?
- How often do you release changes, and how are we told about them?
- How are backups tested, and how would we export our data if we left?
- Who hosts the system, and who is responsible when something goes down?
How we help
SiteHatchery builds, hosts, and supports software for public agencies and organizations, and we stay involved for the long term. See Support & Maintenance and Data Platforms & Reporting, or talk to us about your system.