Policy management tool: A checklist for government leaders

As a government leader, one of your top priorities is to balance a large volume of policymaking with limited staff and resources. It can be challenging to keep track of policy projects, identify potential risks and ensure your team stays on course. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions such as Esper can give you the visibility you need to enhance your agency's policy management. In this buyer's guide, we will walk you through key factors to consider when procuring the best policy management software for your organization.

How to choose your policy management software

If you're considering investing in a technology solution to overcome the hurdles of policy management, it's crucial to ask the right questions during the procurement process. Here’s a checklist of what you should ask:

1. Is it an end-to-end policy management platform?

The policymaking lifecycle involves many stages, so you need an end-to-end platform that supports policy research, drafting, reviews and publication. Many agencies end up cobbling together disparate solutions. This type of fragmentation creates unnecessary costs, friction (e.g., incompatibility between systems) and tech fatigue. You should also make sure that your policy management tool is purpose-built for the public sector. Government agencies have unique requirements and regulations that are not present in other industries. For example, policy text usually has to be formatted in a very particular way, which varies depending on jurisdiction.With Esper, you can consolidate all your policy lifecycle processes into one cloud-based platform. Not only is Esper an end-to-end solution but it's also built with government agencies in mind.

2. Does it identify policies that require review?

You need to ensure that your agency’s policies are up to date and reflect the latest federal and state guidance. If policies are not reviewed regularly, they can become outdated and potentially put the agency at risk for legal liability. Look for a policy management tool that is able to identify policies with repealed statutes, outdated references, upcoming expiration dates and more. Administrative code cleanup capabilities bring you economic benefits, too. For example, agencies can save legal fees by proactively addressing potential areas of liability before they become a problem.With Esper’s citation tracker, you can flag outdated legal references and identify potential areas for improvement. You can also improve your policies by visualizing data insights such as policy engagement metrics (last updated, total views, average time on policy etc.) and policy complexity metrics such as reading level and text length. Did you know that it could take over six hours to fully read certain policies? Learn how AI-powered regulatory technology can give you a faster approach.

3. Does it offer resource forecasting?

Many government leaders struggle to know where a policymaking project is in their team's pipeline. Leadership needs visibility to better forecast resources. That's why you should look for a policy management tool that can track team bandwidth and manage workload with a project dashboard that shows the status of active policies, progress towards, completion and a filtered timeline view. With Esper, you can even visualize projects in a Gantt chart sorted either by time period or by individual.