Management

Small-Town Tech: How Modest Municipalities Do More with Less

Cities and towns with smaller populations have unique ways of working around workforce gaps to take advantage of modernized IT.

Alan Radevski

Alan is currently responsible for leading the State and Local Academy team where he gets to develop future top sellers. His focus is on empowering the team to build stronger relationships with their customers while helping them achiever their personal and professional goals.

The U.S. is a country of small cities and towns. A staggering 96% of all incorporated places had populations under 50,000 as of 2020, according to the Census Bureau. Of the nearly 20,000 incorporated cities and towns in the U.S., 76% have fewer than 5,000 people.

All cities face talent shortages, a worsening cyberthreat landscape and the ongoing need for IT modernization. But for small municipalities, everything is just a little harder, and that means everyone needs to work just a little smarter.

However, we’ve seen innumerable small cities and towns overcome IT challenges by approaching them differently than a larger city might. Building and managing a thriving, modernized IT environment is very doable for smaller communities whose IT leaders know what to do.

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Start with Baseline IT Planning and Visibility

A small or rural town with limited IT personnel needs a plan that’s realistically aligned with available resources. Part of this plan is knowing which foundational technologies fit the town’s needs and providing room for future value-added opportunities.

In particular, baseline technologies that offer a single-pane-of-glass experience provide significant value to resource-strapped teams.

Consider Cisco Meraki: It simplifies security, data center and networking tasks and delivers dashboard visibility. By design, solutions such as Meraki are easy to use and maintain with limited resources, but they still deliver a foundation that can enable innovative IT deployments.

A small town could use Cisco Meraki to implement a digital surveillance network that enhances public safety. A big county or large city might ultimately scale to a more high-end, complex networking solution based on the size of their data center and their capabilities, but a town of 7,000 people won’t need something that elaborate.

By design, solutions such as Meraki are easy to use and maintain with limited resources, but they still deliver a foundation that can enable innovative IT deployments.”

The main challenge for small municipalities is knowing which baseline technologies best align with their plans and what potential pitfalls, such as compatibility issues, exist with that equipment. Just as there are countless technologies designed to support organizations with limited operating resources, there are consultants that can whittle the selection down to the tools that can best address specific needs and capabilities.

Fill Gaps with Carefully Chosen Solutions and Services

Cybersecurity is one of the most urgent initiatives for small towns. Ransomware in particular has wreaked havoc on Small Town, USA. Local agencies have improved in their defenses against ransomware, but the fallout from an attack is costlier than ever.

Unfortunately, most small and rural towns lack abundant access to cybersecurity resources. Gaps exist, and filling them requires a strong understanding of which solutions and services can do the heavy lifting in the absence of a robust cybersecurity workforce. This is yet another area where a third party can offer advice by recommending the highest-impact security solutions and strategies.

96%

The percentage of all incorporated places in the U.S. with fewer than 50,000 residents

Source: census.gov, “America: A Nation of Small Towns,” May 21, 2020

When it comes to filling security gaps, one of the most important places to start is with an incident response retainer. A managed IR service can be a lifeline in the inevitable event of a cyberattack. Another way to fill the gap includes temporary staff augmentation; for instance, bringing in an interim CISO or conducting cybersecurity training.

Beyond the realm of cybersecurity, an easy win for an overstretched IT team is to use a managed help desk service. Maintaining around-the-clock IT support can be prohibitively expensive for a small town, and cities of all sizes have used IT support management for years; it’s an immediate need that is easily offloaded.

DIVE DEEPER: Today’s managed services can help tomorrow’s IT succeed.

Evaluate the Benefits of Partner Providers

Small municipalities commonly struggle with limited support from original equipment manufacturers, especially when building their IT infrastructure from scratch.

Again, this is an area where creating the right partnerships can go a long way. For example, as a Microsoft partner provider, CDW Government can manage licenses and subscriptions, and handle troubleshooting or technical issues. We can do the same for Cisco devices. And by bundling these services, we can essentially give municipalities a single point of contact for their IT needs, streamlining operations and reducing the burden on IT teams.

As for tech acquisitions, CDW Government also offers contract vehicles that simplify the procurement process. A lot of rigmarole goes into managing even simple, out-of-the-box computers and software solutions. So much of that work can be done more efficiently and affordably through third parties.

Factor Grant Assistance into Your Partnerships

Finally, it’s worth asking a third-party consultant or partner whether it has resources to help find and win grant opportunities.

Smaller communities are often at the mercy of smaller budgets, and grants and other funding opportunities can offer a valuable means of financing IT projects. Identifying and competing for grants isn’t easy, but it can be a smoother, more rewarding exercise if you work with a partner that can assist with some of the work.

This article is part of StateTech’s CITizen blog series.