Government
VisionSync keeps the strategic plan your council or board adopted moving across every department, so leadership knows where it stands between reports instead of finding out at budget time.
30 minutes, built around your own adopted plan.
One plan
across every department, in the words your governing body adopted
One owner
on every action, with progress posted by the people doing the work
60 to 90 days
from a free sandbox to live, with training and support from our team
The situation
Why do government strategic plans stall after they’re adopted?
The plan was built in public, with residents, staff and elected officials at the table. Once it’s adopted, it has to compete with daily service delivery in every department, and keeping it current usually falls to one analyst with a spreadsheet.
The plan lives in a PDF
It’s posted on the website and presented at a meeting, then the real tracking happens in a spreadsheet only one person updates.
Updates come in the week before
Before every report to council or the board, someone emails each department head for a status and pieces the answers together.
Every department reports its own way
Public works counts lane miles, parks counts programs, and nobody can see the whole plan on one page.
The reasons leave with people
When a director retires or a new council is seated, the context behind each number goes with them.
If the plan only gets updated the week before the report, you’re explaining last quarter instead of steering this one.
One plan, every department
How do you connect council priorities to the work in every department?
Local government strategic planning works when every department can see how its work serves the plan. Load the plan your council, commission or board adopted, then link each department’s goals and actions to the priority they support. Their progress adds up, so the priority moves when the work under it moves.
The plan as it was adopted.
Focus areas, goals, objectives, strategies, actions or whatever your plan calls each level.
Every department has a place.
Departments, divisions and offices, as deep as your organization chart goes.
One owner on every action.
So everyone knows who gives the update and who to call.
Progress adds up on its own.
When a department’s work moves, the council priority above it moves too.
Visibility
How do you track progress on a city or county strategic plan?
Ask the people doing the work for a short update on a regular schedule, and let leadership see it as it comes in. Everyone from the city or county manager to a division head sees the part of the plan that matters to them.
Who enters the progress updates?
The owner of each action. They get a reminder by email and in VisionSync, with Microsoft Teams and Slack reminders in beta, and post a quick update with a short note on why.
How does leadership see where things stand?
Live dashboards and heatmaps by department, council priority or owner. You can see what’s on track and what’s behind, then click straight into the work and the owner’s latest note.
Can we track performance measures?
Yes, through the actions in your plan. Set each action’s target around the measure it’s meant to move, such as lane miles resurfaced, then report progress against that target every review period.
Can we just ask where the plan stands? BETA
PulseIQ, our planning AI, is in beta. Ask a question about your plan and get an answer from your own data. It’s optional and off unless you turn it on.
The update
What should a strategic plan update include?
Three things: where the work stands against its target, whether the owner thinks it’s on track, and a short note on why. In VisionSync, owners post all three on one screen, and the note is required, so leadership gets the reason along with the number.
The reminder comes to them.
By email and in VisionSync, and again if the update is late. Microsoft Teams and Slack reminders are in beta.
Owners see their own work first.
Their personal workspace opens on the actions they own, so a division manager with three actions sees those three.
The history stays with the work.
When a director retires or a role changes hands, the next owner sees every update, file and note that came before.
Reporting
How do you report strategic plan progress to city council or the county board?
Pull the report straight out of the plan. Because owners update as they go, it’s current the day it goes in the agenda packet, with each owner’s latest note already in it.
Export a PDF for the whole plan or for any part of your organization, such as one department for the budget book. Tag the actions behind a council priority or a grant, and the same updates show up in each report that needs them. Elected officials usually read the report as a PDF without needing a login, and anyone who wants to look between meetings can have read-only access.
Quarterly report to council · Board of commissioners update · Budget book goals · Goal-setting retreat · Grant reporting · Annual report to residents
Use cases
What cities, counties and agencies run in VisionSync
City or county strategic plan
The multi-year plan your governing body adopted, with every priority, goal and action in one place and one owner on each.
Annual council priorities
This year’s priorities from the goal-setting retreat run as their own plan, connected to the multi-year plan they move forward.
Department business plans
Each department runs its own plan in its own words and connects it to the citywide or countywide goals it supports.
Comprehensive plan implementation
The actions from your comprehensive or master plan, each with an owner and a target, tracked year by year.
Grant-funded work
Tag the actions a federal or state grant pays for, so progress for each grant’s report comes from the same updates.
State agency strategic plans
An agency’s goals and strategies with owners in every division, ready for the budget request and the next hearing.
Proof
Working with the City of Omaha
Most cities want to know who else has been through procurement before they take a call. Here’s one.
Customer story
City of Omaha
VisionSync works with the City of Omaha across 13 departments, with 30 staff using the platform. Rollout took 60 to 90 days, with implementation, team training and support included.
The city brought VisionSync through its IT procurement department and process, and the mayor and his team approved the work.
13
city departments
30
staff using the platform
60 to 90 days
to full rollout, implementation and training included
Mayor’s office
approval to move forward
City of Omaha · Greater Omaha Chamber · University of Nebraska System · University of Nebraska Medical Center · University of Nebraska at Omaha · Pittsburg State University
Across all VisionSync customers: 963 people in 9 organizations track more than 4,300 initiatives.
Getting started
From a free sandbox to your first quarterly report
Most cities, counties and agencies are up and running in 60 to 90 days. We start with a free sandbox and set up your adopted plan with your team, and contracting and procurement usually happen along the way, so nothing waits on the purchasing cycle.
When you go live, everything you set up comes with you. Department owners add their actions, and we help with training and open office hours until the first updates are in. For most organizations, IT only needs to help with single sign-on.
Start with a free sandbox
What it costs to run
Every customer gets every feature
A small special district gets exactly the same platform as a large county or a state agency, including PulseIQ.
Included
Implementation, training, ongoing support, every feature, as many plans as you need, CSV and PDF export, and API access.
Priced by seat bracket
You pay for a range of seats rather than each person, plus a one-time implementation fee.
Single sign-on setup
A separate one-time fee, since connecting it is setup work on our side. Email and password sign-in is always included.
See pricing and process
Security and accessibility
What your IT, accessibility and procurement reviewers will ask
SSO through whatever identity provider you already run, role-based permissions, and control over who can see which plans. The accessibility work is aligned to WCAG 2.2 Level AA and Section 508, and we can send a current VPAT and security documentation over for your review. The City of Omaha took VisionSync through its own IT procurement process.
WCAG 2.2 AA · Section 508 · SSO and SAML · Role-based access · Domain whitelisting · Plan visibility controls · Encrypted in transit
What lives in VisionSync
Your strategic plan, its owners and their progress updates. Resident records, case files and financial data stay in the systems you already run.
PulseIQ, in beta
Private by design
Your data stays yours
Your plans and AI conversations are never used to train underlying AI models.
Isolated to your organization
Every request is restricted to your organization’s data, with tenant-level isolation.
Tied to the person asking
Conversations stay private to the person who started them.
FAQ
Questions cities, counties and agencies ask before a demo
What is government strategic planning software?
It's software that keeps a government's strategic plan moving after the council, commission or board adopts it, which is often called strategy execution. VisionSync holds your plan in the words that were adopted, gives every action an owner, reminds owners to post a quick update on a regular schedule, and builds reports for elected officials from those updates.
How do cities and counties track progress on their strategic plan?
Give each action or strategic initiative an owner and a target for each review period, often a performance measure such as lane miles resurfaced, then ask for a short update on a regular schedule. In VisionSync, owners get a reminder, post their progress with a short note on why, and that progress adds up to the council priorities above, so leadership sees the current status without chasing anyone. Our guide to strategic initiative software walks through what each initiative should include.
Does VisionSync work for counties, special districts and state agencies?
Yes. The plan structure, level names and organization chart are set up to match yours, whether you report to a city council, a board of commissioners, a district board or a legislature. Every customer gets the same platform.
Which cities use VisionSync?
VisionSync works with the City of Omaha across 13 departments, with 30 staff using the platform. Rollout took 60 to 90 days, with implementation, team training and support included. The city brought VisionSync through its IT procurement department and process, and the mayor and his team approved the work.
Can we keep the structure and wording our governing body adopted?
Yes. Rename any level, add levels if your plan runs deeper, and keep every priority and goal in the words that were adopted. Whatever your plan calls focus areas, goals, objectives, strategies or actions is what VisionSync says.
Can we run annual council priorities and the comprehensive plan alongside the strategic plan?
Yes, with no limit and no extra fee for additional plans. Each plan has its own structure, fiscal year and review cycle, so a five-year strategic plan, this year's council priorities and comprehensive plan actions can run side by side.
What happens to the plan after an election or when a director leaves?
The plan keeps its record. Every update stays on the action with its date and note, and when an action moves to a new owner, that owner sees its full history. When a new council sets its own priorities, they can run as a new plan alongside the adopted one.
Can we move our strategic plan out of a spreadsheet?
Yes. During setup, our team loads your plan structure, departments and users from your plan document or tracking spreadsheet. Bring the file to the demo and we'll walk through what we load and what your departments add.
Do council members or commissioners need a login?
Usually not. Most read the progress report as a PDF in their agenda packet. Anyone who wants to look at the plan between meetings can have read-only access.
Is VisionSync Section 508 compliant, and do you have a VPAT?
Yes. The accessibility work is aligned to WCAG 2.2 Level AA and Section 508, and we can send our current VPAT along with our security documentation for your review.
How does VisionSync handle StateRAMP, FedRAMP and other security reviews?
VisionSync is built to hold your strategic plan, and resident records and financial data stay in the systems you already run. Our security standards are documented for your review, including SSO through your identity provider, role-based access, data encrypted in transit and accessibility aligned to WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
How long does implementation take?
Most cities, counties and agencies are up and running in 60 to 90 days. It starts with a free sandbox where we set up your plan with you, contracting and procurement usually happen at the same time, and we help with training until your first updates are in.
How much does it cost?
VisionSync is priced by seat bracket with a one-time implementation fee, and every customer gets every feature. Single sign-on setup is a separate one-time fee, and the pricing page explains the process.
Do we have to use the AI?
No. PulseIQ is in beta and off unless you turn it on. When it's on, it works only from your own plan data, and your plans and conversations are never used to train underlying AI models.
See your adopted plan running in VisionSync
Bring your strategic plan and we’ll show you what it looks like with owners, regular updates and a report for your council or board built from them. It takes 30 minutes, and if it’s worth a closer look, we’ll set up a free sandbox.
