Overview

July 20

Learn how the city of Toronto is transforming its digital experience and service delivery for residents and businesses. On July 20, Government Technology will host municipal and industry experts to explain how Canada’s most populous city used a SaaS-based digital government payment platform to unify payment processes and service access across city departments and programs in a single pane of glass. Asim Hussain, Toronto’s Director of Digital Transformation, and John Thomson, CEO of PayIt, will break down how the city built the business case for payment modernization, and worked with all levels of government leader stakeholders to deploy a modern, customer-friendly platform to scale citizen access to government services.

Improving the user experience for city residents through a single portal
Promoting collaboration and aligning requirements across government departments
Enhancing accessibility for all users
Building momentum for reducing costs and improving the carbon footprint of city services

Speakers

Bob Bennett — Moderator

Senior Fellow, Center for Digital Government

Bob Bennett is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Digital Government and the founder of B2 Civic Solutions, an international smart cities consultancy firm based in Parkville, Mo. From 2016 to 2019 he served in Mayor Sly James’ administration as the Chief Innovation Officer for the City of Kansas City, Mo. During his tenure, he oversaw the city’s smart city initiatives including a 54-block total digitalization pilot, strategy development for the city and P3-based expansion plans.

Asim Hussain — Speaker

Director Customer Experience Transformation & Innovation (CXi), City of Toronto

Asim Hussain joined the city of Toronto 3 years ago and created the CXi team in Technology Services Division. The team was established to help the city focus on better experiences for residents, businesses and employees through innovative partnerships and deeper customer engagement. The team combines expertise in Human Centred Design and Business Process Re-engineering with a product management approach and focus on data and iteration to drive at outcomes and meaningful change. The team works with divisions on major transformation initiatives as well as with its technology partners in an agile way to bring an innovative and 'outside-in' approach to the design and delivery of services.

John Thomson — Speaker

CEO, Payit

John Thomson is the founder and CEO of PayIt, an award-winning digital platform that helps residents easily access government services from any device. Thomson founded PayIt in 2013 after waiting in line to renew his car registration at a local DMV office. John knew there had to be a smarter, more modern way for people to interact with the government. PayIt has transformed the government technology market. From any device, residents can now pay property taxes, utility bills, driver’s license and vehicle registration renewal, court fees and many more services. Through John’s leadership, PayIt now enables digital transformation for government agencies serving over 80M residents in the US, and this year expanded services to the 6.3M people in Toronto, Canada. PayIt has also been the recipient of the GovTech 100 award for the past SIX YEARS! In October 2020 John was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 Heartland Award and in 2021 was inducted into the Junior Achievement Hall of Fame. Prior to founding PayIt, John served as CEO of Saepio, a Software as a Service (Saas)-based marketing technology provider, and has held various engineering, product strategy, and sales roles throughout his career. He currently sits on the National WWI Museum and Memorial Board of Trustees, the Board of Trustees for Baker University and has been a tremendous supporter and Assistant Director of the American Legion of Boys State of Missouri for over 16 years.

Webinar

Transformation in Action: Toronto Gives Residents Access to Government Services Where and When They Want ItÂ