Spartanburg County Parks Benefits from Integrated CivicPlus® Solutions

With over 300,000 residents across 13 municipalities and over one thousand acres of public parkland, the Spartanburg County Parks Department and its 150 employees have a large responsibility to deliver quality recreation programming across a wide footprint.

“For any of our 150 employees to drive from our County’s northernmost park to our southernmost park would take over an hour,” explains Spartanburg County Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Stiens. Not only is the County’s parks and recreation department committed to maintaining its over 30 parks and community centers at the highest level, it is committed to meeting the needs of both established residents and new families who have recently joined the community of Spartanburg, attracted by its convenient location, increasing industrial development, and beautiful southern landscapes.

“From a programmatic perspective, we are trying to manage the rapid growth of our County’s diverse population and ensure we are meeting the needs of all of our community members,” said Stiens.

A critical component of the County’s parks and recreation offering surrounds its ability to promote its widespread programming and enable residents to sign up and take part in activities conveniently, at any time, from any device. For the past several years, Spartanburg County has depended on the robust functionality of its CivicRec^® parks and recreation management software (now called Recreation Management software), so when it needed to enhance its overall department website, it again turned to the local government software experts at CivicPlus^® and redesigned a beautiful, functional government website using its CivicPlus website design and hosting solution.

Before Implementing a CivicPlus Government Website

According to Stiens, Spartanburg County’s Parks Department has always seen the value in modern technology solutions to help it achieve its resident engagement goals. So when its previous custom-built department website no longer offered the functionality and professional appearance the county desired, Stiens and his team knew it was time for a website redesign.

“Spartanburg County had transitioned to a [CivicPlus] website in 2015,” said Stiens. “Our department had been using [the CivicPlus Recreation Management software], but it also had its own website that was custom built for us, and it needed a refresh. As a local government using public funds, the money we were spending on our parks department website, compared to what we were getting didn’t make sense. Plus, it was three years old, and with the fast pace of technology, it looked outdated.”

Stiens added that since the County was pleased with its CivicPlus government website, and the County Parks Department was pleased with its CivicPlus Recreation Management solution, it was an easy decision to work with the CivicPlus team to help the Parks Department redesign its website, too.

“We were pleased with the service we were receiving from CivicPlus, so it was an easy business decision to make to streamline our software partners.”

After Implementing a CivicPlus Government Website

Unlike the County’s previous website, which required an expert programmer to make updates, Stiens and his team today enjoy the ease of use of the CivicPlus government website content management system (CMS).

“I tell people that [CivicPlus] is so easy to use that even I can update it now,” said Stiens. “We have a core leadership team of five or six managers who all have access to the [CivicPlus] CMS to make updates and edits. It’s very easy to use, and we’re able to use the spotlight feature to quickly promote on the homepage a wide variety of programs to our diverse population. [Our CivicPlus government website] helps us get our residents to the information they want and need in fewer clicks.”

In addition to the simplicity of the CivicPlus government website functionality, Stiens and his team enjoy the seamless integration offered by the use of both their CivicPlus government website and Recreation Management solution.

“[The CivicPlus Recreation Management system] is an important tool to us to promote online transactions,” said Stiens, “So the seamless transition back and forth between [our CivicPlus website and Recreation Management solution] is important.”

As the Spartanburg County Parks Department continues to strive to meet and exceed the expectations of its residents, it will continue to rely on its integrated CivicPlus team.

“We have been very pleased with the transition to [CivicPlus],” said Stiens, “And very pleased to be able to get an up-to-date, refreshed website that gives us more flexibility, that is easy to use, and all at a large reduction in cost.”