Read how one city, that is part of the greater NY metropolis, is using the Alpha Anywhere low code web and mobile development and deployment platform to quickly and cost effectively build apps that improve service to citizens.
The city of Islip, the largest city on Long Island New York, like many other cities across the United States, has been tapping technology to provide better services to its residents, while holding down costs.
In the time of the pandemic, technology for local governments has become more important than ever. With tech, residents can interact with their cities/towns remotely in numerous ways, including paying fees, requesting services, making complaints about problems like missed trash pickup, getting public safety help and more.
And that’s where Islip stands out. When it comes to technology, it has the kinds of services and amenities you’d expect from a very sizable city.
Mark Chasanoff, a programmer for the town, has overseen the development of an astonishing number of applications for the town -- 50 in all -- using Alpha Anywhere. The town government apps span the gamut of town services, and are for both town residents and for city departments.
Whether you want to adopt a cat from the town animal shelter, make payments to the town, make complaints about town services, or more, there’s an app for you --- every one of them built with Alpha Anywhere.
“With Alpha Anywhere we can make fully functioning applications in as little as a day,” Chasanoff explains. “Some of the external applications we have built including a boat dock booking and payment system, an assessment roll search, and a search for all the town parks and their amenities. Internally we have built five full functioning complaints systems that all can interact with each other, a full public safety enforcement system, systems to help with town and assessment operations, and systems for pretty much every department in the town.”
Chasanoff has been using Alpha since 2011, after switching from Lotus Approach. He was able to quickly rewrite all of the old Approach programs using Alpha Anywhere. He estimates that Alpha saved “months to years of time” in writing the applications, and adds that Alpha was much more powerful than Approach.
His favorite thing about Alpha? It’s that you can write a basic application in only an hour or two, “and you can also do way more complex applications with Xbasic and JavaScript and with the built-in tools provided to you.”
Based on his experience writing so many different kinds of apps with it over so many years, he says he would recommend it to any developer, especially any that are working in an environment that needs powerful apps written quickly.
These are just some of the apps Islip built using Alpha Anywhere:
| Airport Parking | Housing Search | Senior Clubs |
| Airport OT | Parks Search | Senior Food Program |
| Airport Complaints | Yard Waste Search | Senior Medical Transportation |
| DPW Inventory | Assessment Letters | Marina Waiting List |
| DPW Snow Vendors | Town Clerk Impact Letters | Slip Reservation |
| DPW Claims | Town Attorney Claims | Parks Field Rentals |
| Barricades | Town Council Complaints | Website Park Update |
| Traffic Safety Worksheets | Applicant Tracking | Animal Shelter |
A Free App Development Solution for Local Governments with Small Budgets
Is your town budget strapped? Alpha Anywhere Community Edition is the ideal solution. You can build all the apps your town or city needs for free and then publish and host the apps for as little as $99/month. Get your free copy of Alpha Anywhere Community Edition and start building apps today.
Helping Local Governments Build Mobile Apps
Alpha Software offers a range of pre-built government solutions that collect data, speed service to citizens and help employees streamline work. Alpha Software offers a for inspections, scheduling, dispatching emergency teams, and more. View our government app templates and read how Alpha Software can help you develop the apps your local government needs.
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