Public sector solution providers in their pursuit to be responsive and customer-centric are embracing new technologies and innovative service delivery models to effectively serve the larger populace. Questica is one such adept public sector solution provider. Questica is a leader in multi-user budgeting software, performance management and transparency, and data visualization solutions.
TJ Parass, Founder and CEO, started Questica in 1998 in order to build a best-in-class public sector software solution. Craig Ross is the Chief Revenue Officer and one of the partners at Questica. Craig is a seasoned management leader with over 25 years of public sector financial technology-related experience.
Improving Trust of Stakeholders
For over 20 years, Questica has been providing public sector organizations access to complete budgeting, performance, transparency and citizen engagement solutions to better enable data-driven budgeting and decision-making, while increasing data accuracy, saving time and improving stakeholder trust. It goes beyond having great solutions: it is about culture and personality, approach and expertise, and accountability to its customers.
Highly Developed and Efficient Offerings
Questica’s core offering, Questica Budget, drives budget transformation by creating a single source of data truth. This allows public sector organizations to shift from data collection to focus on what is important, deeper analysis and data-driven decision-making. Questica Budget is an easy-to-use, comprehensive cloud-based solution for budget preparation and management which includes: forecasting and analysis, workflow, role-based security access, amendment tracking, and performance measurement and reporting. As a true commercial-off-the-shelf cloud solution, Questica Budget is highly configurable.
Questica Budget’s flexibility allows its customers to establish the update schedule that best meets their specific needs and business cycles. A few of the key product features that sets Questica Budget apart include its robust workforce planning, adjustable formula and scenario builders, change requests, and advanced analytics and reporting capabilities.
Questica introduced OpenBook, its integrated data visualization and transparency tool to create an opportunity for better accountability, and to build trust with an organization’s stakeholders by communicating the budget and finances with easy-to-understand visuals. OpenBook allows public sector organizations to showcase their financial and non-financial data with interactive charts, tables, and graphics with descriptive text and informational pop-ups. It allows stakeholders to visually access and evaluate information that is generally hidden in printed reports and/or complex spreadsheets. Users can easily find out what they want and need to know about the agency’s plans, projects and issues in their community with OpenBook’s robust searching and filtering options. Questica’s OpenBook and Budget Suite integrate with leading budget simulation tools providing organizations a way to promote and support deeper two-way stakeholder consultation and engagement.
Questica’s transparency solution includes its recently introduced OpenBook Project Explorer visualization for capital projects. This feature allows public sector agencies to present infrastructure projects on a map, including the budget, actual spend, funding sources, and accompanying documentation, images, video, etc, which enables stakeholders to learn more about the projects taking place within the community, without having to contact the organization directly.
Current Solutions and New Technologies
Questica’s 20-year focus on and commitment to exceptional customer service, the development and investment in solutions, plus its driven yet friendly corporate culture has resulted in long-standing relationships with its customers, high customer satisfaction rates (a 60+ NPS score), and continued growth of its customer base. The company continues to expand and evolve its current solutions both with new features and functions but it is also incorporating and adopting new technologies. Questica is nimble in adapting to the changing needs of its customers and the public sector. The company places an emphasis on its continued investment back into R&D which helps to foster the collaborative partnership it enjoys with its customers.
Empowering Customers and Communities
Customers choose Questica because of the company’s consultative approach. It has a shared customer centric focus and it takes incredible pride in delivering an exceptional experience for each and every customer. Founder and CEO of Questica, TJ Parass mentions that they are pleased that the company will become part of GTY Technology Holdings early in 2019. Being able to partner with its fellow GTY peer companies to advance the digital transformation of public sector agencies to cloud-based solutions helping them to accelerate their financial health and operational sustainability will be key focus for the organization. While describing the vision and future of Questica, Craig Ross, Chief Revenue Officer also states, “Questica will ensure that government, healthcare, education and non-profit organizations have the best technology, support and reporting tools to meet their everyday challenges.” He further clarifies that it is about delivering solutions to address funding changes, new legislation, stakeholder engagement, and a shifting workforce, while increasing accountability and producing greater organizational and community impact.
Endorsements by Customers
“Having Questica Budget has given our team more time to focus on managing the budget now that we spend less time assembling it.” – Sound Transit, Washington
“We’ve been pleased with how easy and logical the Questica Budget system is to use. We now have a powerful budgeting tool that enables all users to properly track and manage their own budgets, allowing the Finance team to spend more time on analysis and planning.” – The City of Arvada, Colorado
“If we can find out what the public cares about, and translate that into budget impacts, while driving them to use Questica OpenBook, which is interactive and easy-to-use; that would connect all the dots.”– The City of Largo, Florida
