When the city of Burnaby, British Columbia saw the MySurrey mobile app, they realized that something similar could be just what they were looking for.

The city wanted a way to increase citizen engagement and better share information and they knew a mobile app could help them achieve this. The MySurrey app gave them a good example of what Info Grove could provide and they approached us about building an app for Burnaby shortly after.

Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. With a population of about 250,000, Burnaby is the third-largest city in British Columbia and is continuing to grow rapidly.

The city wanted a way to provide information on the latest news in the city to its residents, provide details on upcoming events, arts and recreational activities, share employment opportunities and give residents a way to access municipal services from their mobile phones.

After initial planning meetings, the Info Grove team got to work creating a mobile app that met the city’s needs and within three months, Burnaby’s new mobile app, BurnabyConnect, was ready to download on the App Store and Google Play Store for residents.

As part of Info Grove’s package for Burnaby, the city’s team received several training sessions to learn how to use the platform’s CMS (content management system) which allows them to update or change existing content and add new information on their own. We were also able to help guide them on how to launch the mobile app to the public and ideas for how to market the new app to their residents.

BurnabyConnect App now offers residents a convenient way to access the city’s most popular online information and service tools on their mobile devices. Information includes:

• Latest news
• Community events
• Recreation and arts facilities and programs
• Job opportunities in the city
• Online services and other apps
• Maps
• Local government information
• Recycling and garbage collection information
• And more

BurnabyConnect also allows residents to easily connect to other municipal service apps like the library app, the recycling app, and the parking app, making it easy for people to access all city information in one place.

The Info Grove platform has many additional modules that could be added to the existing app as the city’s wants and needs change.

For example, many cities and municipalities like Burnaby are adding a 311 reporting option to their mobile apps, allowing residents to easily report non-emergency issues to the city (such as by-law violations, road maintenance concerns, non-emergency crimes and more). While Burnaby has not yet added a 311 option to its mobile app, the BurnabyConnect app has already provided the residents of Burnaby with an easy way to access the most up-to-date local information and news. The Info Grove platform will allow them to continue to expand what is available on the app to meet the needs of their growing city and provide residents with even more ways to engage and interact.

If you are a municipality that is interested in creating an engaging and easy-to-use mobile app please contact us to learn more about Info Grove Municipalities.

Karim Mansour is an Inside Sales Representative at 14 Oranges, the creators of the Info Grove platform.