Vol. I · Civic Technology Consulting · Est. 2026
Cities · Towns · Municipalities
The Practice · No. 001
Modernizing the machinery of local government.
ForwardMuni works side-by-side with the civic-software companies that serve local government—and the cities, towns, and municipalities that depend on them. We sit between vendor and city hall, matching the right software to the right work and standing with your staff long enough to make it stick.
- Founded
- 2026
- Practice
- Buy-side
- Geography
- Nationwide
— The coverage —
§ 01 · The Premise
Local government runs on software. A lot of software.
Comprehensive plans. Zoning codes. GIS. Public-meeting portals. Open-data dashboards. Civic-engagement tools. The market has answers for nearly every problem a planning department faces— and most cities, towns, and municipalities have neither the time to evaluate them all nor the staff to integrate the ones they pick.
That is the work. We sit alongside the firms that build planning, zoning, GIS, engagement, and records software—and the planning staff who put their work to use—translating between them so the right tool ends up doing the right job. When the engagement is over, your staff is more technical than they were when we arrived.
§ 02 · The Practice
Four kinds of work.
01
Software Selection
We sit on the buy-side of the table. Market scans, structured RFPs, vendor demos focused on the questions you actually need answered, and a recommendation written in plain English—not vendor copy.
02
Integration
Most failures of new software inside city hall are integration failures. We connect new systems to the GIS, the records database, the permit counter, and the workflows that already run the building.
03
Training & Adoption
A platform nobody uses is shelfware. We run hands-on sessions, write internal documentation in your voice, and stay on call long enough for the new tool to feel like the old tool.
04
Data & API Onboarding
Migrations done carefully. Address tables reconciled, parcel data verified, APIs wired up without breaking the dashboards that report up to council.
§ 03 · The Footprint
The categories we work in.
ForwardMuni works across the full surface area of municipal software. Some categories are anchored by formal partnerships with vendors we work alongside on city engagements; others are spaces we know well enough to help cities choose between the options on offer. The scope below is descriptive, not exhaustive.
Planning, Zoning & Codification
Comprehensive plans, zoning code platforms, and the codification systems that turn ordinances into searchable law.
Code rewrites · Zoning platforms · Ordinance management
GIS & Spatial Data
Spatial data, parcel layers, and the maps every other municipal system hangs from.
Parcel reconciliation · Map services · Public viewers
Civic Engagement
Public meetings, comment portals, and the tools that make engagement legible to residents.
Public input · Meeting management · Resident dashboards
311 & Citizen Services
Service requests, work-order routing, and the friendly face of operations.
Request intake · Routing · SLA tracking
Budgeting & Open Data
Financial transparency, budget books, and the dashboards that talk to council.
Budget portals · Financial dashboards · Open-data publishing
Records & Document Management
Records requests, archives, and the document trails of public business.
Records requests · Document management · Agendas & minutes
Every engagement begins with fit. Working alongside a vendor is not the same as recommending one—the recommendation always belongs to the city’s specific constraints, not to ours.
§ 04 · A Disclosure
How we get paid—and what it means.
Most consultants bury this on page eleven of a contract. We put it on the front of the website, where any city manager can read it before the first call.
I.
We earn referral fees from the software companies we partner with.
It is part of how this practice stays sustainable. We also work directly with cities under fee-for-service engagements when that is the better arrangement.
II.
We disclose it. In plain English. Right here.
Not in the small print of an engagement letter. Not in a footnote no one reads. Up front, before the first conversation, where it belongs.
III.
The fee never overrules the fit.
If a partner’s software is wrong for your city, we say so directly—and we will help you find the platform that does fit, at no cost to you. The recommendation always belongs to your constraints, not to ours.
§ 05 · How An Engagement Runs
Five phases. Two are optional.
The first three get you to a clear, defensible recommendation. The last two are where most cities choose to keep us on—a separately scoped engagement to make sure the software actually lands.
Base engagement · 8 to 14 weeks
Phase One
30 minutes · No charge
The First Call
A short call to understand the city you serve, what is prompting the search, and what good would look like a year from now. If we are not the right practice for the work, we say so on this call.
What you walk away with
A decision to continue, or a respectful referral.
Phase Two
Weeks 1–4 · Discovery
Listen & Map
We walk the building. Conversations with planning, IT, building inspections, the front counter, and finance. Then we document every system in active use—what it does, who uses it, what it costs, and what it is quietly failing at. The honest version of the org’s software stack.
What you walk away with
A field notebook and a one-page systems map the city manager can read in five minutes.
Phase Three
Weeks 4–8 · Selection
Match & Recommend
Wishlist sessions with department heads. A structured market scan filtered to a shortlist. Demos with the questions that matter. References called. A written brief in plain English—cost, fit, integration risk, sequencing—with the runner-up named in case the recommendation does not survive procurement.
What you walk away with
A recommendation the city manager can hand to council without translation.
— Where the engagement extends —
Most software fails inside city hall not at selection but at implementation. The next two phases—optional, scoped separately, billed for an additional fee—are where we keep the practice with you through procurement, standup, and the first months of staff using the thing.
Phase Four
Optional · Add-onMonths 2–9 · Implementation
Procurement & Standup
We help draft the RFP, sit through demos, negotiate scope and pricing, and review the contract clauses that matter—data ownership, exit terms, integration commitments, training scope. Then we handle configuration, integrations, data migration, and security review. We show up on the days the work is hardest.
What you walk away with
A signed contract with the rights you need, and a platform configured to your workflows—not the vendor’s defaults.
Phase Five
Optional · Add-onMonths 6+ · Adoption
Adoption & A Standing Line
Hands-on training in your voice. Internal documentation written so the next hire can read it on day one. An open line for the first ninety days after go-live. After that, many cities keep a small annual retainer—a trusted second opinion on every software decision that comes after.
What you walk away with
A platform that belongs to your staff, and a standing line for what comes next.
— An Invitation —
If your city is staring at a procurement decision—or a stack of software that should be working better—let’s talk.
— Clayton, founder