A young company from Elmbridge has unveiled a digital platform that lets residents handle most of their dealings with the local council in a single app, from reporting a broken streetlight to applying for a building permit.
The startup, Openhall, presented the platform to representatives of more than 30 municipalities at its loft office near the university on Tuesday. Cedar Falls and Lakeshore have signed up as the first pilot towns and plan to go live early next year.
How it works
Residents log in once and see all their council services on one screen. They can book appointments at the town hall, pay for parking permits and waste collection, follow the progress of a permit application and report problems with a photo and a location pin.
Behind the scenes, councils get a dashboard that sends each request to the right department and shows how long it takes to resolve. An optional assistant based on artificial intelligence answers common questions around the clock and hands over to a human employee when it is unsure.
Most people deal with their council only a few times a year, and every time they have to learn a new form. We want it to feel as simple as ordering a taxi.
Lea Marchetti, co-founder and chief executive of Openhall
The company was founded three years ago by four graduates of Elmbridge University and now employs 14 people. It recently raised 2.4 million euros from a group of regional investors.
Small towns, big gap
For smaller municipalities, the main appeal is cost. Larger cities such as Riverton have built their own systems, but many towns still rely on paper forms, phone calls and email.
We have twelve people in our town hall. We cannot build software, but we can use good software.
Jakob Lindholm, deputy mayor of Cedar Falls
The association of municipalities welcomed the launch but urged councils to check carefully how residents’ data is stored. Openhall says all data is kept encrypted on servers inside the country and that councils remain the owners of their records. Accessibility groups have asked that phone and in-person services stay available for older residents.
What happens next
After the pilot, Openhall plans to offer the platform to other towns on a subscription priced by population. The company hopes to reach 20 councils within two years and is hiring developers in Elmbridge.
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