This episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast features Burgandi Grace, principal project manager for artificial intelligence at Tyler Technologies, and Jessica Crone, management analyst for the City of Rancho Cordova, California. They share how Rancho Cordova is using connected systems and collaboration to streamline operations, strengthen communication, and deliver more resident-focused digital services. The conversation explores how leadership support, change management, and a culture of innovation — complete with the city’s “Super Egg” mascot — are helping government staff embrace modernization. Tune in to hear how connection, collaboration, and technology are driving real-world impact in local government.
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, Burgandi Grace, principal project manager for artificial intelligence at Tyler Technologies, and Jessica Crone, management analyst for the City of Rancho Cordova, California, explore how integrated systems and collaboration are transforming local government.
Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio, the conversation dives into the real-world impact of Tyler’s Connected Communities vision — a framework that helps governments link people, data, and processes to improve efficiency and strengthen resident trust.
Jessica shares how Rancho Cordova turned that vision into reality by breaking down silos across departments, automating workflows, and creating more transparent, resident-focused digital services. From paper-heavy processes to seamless online applications, she highlights how integration has reduced turnaround times from a week to a single day — while empowering staff and residents alike.
Together, they discuss how leadership support, staff engagement, and creative change management — like Rancho Cordova’s “Super Egg” mascot — can make modernization both effective and fun.
Whether you’re a government leader, project manager, or technologist, this episode offers practical lessons on collaboration, data sharing, and the power of connection to drive better outcomes for communities.
This episode also spotlights Tyler Connect 2026, where innovation and collaboration take center stage. Taking place April 7–10 at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, Connect brings together public sector professionals from across the country to explore new solutions, share ideas, and strengthen communities. It’s a week dedicated to learning, connection, and imagining what’s possible for the future of government technology. Explore registration details and early bird pricing in the show notes to start planning your Connect 2026 experience.
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Jessica Crone: We are able to take services out to the community by offering them the online ability to submit their applications and have the email communication and a lot of automated for them. It keeps them in the know.
Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, this is the Tyler Tech Podcast, where we explore the trends, technologies, and people shaping the public sector. I’m your host, Josh Henderson. In this episode, I’m joined by Burgandi Grace, principal project manager for artificial intelligence at Tyler, and Jessica Crone, management analyst for the city of Rancho Cordova, California. Together, they share how governments are using integrated systems to improve collaboration, streamline operations, and create more connected resident focused experiences.
This conversation was recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio. Let’s dive in.
Alright. Burgandi, Jessica, welcome to the Tyler Tech Podcast. It’s so great to have you both here.
Jessica Crone: Awesome. Hi.
Burgandi Grace: Thank you. Glad to be here.
Josh Henderson: Burgandi, let’s start with you. For those who may not be familiar, what does Tyler mean when we talk about and define the connected community’s vision, and why does it matter in governments today?
Burgandi Grace: Thank you. Connected communities, use technology to seamlessly connect data, people, and processes to create a thriving community and a more just society. We’re living in this vision through a variety of initiatives. And as government agencies are continuously asked to do more with less, our Connected Communities goal is to help bridge the gaps between agency departments and jurisdictions to create a more efficient organizational system for civil servants and the public.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. And now, Jessica, turning that type of vision into reality certainly takes a lot of work. Yes. Can you share how the Connected Communities concept has taken shape in Rancho Cordova? And what motivated your team to pursue this kind of approach? And what were some of the first steps or conversation that helped move your team toward integrating systems and working across departments?
Jessica Crone: The connected communities concept really started taking shape since we went live almost five years ago. Our whole goal was to be able to streamline, collaborate, get our citizens more engaged, and give them easier ways to access things such as permits, licenses.
And interestingly enough, now staff is coming to me with ideas of how we can work more with the community using our Tyler products.
Our code enforcement division, for example, would find violations out in the community and they would maybe find items such as overgrown lawns or chain link fences that needed to be removed. And they would refer them to our community engagement division where we have a beautification program, and they can get a micro grant.
Well, there was a paper process, the customers would have to send it in, code enforcement would have to make a call. Mind you, they’re in different buildings, these divisions. So, they would have to find a way to communicate, and they really didn’t know what the status of what anything was. So, community engagement came to me and said, well, why don’t we start working out of enterprise permitting and licensing, EP&L, and collaborate with code enforcement and link everything up. And then that’s how we started to be able to offer more connected community with our residents and across departments.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. Now, you know, as you well know, bringing multiple teams and departments together often requires more than just technology. How did stakeholder collaboration and change management play a role in your journey, and how did staff respond as things evolved?
Jessica Crone: Thankfully, from the top, we had a lot of support. They were very encouraging. Our city manager was on board, and he was always encouraging us to move forward with positivity, embrace the change.
And I got to be a part of that. And I thought to myself, how can I help our organization through this change management? We had been using our legacy system for ten plus years and people get set in their what they’re used to, right?
So, one day the idea came to me, why not create a persona or a mascot that represents this change? And we built a whole culture around it. So that’s why I have my cape here for Super Egg. Very cool.
It’s awesome. Yeah. If you want to know what Super Egg stands for, come find me later, find me on community. I’ll let you know.
But I will say that every chance that we had at an all hands meeting, a city manager huddle, in meetings. We went to all the departments, boots on the ground, and we kept staff informed the whole way. And we listened to their input. We let them see part of the configuration.
So, they were really a part of the process.
And I also had incorporated some fun, engaging ways to get staff going. And so even if they showed up to the meeting just to see what I was going to do next, I got them in the room, we got together, and we figured things out. And we started having comments from staff saying, this sounds fun. I’m excited about this. And again, I can’t stress enough how important it is from the top just to have that leadership say, this is a good thing.
This is what we need, this is what we want, this is how we’re going to be able to work better together and help our residents.
Burgandi Grace: Oh my gosh, that really warms my heart, Jessica. Like as a PM that has experience both with Tyler and like working directly within a governmental organization, I think she hit on two things that really resonated with me. One is just that, you know, communication’s key. Involve colleagues early on in the process.
I think a really quick win you can have with stakeholders is asking them what level of involvement do you want? And creating groups, right? Are you wanting to be involved in a weekly status report? Or do you want a dashboard?
Just letting them have a little bit of agency in what you’re starting to build can go a huge way to turn people that are maybe a little turned off into really excited. The other piece there that I heard that I also loved was that idea about change being wonderful, right? And one of my favorite quotes is like, it’s like, change is wonderful, transition is really hard. And so how do you support people through the transition piece and keeping the benefits front and center is really the key way to do that.
Right? Making sure you’re acknowledging the hard work it’s going to take to get there but always keeping that north star in mind.
Josh Henderson: And, of course, having somebody as enthusiastic as Jessica is a bonus in in this case.
Burgandi Grace: It’s a dream. It’s a dream.
Josh Henderson: And so now when systems start to connect, questions around data sharing naturally come up. Right? So, what advice would you give both in addressing challenges like data integration, privacy, and security, especially when sharing across departments or with any sort of external partners?
Jessica Crone: That’s a good one. People are definitely always concerned about it as they should be. One thing that we were excited about using EP&L is we knew it was a global system and that it could connect and integrate with other products. And when you’re integrating with other systems, you want to be mindful of what data really needs to come over and why.
You don’t need to have extra data there that could possibly be used in the wrong way sometimes. So, be mindful of that. And then, definitely for security, you want to look at your user roles, permission levels, what access do your end users really need to do their jobs. And when you look at all those items, you can put safeguards in place.
And ultimately, the goal is to share some of the data between departments, right? That way they don’t have to make extra phone calls. It’s right there at their fingertips. They can get what they need and it’s easily accessible.
But if you take a look at your user roles and your permissions, that’ll keep you in a good spot.
Burgandi Grace: I would echo that too and say from an insider’s perspective, you know, security is constantly on the top of our mind as an organization.
In the Data & Insights Division, this includes our adherence to FedRAMP standards, which is a program led by the General Services Administration, which really just ensures that we’re following like the highest level of security. That in conjunction with our out of the box functionality for access control really helps create from the very beginning this culture of security within the system.
Josh Henderson: Now I wanted to touch on the implementation journey a little bit from both of your perspectives. What were some of the unexpected challenges that you’ve seen come up along the way? And what would you say are some of the best practices for working through those challenges?
Jessica Crone: I believe it still goes back to that change management and having challenges there where some users may feel that you need to replicate your new system identical to your legacy system. Well, there’s a reason why you’ve moved to a new system, and you don’t need to do things the way you used to. It’s also important to think for the future. What are you needing it to do?
What are you wanting it to do and preparing ahead of time versus just copying and pasting what you’ve done in the past because that wasn’t working anymore. So you need to be open to the change and open to the thought of, I might have to do things a little bit differently, but ultimately it streamlines things. I was so excited when I had staff come to me, some who before might have been a little bit resistant. Then they would come to my cubicle and they put their arms on my cubicle and say, guess what?
I like this. It’s working. They say, I’m so glad. I’m so happy for you. Inside I’m thinking, yes, it’s working.
Everybody’s using it. So, it just takes a little bit of time, but definitely, that can be a challenge.
Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Big news. Tyler Connect 2026 is heading to Las Vegas.
Jade Champion: Join us April 7 through April 10 at the Venetian Resort Las Vegas for an unforgettable week of learning, collaboration, and connection.
Josh Henderson: Connect unites public sector professionals to explore new Tyler solutions and to spark ideas that strengthen and empower communities.
Jade Champion: And now’s your chance to save $250 with early bird pricing.
Josh Henderson: Don’t wait to lock in your spot at this year’s premier public sector conference.
Jade Champion: Visit tylertech.com/connect to register today or click the link in our show notes.
Josh Henderson: We’ll see you at Tyler Connect 2026 where we empower, collaborate, and imagine what’s possible for the public sector in Vegas.
Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
And I know it’s sometimes it’s some people say it’s, you know, it’s a marathon, not a sprint too when it comes to the implementation journey and seeing those results long term. I’m wondering if you can share any insights on that.
Burgandi Grace: Yeah. I mean, I would say, you know, what do they say about project management? That it’s like 80% planning, 20% execution. Right? So, you know, in the beginning, spending the time, like, who is going to be impacted by this?
What, you know, what are they going to be experiencing? How can we connect with them? Like, I the three secret ingredients to a well-run project is communication, communication, communication. And I think as long as that’s kept front and center in general, you can pretty much overcome any obstacle.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. Now, Jessica, since adopting this Connected Communities approach in Rancho Cordova, what improvements have you seen? And I want to hear your thoughts on both within your organization and from a resident perspective.
Jessica Crone: We’ve seen a lot of great improvements streamlined, less time to process things.
We’ve gone from processing some items from up to a week down to a day. We have automations. We’re able to connect with our vendors that might be performing the work. We’re able to automatically send them an email once something’s been approved, letting them know they can go out and do the work. The departments have better communication because they’re able to see all that information readily available. And we are able to take services out to the community by offering them the online ability to submit their applications and have the email communication and a lot of automated for them.
It keeps them in the know. They don’t have to constantly question what’s going on with my application. And we’ve seen some good results from that. We’re getting good feedback.
Every once in a while, we’ll get an email from a customer saying, Thank you. Your system was easy to use. And I love when I get those. So, we save those, right?
But again, the collaboration between multiple departments, multiple systems, we’re able to see dashboards and stats and know what’s going on in other departments. We definitely enjoy that our citizens, again, I can’t stress enough. They have that 24/7 availability to log into their portal, see what’s going on, and it made things a lot faster.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. That’s wonderful. And now, you know, from a on the flip side, from a partner perspective, Burgandi, from your vantage point, what are some of the broader impacts Tyler sees when governments do embrace this type of integrated connected approach?
Burgandi Grace: Yeah. Absolutely. So, I think about this in two systems, you know, you know, externally and internally. Externally, just like Jessica said, it is fantastic hearing like, oh, something that used to take me a week to do, now I can do in minutes. Right? And you hear that over and over again at the end of a project from a variety of people.
For example, just that one stop shop to get the information they need. They don’t need to go to five different agencies, you know, to figure out how to submit that one application. They’re able to do that all in a single place, which is great.
Internally, I’m really a public service person at heart. It’s where I started my work and what really lights my brain up is the idea of internally staff being able to do things quicker, faster, easier, make better decisions.
I love that we can, like, take data across many counties, for example. Recently, I worked on a project where we connected all 105 counties within a state and bubbled it up to the state level. And now those state level executives get near real time data and can make decisions almost immediately, right, based on the information that they’re receiving. That’s super powerful, and they no longer need to go out and seek that information. It’s getting bubbled up to them right away.
Josh Henderson: So, yeah, as we start to wrap this conversation up, I just wanted to throw one more question to you both. As more governments look to modernize and connect their services, what’s your advice for leaders who want to start this journey and may feel overwhelmed by the complexity of it all?
Jessica Crone: Go for it. Just go for it. Use the technology, be open to the change, adopt new practices, work together.
Again, having the leadership be available, find champions within your organization that is going to support the effort, disseminate the information to their staff, really keeping everybody in the loop, I feel sets you up for success.
Burgandi Grace: I would just offer like the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
And, most organizations that are really successful at these transformations, they just really take the time to develop the why. I just can’t stress that enough that why does this effort matter and what are the benefits that stakeholders from, the public to your line staff, to the executive group, like, oh, what are they going to be benefiting through as you’re going through this journey? Right? Then I’ll just make a plug and say the easy part comes, which is getting paired with a Tyler implementation team. And we advise, cheerlead, guide people through their Connected Communities journey.
Josh Henderson: That’s fantastic. Burgandi, Jessica, thank you both for joining today and for a great discussion and sharing your perspectives.
Lastly, I understand there’s something special…
Jessica Crone: Should we really wrap it up?
Burgandi Grace: Oh. Here we go. Yeah. Let’s do it.
Jessica Crone: Okay. Are you ready for the experience of the Super Egg? Super Egg is my name. Configuring and implementing new software is my game. As your system administrator, I’m eliminating frustraters, bringing online services to the community. When we leverage Tyler Technologies, we build that unity.
Josh Henderson: So good. First rap on the podcast. That was awesome. Thank you both.
As we heard today, building connected communities is about more than linking systems. It’s about creating a foundation for collaboration, efficiency, and trust. Burgandi and Jessica shared how technology can help governments work more seamlessly across departments, reduce manual processes, and deliver digital experiences that truly meet residents where they are. If you’d like to learn more, check out the show notes for additional resources, and we’d love to hear your feedback.
Fill out the listener survey linked in the notes or reach out anytime at podcast@tylertech.com. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review the show so you never miss an episode. For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast.