This episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast features Rudy Zucker, project manager for the City of Naperville, Illinois, sharing how the city modernized its annual Arbor Day Tree Sale to improve efficiency, security, and the resident experience. Rudy discusses Naperville’s shift from a manual, multi-department process to a streamlined digital approach that strengthened payment security, simplified purchasing for residents, and significantly reduced staff workload. The conversation highlights how breaking down silos and rethinking even small programs can deliver meaningful operational improvements — an approach that earned Naperville a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award. Tune in to learn how thoughtful digital transformation can turn everyday services into blueprints for operational efficiency.
In this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, Rudy Zucker, project manager for the City of Naperville, Illinois, shares how the city modernized its annual Arbor Day Tree Sale — an innovation that earned Naperville a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award (TEA).
Recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio, the conversation explores how Naperville transformed a traditionally in-person, labor-intensive program into a simple, secure, and user-friendly digital experience. Rudy walks through the city’s shift from a basic online payment workaround to an integrated solution using Resident Access and Tyler Payments, helping the city strengthen PCI compliance while meeting rising resident expectations for ease and convenience.
Rudy also highlights the behind-the-scenes impact of the new approach, including reduced staff workload, improved inventory tracking, faster refunds, and the elimination of cross-department silos. What once required four or five staff members to manage now takes just one — freeing teams to focus on higher-value work while delivering a smoother experience for residents.
Whether you support finance, public works, or digital services in local government, this episode offers practical insights on modernizing payments, improving security, and showing how even small community programs can deliver big wins through thoughtful digital transformation.
This episode also highlights the Tyler Excellence Awards, which celebrate public sector organizations using Tyler solutions to make a meaningful impact in their communities. Apply now at the link below!
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Rudy Zucker: We only had to have one person manage the entire sale, where previous years it was four or five people communicating back and forth, doing different functions. So that really cleaned up and made it a lot easier to organize.
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. Happy New Year, and thanks for joining us as we kick off our first episode of 2026. In this episode recorded live at Tyler Connect 2025 in San Antonio, we’re joined by Rudy Zucker, project manager for the city of Naperville, Illinois, and one of this year’s Tyler Excellence Award winners.
Rudy shares how Naperville modernized its annual Arbor Day Tree Sale, transforming a traditional in-person event into a simple, secure, user-friendly digital experience. By integrating Tyler Solutions, the city streamlined operations, strengthened PCI compliance, and made life easier for both residents and staff. Together, we explore how even small community programs can showcase the big possibilities of digital transformation in local government.
Rudy, thanks for joining us. And to start, can you tell us about the Arbor Day Tree Sale and what challenges the city was facing when the process was adopting new technology?
Rudy Zucker: So, the Arbor Day Tree Sale is something our public works department puts it on annually. It’s part of our Green City initiative. So, prior to the pandemic, what we would do is people would just come into Public Works, they’d go up to the counter, they’d make a purchase of tree or up to six trees, however many they wanted. But with the pandemic that changed things.
So, this year, we actually look at using a combination of resident access plus Tyler payments to run the sale.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. And now when you set out to modernize the process, what goals did you have in mind and what led you to adopt Tyler Solutions?
Rudy Zucker: So, one of our top priorities was from the Public Works Department. They wanted an easy-to-use interface because they were very afraid because we have a lot of older people within the city. They were afraid that some of our residents would go on the website and have trouble trying to make their purchase. They wanted it to be very seamless. From the finance perspective, we needed something that was at least a step away from where our city’s website was. So, we could take the Resident Access portal, we could list that on our city’s website, and that would be enough of a gap, which is one of the reasons why we went with Resident Access and Tyler Payments because it integrates with our ERP system.
Josh Henderson: And now, you know, these results, they kind of speak for themselves, but residents can now make secure online payments without needing to register for an account. How has this improved the customer experience during the tree sale? What kind of feedback have you been getting from residents?
Rudy Zucker: The customer experience was fantastic. There were a couple of instances where we had somebody make a purchase and they’re like, oh, I need a refund. We were able to take care of that almost instantaneously. From the customer’s perspective, they would see the trees available on the website. They’d go into the order form, place their order, and then pick up the trees. It was very seamless for them.
Josh Henderson: That’s great. I feel like seamless, seamless integration, like anything to make the customer just sort of, like that ease of use for the customer is always just something.
Rudy Zucker: I like, it sounds cliche, but it’s something that’s really, you’re very on the spot with that because what somebody wants to do is when they’re coming into the city’s website, they just want to do their thing and then go about their day.
And having somebody show up, click the link, make their order, put their credit card information in and be done with the sale, like it was fantastic.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. And you hear a lot about how, like, you know, other apps or other types of digital services that folks are using kind of set the bar for, how those expectations get set. So, somebody uses something that’s really easy, they’re like, oh, no. I expect that from every other thing that I’m that I’m using, and you kind of have to follow suit Yeah. Regardless of sort of budgets and things like that. You kind of have to do your best to try to hit those expectations for sure.
Stay tuned. We’ll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Jade Champion: Hey, podcast listeners. We’re here to celebrate the remarkable work happening across the public sector.
Josh Henderson: That’s right. Each year, the Tyler Excellence Awards recognize organizations using technology to make a real difference in their communities.
Jade Champion: From improving efficiency and enhancing engagement to expanding access and transparency, these stories show what’s possible when innovation meets purpose.
Josh Henderson: We’ve seen some incredible results. Agencies turning data into insight, streamlining services, and strengthening trust with residents.
Jade Champion: Now it’s your turn. The Tyler Excellence Awards will be celebrated in April at Connect 2026 in Las Vegas, and applications are open now.
Josh Henderson: If you’re a Tyler client driving positive change, we want to hear your story. Apply now at tylertech.com or at the link in our show notes.
Jade Champion: Because when technology empowers people, that’s excellence worth celebrating.
Josh Henderson: Now let’s get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast.
Now payment security is also top of mind, I’m sure, for you, as well as many local governments as well. How did implementing this solution help Naperville meet its PCI compliance requirements while also making the process easier?
Rudy Zucker: We needed to have a step between where the purchase, the transaction was taking place, and our city’s website. So, using the Resident Access Portal was the perfect tool for that. Like you had noted, somebody could log in and they could just make a guest payment. They didn’t have to create the account and do all of the extra steps that maybe somebody paying a regular bill would need to do.
So yeah, so that took care of that PCI component by giving us that space. But Tyler Payments is also PCI compliant as well.
Josh Henderson: And now beyond the resident facing improvements, and obviously in local government, it’s always about the residents, right? First and foremost, it’s how can we improve the city, the experience of the resident, how can we increase it and make it better? But how has this technology benefited your internal teams? How has it helped reduce staff workload or streamline operations sort of behind the scenes for you all?
Rudy Zucker: So, it actually did quite a bit for our staff workload.
Using PayPal, there was a lot of back and forth between departments. So public works would manage their inventory. They would email the finance department to say, hey, we need you to adjust this count because this isn’t correct. Or we need to do a refund because we oversold this tree. Tyler payments actually made it a lot easier. We only had to have one person manage the entire sale where previous years it was four or five people communicating back and forth doing different functions.
So that really cleaned up and made it a lot easier to organize because we could have our business systems analyst who would go in in the morning, she would check the Tyler payments reports, run those out, and then be able to update our inventories. If we needed to pull something down, we could do it within minutes. So, it worked very well. It made it a lot lighter of a lift for our staff to be able to run that sale this year.
Josh Henderson: Yeah. I mean, you hear a lot about eliminating silos being a huge thing in the workforce and that sounds like something that this solution helps. Now, for other municipalities looking to modernize payment processes and improve resident experiences, you know, even for smaller programs or smaller municipalities, what advice would you offer based on the success that Naperville has seen?
Rudy Zucker: So, one of the things is to not underestimate the simplicity of the forms. They seem very, like I said, very simple. You click a button, you say, okay, what do you want to purchase? But we’re actually able to use them to collect a lot of the information that we wouldn’t normally get.
We can ask questions, can ask like, who’s going to do the pickup if it’s not the person making the purchase. So, it’s very, very flexible and finding uses for that flexibility, of thinking outside the box. I think that’s something to really pay attention to when you’re using Tyler payments.
Josh Henderson: Rudy, thank you so much for sharing Naperville’s story. This has been a great conversation, and congratulations again on the big Tyler Excellence Award win.
Rudy Zucker: Thanks very much. Glad to be here.
Josh Henderson: As we heard today, improving digital services isn’t just about adding convenience. It’s about creating simple, secure, and seamless experiences that meet residents where they are.
Rudy shared how the city of Naperville modernized its Arbor Day Tree Sale by streamlining payments, strengthening PCI compliance, and breaking down internal silos, making the process easier for both staff and the community. That forward thinking approach is part of what earned the city a 2025 Tyler Excellence Award. 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.
As we begin a new year, we’re excited to continue bringing you stories from across the public sector, and we’re grateful to have you with us.
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For Tyler Technologies, I’m Josh Henderson. Thanks for listening to the Tyler Tech Podcast, and here’s to a great 2026.