Building Canada's First Municipal Website Platform Inventory
Municipal websites are core infrastructure now. Residents learn about services and how to access them. They pay bills there. They apply for permits. They report issues. They form opinions about whether local government works.
Everyone wants a better website. But most municipalities make decisions about their website without fully knowing how their peers manage their website.
The Questions You Keep Asking
We hear these questions from municipal clients across Canada:
What CMS platform do similar municipalities use?
Are we the only ones hosting on premise?
Who should manage our website? IT? Communications? A dedicated digital team?
Should we centralize content publishing or distribute it across departments?
These questions come up when councils review budgets. When you draft RFPs. When staff leave and take knowledge with them. When residents expect better digital service.
The problem: There's no good source of answers. You piece together insights from conference conversations and peer calls. You make educated guesses.
What We're Building
We're creating Canada's first national inventory of municipal website platforms and operating models. A factual snapshot of what's happening across the country.
This isn't a vendor comparison. This isn't a best practices guide. This is baseline data: what CMS platforms are in use, who manages them, how content workflows are structured, where technical support comes from.
We need input from municipalities of all sizes and regions. The goal is to capture the real diversity of approaches.
Why This Matters Now
Several forces make this timely:
Rising expectations: Residents expect municipal services to match commercial website experiences.
Accessibility regulations: AODA, ACA, and similar requirements push municipalities to evaluate and upgrade digital infrastructure.
Budget pressures: Councils want proof that investments are sound and comparable to peer municipalities.
Staff transitions: Web knowledge often lives with one or two people. When they leave, knowledge leaves.
Vendor landscape shifts: The CMS market is consolidating and evolving. Knowing what peers use helps you navigate procurement.
Shared data means you don't make decisions in isolation. You approach council with context. You write better RFPs. You benchmark your staffing model. You spot emerging patterns before they become problems.
What You Get Back
This is knowledge sharing, not data extraction. Everyone who participates receives:
A summary report of aggregated findings showing CMS platform distribution, hosting models, governance structures, and content workflow patterns across Canadian municipalities.
Practical insights into how municipalities of different sizes approach website management. Useful when making the case for resources, restructuring teams, or evaluating platforms.
Context for decision making that helps you answer leadership questions, write stronger RFPs, and understand where your municipality sits in the broader landscape.
We'll publish aggregated results on the Perry Group website. A public resource for the municipal sector.
How to Participate
The survey is open now. Two minutes to complete.
Building Better Together
Municipal government has always relied on peer learning and shared knowledge. This inventory is a structured way to do what the sector already does informally: help each other navigate common challenges.
Your two minutes helps create a resource that benefits everyone working to improve how municipalities serve their communities online.
Have colleagues in other municipalities? Share this with your network. The more comprehensive the data, the more useful for everyone.