Sturgis Web Services
Powering Customer Experience with Cloud and Payment Solutions

Digital innovation has ushered in the opportunity to transform public services to meet the needs of the changing population, deliver efficiencies, and improve performance. In the era of digital transformation, the switch from traditional public sector payment methods can bring forth greater operating efficiencies. This is where Sturgis Web Services changes the game to provide a convenient and secure payment experience for constituents.

Powered by PayPal, the company combines highly reliable and scalable cloud-based technologies and security along with cutting edge payment technology to provide local governments with an innovative, fully customized website featuring secure payments and a comprehensive reporting solution that delivers great user experience for constituents. “PayPal adds value because they are a trusted global brand. The marriage of cloud-based innovative technology with a trusted global payments provider makes the government merchants confident that they will not have to deal with any payment-related security issues,” says Randy Sturgis, president and founder of Sturgis Web Services.

Sturgis enables constituents to use the site to access customer bills and information and to make mobile, web, and in-office payments anytime, anywhere, using debit and credit cards, ACH, PayPal, or PayPal Credit.

Backed by expert consulting, reliability, and best-in-class customer service, Sturgis helps local government agencies use technology to modernize their internal offices and provide citizens with a convenient and secure payment experience. The company leverages Amazon Web Services (AWS) and their portfolio of services to provide leading-edge technology, which can lower operating costs and increase efficiency for the government merchant’s client base. This also enables the company to provide an experience on mobile devices and desktop devices unmatched by the competitors.

Randy believes that data is the lifeblood of every government agency, whether it is federal, state, or local. “They use large amounts of their budgets to maximize what they can collect on their tax rolls.

Having vendors who can relieve them of the need to hire programmers to deliver their data for maximum efficiency to the web is a real value add to them,” he says. To this end, Sturgis takes the clients’ data and optimizes it with the best search and payment technology that makes the merchants’ and citizens’ user experience seamless such that they can find all of what they need much easier and faster.

The marriage of cloud-based leading-edge technology with a trusted global payments provider makes the government merchants confident that they will not have to deal with any payment-related security issues

In an instance, Sturgis assisted Columbia County to decrease the amount of phone and foot traffic in its Tax Commissioners office. What they needed was an online experience that the citizens would be able to easily figure out, while feeling assured that their money was being handled securely. The Columbia County Tax Commissioner’s Office went live with Sturgis in the spring of 2015. The previous year, the county had kept records of all incoming calls. After comparing the two years, the impact that Sturgis had was staggering, a 35 percent reduction of incoming calls, or almost 10,000 less incoming phone calls throughout the year.

What differentiates Sturgis is its approach to using data efficiently to compete with the payment companies on price-sensitive business. The company has even developed a product—Paylocalgov— by working with its sister company to this end. Having carved a unique niche, Randy believes that the future is bright for Sturgis. He informs, “The future is training the government brands’ direct sales force to use their knowledge of payments and government to sell a highly differentiated cloud-based product against commodity payment companies already established in our space. We are in the early stages of success with that.”