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REVIEW SHOP QA -WEB BASED APPLICATION FOR ECONOMIC <br />DEVELOPMENT/SHOP LOCAL INITIATIVES <br />By: Heidi A. Nelson, Deputy City Administrator/Director of Community Development <br />Background: <br />As a follow-up to a contact made at the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) <br />Conference attended this past year; staff has reviewed a new web-based application for economic <br />development and shop local initiatives. In late September, an on-line demo of the application <br />was conducted with a broad group of city staff and EDA Vice-Chair Jim Steffen to gauge the <br />level of interest in the Shop QA application. Feedback was positive with regard to the value of <br />this type of an economic development tool for Ramsey. Staff has coordinated an on-line demo <br />of the application for EDA members at the October 14th meeting, beginning at 8:00 a.m. <br />Shop QA is a new application developed by a company called Gov QA. Gov QA is a customer <br />request management (CRM) application used broadly by cities and counties throughout the <br />country. This new application, Shop QA, is a pilot application that they are introducing to cities <br />for shop local and economic development purposes. Currently, they aze working with the cities <br />of Buffalo and Cottage Grove in Minnesota as pilot cities. They are seeking a third pilot city in <br />Minnesota and have offered the opportunity to Ramsey. With the pilot program, they are <br />offering reduced pricing for the application of a one-time start-up fee of $1,500 and a monthly <br />hosting fee of $250 guaranteed for three years with indexed increases after three years; the <br />standard rates for non-pilot cities will be a $5,000 start-up fee with monthly hosting fees of $595, <br />The following links will take you to the gov-qa website as well as the Buffalo and Cottage Grove <br />Shop QA pages. <br />httn://gov-aa.com/ <br />htto://mvQOVheln.com/buffalomn/ cs/BusinessDirectorv aspx~sSessionID= <br />http://www.mveovheln.org/cottaeegrovemn/ cs/BusinessDirectorv asox~sSessionID= <br />With the writing of this case, staff is collecting feedback from the cities of Buffalo and Cottage <br />Grove with regard to the value of the application in their communities and will report on that <br />feedback at the meeting. <br />Staff Recommendation: <br />Participate in on-line demo of Shop QA and provide direction to staff with regazd to participation <br />in Shop QA pilot program. <br />EDA Action: <br />Direct staff with regard to participation in Shop QA pilot program. <br />EDA: 10/14/2010 <br />