City of Austin modernizes financial management to drive efficiency and transparency

Serving a fast-growing, complex organization requires financial systems that are resilient, secure and built for change. The City of Austin is evolving its financial and grant management capabilities to support a decentralized workforce, strengthen accountability and deliver greater value to the community.

Partnership built on trust and collaboration

The City of Austin has partnered with us for more than 35 years. Over that time, we have worked together through several system upgrades, each delivering new levels of innovation and improvement.

Now, Austin is embarking on its most ambitious transformation yet — what the team calls “the big one.” This next phase will introduce a modernized user experience, role-based homepages and new tools designed to increase efficiency across the organization through CGI Advantage Financial Management.

Driving a citywide transformation

The City of Austin is a large, decentralized organization that encompasses more than 40 departments and offices that use multiple tools and approaches to track and manage grants. 

Through our partnership, Austin is seeking to centralize grant management using the CGI Advantage Grant Lifecycle Management and Vendor Self-Service solutions. The goals of this modernization effort include greater transparency, consistency and efficiency across the organization while supporting Austin’s “One City, One Mission” initiative.

It’s anticipated that these new modules will enable end-to-end grant management, from identifying opportunities to closing out and auditing. Austin will have increased visibility in its entire grant portfolio, including both pending and awarded grants. This insight is expected to provide city leadership and the community with a clearer understanding of how grant funding advances citywide priorities.

Embracing the cloud for a smarter future

A key driver behind Austin’s transformation is its move to the cloud. The shift brings significant benefits, including automated upgrades and releases, reduced reliance on custom solutions and improved security through single sign-on and multi-factor authentication.

Cloud technology is expected to unlock advanced capabilities, such as AI and machine learning, while enabling employees to securely access CGI Advantage from anywhere, on any device.

Keys to sustained success

For the City of Austin, CGI Advantage is a mission-critical tool - one that requires ongoing attention and collaboration. From planning through go-live, we remain engaged, ensuring subject matter experts are actively involved across multiple functional areas.

Equally important is strong leadership support. City leaders set the tone by emphasizing the project’s importance, fostering accountability and encouraging consistent participation across departments. This commitment has helped shape a culture of trust.

Organizational change management (OCM) is another cornerstone of Austin’s success. The city prioritizes steady, transparent communication, keeping employees informed not only about progress, but about what’s coming next.

Austin’s philosophy is simple: spread knowledge, not bottlenecks. By empowering employees across the organization, the city creates champions who help drive adoption and sustain long-term change.

Looking ahead: Innovation with integrity

Austin’s future is focused on continuous improvement - modernizing, automating and streamlining processes so employees can better serve the community.

In partnership with CGI, the city leveraged AI-assisted development tools to automate a key financial process, eliminating the need for manual input, improving efficiency and reducing administrative workload.

This commitment to responsible innovation is reflected in the city’s AI policy, adopted in 2024. The policy establishes principles of accountability, transparency, reliability and equity, ensuring that AI supports employees while upholding public trust. 

“We view AI as a way to support, not replace, our people, by encouraging innovation and collaboration between employees and technology,” said Norton. “It’s not just about automation or new tools. It’s about using technology responsibly to strengthen our ability to serve the people of Austin in an innovative, fair, and transparent way.”
 

"This shift is all about streamlining processes, cutting down manual work,
and improving the quality of what we deliver."
 

- Marija Norton, Controller, City of Austin