Yogi Bhalla has worked as the CFO of Village of Ashcroft for three years where he has implemented a Business Intelligence framework for reporting to council and staff. He has become intimately familiar with the challenges unique to small municipalities which has lead him on a path to find solutions particularly suited to them.
One consistent challenge has been escalating cost pressure for software budgets. In many cases, software is driving processes that are ill-suited to smaller municipal operations. Utilizing the cloud and open source software, Yogi is developing frugal solutions that take into consideration the unique constrains of a municipality such as Ashcroft and are based on collaboration and sharing valuable insights with colleagues. An integrated solution which combines finances with asset management, GIS and cloud hosted databases is nearing implementation and is receiving excellent feedback.