How Public Agencies Can Close the Legacy System Modernization Gap

Public agencies are being asked to do more. More calls to respond to, more permits to process, more residents to serve—often with a limited staff and the same systems they’ve had for years.

The pressure to modernize has moved from a priority to a necessity. According to a 2025 EY survey, 55% of state and local IT decision-makers plan to modernize legacy systems within the next five years. Yet 71% say the cost is prohibitively high.

There’s a gap between knowing what needs to change and being able to change. That’s where most agencies get stuck, and old disconnected systems only make it worse. When your tools don’t talk to each other, your staff spends more time managing workarounds than serving residents. At that point, the outdated tools themselves become an obstacle to progress.

The good news is that modernization doesn’t mean replacing everything at once. The right approach will connect your operations, boost staff productivity, and improve the citizen experience. In this article, we explore how the right tools in public administration and public safety can help your agency close the modernization gap.

The Hidden Cost of Disconnected Systems

When systems don’t communicate, people fill the gap. Finance teams re-enter data that should transfer automatically. Dispatch centers can’t share incident information with officers in the field. Records that should take seconds to pull require minutes of manual searching.

For agencies at every level of government, this is Tuesday.

According to the GAO, federal agencies spend roughly 80% of their IT budgets maintaining existing systems rather than improving them. State and local governments face a similar bind, budgeting $144 billion for IT in 2024. Much of that spending helps maintain legacy systems rather than replacing them.

Outdated systems create data siloes, which limits data sharing and collaboration between departments. They create inefficiencies that slow response times, create reporting gaps, burn out staff, and increase wait times for residents. IT budgets should go toward modernization instead of keeping disconnected systems running. It’s time to invest in the future, not the past.

What Modern Local Government Software Looks Like

Modern local government software isn’t defined by any single feature. It’s defined by how well everything works together. For most agencies, that starts with the cloud.

Cloud adoption among government agencies grew 29% in 2025. It’s easy to see why. Cloud-based platforms give agencies real-time access to shared data, automatic security updates, and the ability to scale without expensive hardware refreshes.

The right platform connects departments. Data is entered once and everyone works from the same source of truth—no more re-keying or reconciling conflicting records across systems. Workflows match the way your agency actually operates. Staff can adopt the tools quickly, without months of training or costly implementation delays. And as your community grows or your agency’s needs shift, the software scales with you.

For agencies that have made the move, the difference is tangible. Edgar County, Illinois eliminated on-premises server maintenance and redirected resources toward their core mission. East Baton Rouge Parish built an end-to-end public safety ecosystem in the cloud, supporting 25 agencies with greater reliability than their previous infrastructure could deliver.

Modernizing Public Administration

Public administrators juggle more than most people realize. Budgets, permits, infrastructure, utilities, resident inquiries, and the list goes on. The operational surface area is enormous, and when your software is fragmented, the burden falls on staff.

CentralSquare’s public administration solutions are designed to change that.

Finance Enterprise unifies budgeting, payroll, purchasing, and fund accounting into a single municipal ERP built specifically for public-sector operations. It replaces the patchwork of disconnected systems that slow finance teams down.

Community Development brings permitting and inspections online. With the real-time loop, automated routing, online portals, and inspection scheduling keep projects moving without the back-and-forth that frustrates both staff and residents.

Enterprise Asset Management gives agencies visibility into their infrastructure from a single platform, including work orders, preventive maintenance schedules, and asset lifecycle tracking.

Utility billing and citizen engagement tools handle the resident-facing side. They provide online payments, real-time account access, and automated notifications that reduce call volume and free staff to focus on higher-impact work.

When these systems work together on the CentralSquare platform, the impact is felt across the entire agency. You get faster service, fewer errors, and staff that can focus on the community instead of the software. The same principle applies on the public safety side, where connected technology is just as critical.

Modernizing Public Safety

In the U.S., there are roughly 240 million 911 calls per year, according to NENA. Behind every call is a dispatcher, a records system, a responding unit, and a chain of technology that has to work without fail. CentralSquare’s public safety platform makes sure every link of the chain is reliable and secure.

PSJ Enterprise connects CAD, records, jail, and mobile into one ecosystem, so information flows from the call center to the field without gaps or delays.

Vertex™ NG911 modernizes call handling with text-to-911, multimedia data, and improved location accuracy, giving dispatchers more context the moment a call comes in.

FirstTwo extends situational awareness beyond the dispatch center. Real-time intelligence from floor plans, camera feeds, and LPR data is delivered as digital map pins before officers arrive on scene. Officers arrive informed, prepared, and ready to respond.

East Baton Rouge Parish models what connected public safety looks like. By modernizing with Enterprise and Vertex™ NG911, they built a full, cloud-based ecosystem that connects 911 callers, dispatchers, and officers in the field. Their new environment breaks down silos and enables coordinated response across 25 agencies.

Setting Your Agency Up for What’s Next

No agency modernizes everything at once, and you don’t have to.

Start by identifying where staff is losing time, where data is getting stuck between departments, and where residents are feeling the impact. Those are the gaps that need to be closed first.

Cloud-based local government software gives your agency the flexibility to modernize at your own pace—then add capabilities as your needs evolve. The right platform grows with you.

Ready to take the next step toward legacy system modernization? Learn more about CentralSquare solutions for public administration and public safety, and see how connected technology can help your agency serve its community better.