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Streamlining Collaboration in Local Government: The Town Hall of Josselin's Story
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Streamlining information sharing and collaboration between staff and elected officials is a key challenge for local authorities today. To address it, the Town Hall of Josselin turned to Talkspirit, a French all-in-one collaborative platform.
Located in the Morbihan department, the Town Hall of Josselin is responsible for delivering public services to its 2,500 residents. Like all local councils, it is also required to ensure elected officials have timely access to the right information — making a dedicated solution essential for managing these exchanges.
Key figures:
- Around twenty staff members
- 19 municipal councillors
- 86% of monthly active users on Talkspirit
How does the Town Hall of Josselin use Talkspirit to improve access to information and collaborative work among staff and elected officials? Interviewed by our team, Cécile Québriac, Director General of Services, and Jack Noël, Deputy Municipal Councillor responsible for tourism, twinning and public safety, share their initial needs and the benefits Talkspirit has brought.
A Drive to Improve Collaboration and Information Access
“Before Talkspirit, we relied almost exclusively on email to send information to elected officials and staff, along with an extranet for document storage”, recalls Cécile Québriac, Director General of Services. This setup had significant limitations.
Sending emails gave the town hall no way of knowing whether recipients had actually read the information shared. Similarly, the extranet served only as a document repository, with no collaboration or information-sharing capabilities.
“Our initial need was to give elected officials access to the right information at the right time, in a digital format — which is a legal obligation for us”, explains Jack Noël, municipal councillor. “It was also important to have a tool that let us share events and convocation notices (for council meetings, for instance). We used to send convocations by post. Today, everything is digital, which means ensuring digital traceability.”
“We also needed a tool to support collaborative work among elected officials when preparing municipal committee sessions, as well as day-to-day collaboration between elected officials and staff.”
Given these challenges, deploying a collaborative tool was the obvious answer for the Town Hall of Josselin.
end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code Made in France: A Key Criterion for Local Authorities
“What mattered to us was having a European collaborative solution with data hosted in France, to ensure the confidentiality of our data”, says Jack Noël. Indeed, in line with Circular N° 6282/SG, local authorities are now required to use cloud solutions hosted on French territory, and compliant with GDPR.
Read also: Local authorities: why deploy a collaborative platform?
“After evaluating collaborative suites at international, European and French level, we ultimately chose Talkspirit based on reviews in specialist press and excellent user feedback.”
A Tool That Simplifies…
Now used by around forty users, Talkspirit lets elected officials and staff access relevant information and work together on shared topics, on desktop and mobile alike.
…Information Sharing and Access
“We use the platform to send information to elected officials (such as local and regional news), and to give them access to council meeting minutes –– which is a legal obligation for us”, says Cécile Québriac. “It’s become an essential document hub for daily operations”, adds Jack Noël.
“The tool also lets us share convocation notices for various bodies, by creating events in the shared calendar. We can keep a written record of all notices sent, and verify in real time who has viewed each post” — something that was previously impossible with email.
…Collaborative Work
Talkspirit is also used to facilitate collaboration between elected officials and staff. “To this end, we created several groups that reflect the working structure of the town hall”, explains the municipal councillor. “For example, we have:
- groups for each committee (such as a group for the urban planning, safety and works committees, etc.). These help elected officials prepare sessions together and centralise related documents on a dedicated drive;
- a “Staff” group, for sharing information with all employees;
- cross-functional groups, for example for mail routing or distributing convocation notices to elected officials;
- groups for communicating with people external to the town hall (beyond elected officials), for example to liaise with the gendarmerie or the local library network.”
Beyond groups, staff regularly use the chat to communicate with colleagues, and the drive to share working documents.
“During the elections, we used shared spreadsheets to record and update results from each polling station in real time, which allowed us to consolidate overall results very quickly.
Talkspirit also proved invaluable during the Covid-19 vaccination campaign. We used it to centralise appointment management between town hall staff and field teams, enabling a much smoother flow of information”, says the Director General of Services.
Read also: Coronavirus: how technology helps local authorities manage the health crisis
The All-in-One Bet
For Cécile Québriac and Jack Noël, “Talkspirit largely meets the town hall’s needs” . They particularly highlight the excellent responsiveness of the Talkspirit team, which consistently takes on board feedback and suggestions. “I’m confident this co-construction approach will lead to a tool that fully meets all our needs”, says Jack Noël.
“In addition to fulfilling our legal obligations to elected officials, the tool lets us store working documents, share information and meeting notices, and streamline collaborative work — all on a single platform”, adds the Director General of Services.
The all-in-one aspect is a real advantage for the Town Hall of Josselin, simplifying everyday life for staff and elected officials alike. Rather than juggling multiple tools, they can communicate and collaborate with colleagues directly on Talkspirit, saving time in their work.
Talkspirit’s Take on the Town Hall of Josselin
As this testimonial illustrates, Talkspirit brings real value to local authorities, both in terms of collaboration and information sharing.
Thanks to its features and accessibility, the platform can serve the needs of both staff and elected officials. A concrete example: at the Town Hall of Josselin, “elected officials tend to use Talkspirit on mobile to consult information and documents, respond to comments, or sign up for events. Staff, on the other hand, mainly use the desktop application and have a more collaborative use of the platform”, says Jack Noël.
On top of being French-made, Talkspirit stands out for its ergonomics, ease of use and the responsiveness of its support team, which remains constantly attentive to client needs — making it a key asset for local authorities.
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Want to learn more about the benefits of Talkspirit for local authorities? Watch the replay of our webinar « Better Communication and Collaboration in Local Government » to hear directly from the Town Hall of Josselin and the Town Hall of Mauges-sur-Loire about their Talkspirit rollout:
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Author: Emmanuelle Abensur
