OVERVIEW
Faced with outdated communication methods and limited visibility into message performance, Oregon Department of Corrections (ORDOC) adopted Engagement Cloud to support the organization’s cultural shift toward transparency and prioritization of communications. With a broader reach to employees, legislators, media, and visitors to the agency’s 12 facilities, ORDOC builds trust and transparency with stakeholders through timely, tailored communications and consistent updates.
SITUATION
Before Granicus, ORDOC relied heavily on Outlook and Facebook posts to communicate updates or sudden changes in prison operations to both visitors and employees. This approach lacked analytics, targeting, and timeliness of delivery — which proved especially problematic during emergencies like wildfires or winter weather closures.
“Somebody could be traveling seven hours across the state to visit,” said Stephen Cook, strategic initiatives project manager for ORDOC. “If they’re already on their way, they’re not going to see a Facebook post.”
Internal communications were also fragmented, with no way to measure engagement or tailor messages to specific staff groups.
SOLUTION
To address these challenges, ORDOC implemented Engagement Cloud. The combination of the solution’s Communications (govDelivery) and Sentiment & Feedback (EngagementHQ) capabilities enabled the team to strategically reach residents and staff with the information most relevant to them. Gone are the days of unreliable Facebook posts and missing important alerts.
ORDOC uses the DOC Engagement site to create public-facing pages that can be updated quickly in times of urgency or to answer common questions. “We had a generic inbox set up that said, ‘If you have a question, email us,’” explained Cook. “We were getting 10 of those a day and they were very simple questions — we just didn’t have anywhere to send them to find answers. Now, thanks to the engagement site, we get a lot less email — and I think that’s something every state agency and a lot of local governments would benefit from.”
The team also deploys SMS messaging for visitor alerts — 75 of which were sent in the first six months — and sends targeted newsletters, conducts A/B testing, and measures open and click rates to form data-driven communications strategies.
“We were flying in the dark before Granicus,” said Harvey Mathews, communications and government relations manager for ORDOC. “Being able to see where our communications are working or not, especially with our internal audience of about 4,600 people, is critical for us.”
Internally, audience segmentation allows for targeted messages to specific staff groups — improving productivity and reducing information overload. Employee inboxes are no longer bogged down with irrelevant or infrequent messages, reducing frustration and fatigue and making them more likely to engage with emails.
RESULTS
Since implementing Engagement Cloud, ORDOC has seen a measurable transformation in how it communicates with both internal and external audiences. Most notably, the department reached more than 1,300 individuals on its Wildfire Response page with timely updates — significantly reducing the volume of email inquiries or panicked public phone calls.
The engagement site also gained traction around policy changes and updates, with members of the public using the tool to ask questions. An informative landing page about the proposal to replace the Oregon State Penitentiary is already serving as a hub for legislators, media, and other stakeholders — with plans to use the page to provide consistent updates as the project progresses.
Staff and the public now have direct access to accurate, up-to-date information, which has improved transparency and built trust. The team reported an 80% engagement rate for email and SMS messaging, illustrating the impact of reaching people via the most effective avenues. Legislators and media outlets also benefit from this centralized, reliable source of information, strengthening ORDOC’s relationships and credibility.
Internally, the tools support ORDOC’s vision for cultural change by enabling direct, productive communication with employees — resulting in increased responsiveness to the tune of a 95% engagement rate.
Only six months in, ORDOC is just getting started. The team is planning to use Engagement Cloud technology to tackle existing communication issues around recruitment and hiring, as well as to set up informational drip campaigns for friends and family when someone enters the system.
“The whole purpose of these tools is to get information out there,” said Cook. “We want it to be very easy; we want to be transparent and honest. The right people getting the right information — that’s what it’s all about.”
Governments that use Granicus’ Engagement Cloud combine insights from the Sentiment & Feedback (EngagementHQ) capability with the reach and advanced messaging capabilities of Communications (govDelivery) to truly understand their communities and reach them with the right messages at the right time through the channels they prefer. These solutions are powered by AWS infrastructure and tools, including AWS OpenSearch to support search capabilities, AWS Comprehends natural language processing (NLP) to gather sentiment analysis on open text feedback, and the Relational Database Service (RDS) to better connect insights to action.
