Working with online engagement tools
Keep your online engagement tools. Add the practice behind them.
For organizations using EngagementHQ (Granicus), Social Pinpoint (now Social Point by Open Point), Go Vocal, PublicInput, SurveyMonkey or web forms to collect feedback. Your tools collect participation well. The planning, governance, analysis and reporting around them still live in documents and email. CE Canvas connects the two without replacing anything.
Your situation
Why online engagement tools alone do not make engagement consistent
You use online engagement tools such as an engagement platform, SurveyMonkey, website forms or spreadsheets, but the internal work is disconnected. Planning, approvals, analysis and reporting still happen in documents and email.
- Collection is consistent but planning and approvals are not.
- Analysis is repeated by hand for every project.
- Reports are assembled at the end rather than produced from evidence captured along the way.
- No one can show how input influenced the decision.
Connecting your online engagement tools
What changes with CE Canvas
- Planning, governance and decision scope defined before collection starts.
- Evidence from your online engagement tools and other channels brought into one project record.
- Analysis and report-back produced from that record, with traceability.
- Your tools stay. CE Canvas becomes the practice layer behind them.
Recommended first step
Engagement Workflow Review
A structured look at how feedback moves from your collection tools into planning, governance, evidence and reporting, and where it stalls.
Best fit when
- You use online engagement tools, surveys, website forms or spreadsheets to collect feedback.
- Planning, approvals, analysis and reporting happen in documents, email and inboxes.
- Different teams run engagement differently and reporting is assembled at the end.
What you get
- A map of your current workflow from project start to report-back.
- The handoffs where evidence, decisions and accountability go missing.
- What to keep (your tools stay), what to connect, and what to standardize.
- A recommended first project to run end-to-end in CE Canvas.
Engagement practice
Practice guides for this situation
The thinking behind the path, written for practitioners. Useful whatever you decide about the software.
Beyond the digital engagement platform
Platforms deliver participation. Practice is what connects it to decisions.
Read the guideTracking input to decisions
The thread from a submission to a decision cannot be rebuilt after the fact; it has to be kept as you go.
Read the guideClosing the loop
Reporting back on what you heard and how it shaped the decision is where engagement promises are kept.
Read the guideWhat we heard report template
A section-by-section template for the report-back, and the mistake that undermines most of them.
Read the guideAlso on this path
When you are further along
Validate
Guided Pilot
A paid, time-limited pilot on one real project, governed by agreed success measures, with fees credited toward the first annual subscription.
Design a pilotBuild support
Business Case Builder
Secure leadership and budget support with an auditable case, without invented numbers.
Build your business caseQuestions
Common questions about connecting your online engagement tools
Does CE Canvas replace EngagementHQ, Social Pinpoint (now Social Point) or our survey tool?
No. Online engagement tools collect input and CE Canvas is the practice layer behind them. Planning, decision scope, approvals, analysis and report-back happen in CE Canvas; collection stays where it is.
How does feedback get from our platform into CE Canvas?
Exports from your online engagement tools, surveys, meetings and written submissions are brought into one project record, where they are analyzed together and every finding stays traceable to the comment behind it.
What does an Engagement Workflow Review involve?
A 45-minute working session with the people who run engagement day to day, a map of how feedback moves from collection to reporting today, and a one-page review of where evidence and accountability go missing.
Not the right path?
Choose the situation that fits, or compare the paths side by side.