Open data portals were a genuine leap forward. But a portal's job ends where the resident's begins: it hands over a CSV and wishes them luck. An open data platform built on the ALKARTIS Intelligence Engine picks up where the portal stops — it reads across your datasets and answers the actual question, under your branding.
A modern open-data portal is a catalog. It lists datasets, versions them, and lets people download files. That is valuable, and it is also where the friction starts. The resident who wants to know whether a landlord has open violations doesn't want a violations dataset — they want the answer for one address, with the other relevant records attached. Publishing the raw file leaves the hardest part, interpretation, on the person least equipped to do it.
ALKARTIS reframes the goal from access to understanding. The category it calls Information Intelligence describes the arc: Data → Information → Intelligence → Decisions → Action. A portal gets you to the first step. An intelligence layer carries the resident the rest of the way — connecting records that live in separate systems into a single, explainable answer.
In Philadelphia, where ALKARTIS is live today, a question about a single property can pull together OPA assessment history, L&I permits and valuations, code violations, rental licensing status, eviction filings, and nearby 311 activity — records that would otherwise mean four or five separate lookups. The resident sees one connected picture instead of a scavenger hunt, and every element of that picture is traceable to its public source.
A dashboard shows you the data and trusts you to draw the conclusion. Intelligence draws the connection and shows you the source, so you can check the work.
Many agencies have already invested in dashboards — a step past raw files, but still built around the assumption that the viewer knows which filter to set and how to read the chart. Dashboards answer the questions their designers anticipated. The resident's real question is usually more specific and cuts across datasets the dashboard keeps separate. ALKARTIS is designed for exactly those cross-cutting questions, resolving entities (owners across shell LLCs, employees across roles) so the answer reflects reality rather than the shape of the source table.
An ALKARTIS open data platform is a custom deployment that can run under your agency's branding, so residents see it as part of your services rather than a third-party site. Just as important, it sits alongside your existing portal and systems of record — it doesn't replace them. Your catalog keeps doing what catalogs do well; ALKARTIS adds the connective, explaining layer on top. You can start with a single high-traffic dataset and grow the surface area as confidence builds.
When residents can get a clear, sourced answer themselves, two things happen. Fewer of them call or file a request just to have a person read the data to them, and the ones who do reach out arrive with a sharper question. Self-service that actually explains is deflection that residents don't resent, because they got a better answer than a stack of files would have given them.
A platform like this doesn't require a flag-day launch. The pragmatic path is to pick one dataset that generates a lot of confusion — property records are a common choice — and stand up the explaining layer over just that, under your branding, next to the portal you already run. Residents get a noticeably better experience on that slice, staff see whether inbound questions on it soften, and you gather evidence before widening scope. Because it's additive rather than a replacement, expanding later is a matter of connecting more records, not re-platforming.
ALKARTIS is live in Philadelphia today and expanding city by city. For agencies elsewhere, a deployment is on the roadmap rather than immediately available — as new cities come online the same connected, sourced approach applies. The practical next step in any city is a conversation with our team to map your datasets and scope.
A portal publishes datasets; residents still have to find the right file, download it, and interpret it. ALKARTIS adds an intelligence layer that connects those datasets and answers the question directly. Think of the portal as the filing cabinet and ALKARTIS as the analyst who reads across the drawers.
Yes. A custom deployment can present under your agency's branding so residents experience it as part of your own services. Branding, datasets, and scope are defined during the engagement.
ALKARTIS is live in Philadelphia, where it connects real public records including city payroll since 2016, OPA property assessments, L&I permits and valuations, code violations, rental licensing, eviction filings, and 311 requests. Coverage expands as new cities come online.
Yes. The platform is explainable and sourced: every figure traces back to a checkable public record. Residents and staff can see the underlying source behind any answer rather than taking a dashboard at its word.
For agencies it is a custom deployment. Programmatic and API access sits in the Enterprise tier, and a city-facing platform is scoped with our team rather than signed up for online. Talk to our team to define what it would include for your jurisdiction.
Bring the datasets residents ask about most. We'll show what an explainable, branded intelligence layer over them looks like — running alongside the portal you already have.