A father-son project has turned into one of the newest business propositions in government technology.
ScanGov provides report cards for public-sector websites, along with other services.
Though it has been around for more than a year, technology entrepreneur Luke Fretwell — he created the tool with his teenage son, Elias — says the company is now making a serious push for clients.
Fretwell is the co-founder and CEO of the gov tech company ProudCity.
ScanGov offers grades for government websites, marks based on a variety of criteria including how “crawlable” a site is; audio and video; color contrast; accessibility; navigation; and readability.
The ScanGov tech can determine how “AI friendly” a public-sector website is — for instance, whether AI bots can find and index a site — and analyze a site’s security, performance and search engine optimization strength.
“When I started with my son, we were scanning for metadata,” Fretwell told Government Technology. “It was nerd things.”
But now, he said, the site can prove useful to more public officials and tech leaders eager to improve digital access to civic information and services. Grades for websites can range wildly, just as report cards would do in an average classroom.
ScanGov offers tiers of services that range from a free one-page scan to $499 monthly for enterprise users.
Fretwell said he has added what he called “a services component to facilitate government digital experience progress.”
The idea is for ScanGov to provide what its website describes as “expert consulting and implementation support to help government organizations maximize their digital experience investments.”
