In December 2022, Polka Dot Sky Software merged into KZN Consulting, Inc., which does business as Kaizen. Polka Dot Sky made software that local governments use to keep residents informed: alerts that tell residents what is happening on their own block, and the tools public works staff use to send them. Its products became Kaizen products.
Update, Sep 22, 2026: polkadotskysoftware.com and pdspsoftware.com now redirect to this page.
Unified Alerts and MyDPW became service alerts
Polka Dot Sky sold Unified Alerts: one alerting service for residents and operations staff, matched to an address, a service route or a license plate. Its public works edition, MyDPW, has run for the DC Department of Public Works since 2017.
At Kaizen, the product is called service alerts. It covers street sweeping, trash and recycling, leaf collection and holiday greenery. Each alert goes by text, email or push notification to the residents whose block it affects. Each department gets its own branding, schedules and message templates, and we host and maintain the system.
Pandemic campaigns
During the pandemic, Polka Dot Sky packaged its alerts into ready-to-launch campaigns: automated wellness checks for seniors, quarantine monitoring, test result delivery, contact tracing for employees, and opt-in alerts for residents. Each campaign came with hosting, branding, content and support.
Kaizen's pandemic work for Maryland and Delaware, as prime contractor, used the same approach at state scale: contact tracing, vaccination scheduling and community testing, with 45 million messages sent between 2020 and 2023. The case study describes how we built it.
Where to find it now
- Service alerts and MyDPW: service alerts
- The pandemic response: Maryland and Delaware
- Public works data integration: DC Department of Public Works
- Everything we build and run: products
The Polka Dot Sky job postings are closed.