Seven city departments will utilize the solution to streamline land management, asset management, business licensing, and service request activities and processes and provide customers with a user-friendly, easily accessible system for conducting business via the Internet.
The Building Inspection unit of the city's Planning & Development Services department is responsible for permitting, inspection, plan review, zoning, licensing, and service request/work order services for all construction within the city of Madison. City Engineering, Sewer Utility, Water Utility, Traffic Engineering, Parking Utility, and Parks oversee a wide range of activities related to community asset and resource management.
Accela Automation will enable staff across all departments to share land use, asset, and licensing information from a centralized database, ensuring faster and more accurate response to the public.
"We can provide better service with our constituents and manage City resources better by putting technology to work for us," said Mayor Dave Cieslewicz. "I look forward to working with Accela Automation to provide the Web-based technology that will allow us to work more efficiently and keep in better touch with our residents and businesses."
Madison estimates it will realize a productivity gain of approximately $1.3 million annually -- $13.5 million over 10 years -- by deploying Accela Automation for building and sign permit issuance, building inspection, code enforcement, and sewer utility operations alone. Fifteen other categories of services stand to realize productivity gains as well.
The suite of Accela Automation applications that will be deployed include:
Accela Land Management™ speeds up the process of getting from application to occupancy by automating processes related to land use and community development activities including permits; building safety; inspections, investigations, and reviews; zoning; project plans; code enforcement; and more.
Accela Asset Management™ tracks and manages public assets and resources -- fleet, street, water, wastewater, parks and recreation, plant ad facilities, sewer, railway, roadway -- and provides an automated solution for costing, inventory, maintenance, and inspections.
Accela Service Request™ provides an efficient, cost-effective solution for organizing and managing interdepartmental or citizen requests for service, complaints, or inquiries. A centralized database of this information enables agencies with real-time access to the status of any request at any time.
Accela Licensing & Case Management™ automates and fully integrates a wide range of licensing and case management processes, including building trade and occupational licensing. It supports document management, automated license renewal, and flexibility in creating unlimited types of licenses based on an agency's unique regulations, requirements, and internal procedures.
Accela GIS™ seamlessly integrates with Accela Automation to provide powerful real-time visual analysis to enhance land use, zoning, and infrastructure data. It allows creation of multiple map layers, automated map analysis, parcel and asset inventory management, direct editing of GIS data or files, and auto-distribution of information to mailing lists. It is built on the ArcIMS™ platform by ESRI®.
Accela Wireless™ is a mobile government software application that allows government staff to perform their jobs from the field for inspections, code enforcement, work orders, and service requests. Optimized for Intel Centrino® Mobile Technology, Accela Wireless is compatible with PDAs, laptops, and Tablet PCs running on the Microsoft Pocket PC 2003, Windows Mobile 5, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems.
Accela Citizen Access™ provides real-time, direct access via the Internet to agency permit and land management activities. Online permit applications can be configured to allow citizens and businesses access to apply and pay for permits, schedule inspections, check the status of a permit or inspection, or print an approved permit directly from the Internet 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"Madison is to be congratulated for their leadership in recognizing the value of Web-based technology for improving service to their citizens," said Maury Blackman, Accela president and CEO. "We welcome the city as a new client and look forward to helping them implement a sustainable solution for accomplishing their important goals."
About Madison
Madison is the capital of Wisconsin and County Seat of Dane County, and covers 77.7 sq. miles in the south central region of the state. The city's population is approximately 225,000 and it is the second largest city in the state. The Greater Madison Metropolitan Area is home to nearly 500,000 residents. For more information, please visit www.cityofmadison.com
About Accela
Accela provides innovative, Web-based enterprise software solutions that automate land, permit, and asset management processes for local, state, and federal government agencies of all sizes. Backed by nearly 30 years of development and implementation in more than 500 agencies in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, Accela products and services empower agencies to increase efficiencies, reduce workload, and provide citizens and businesses with more convenient access to government services. Accela is located in San Ramon, Calif. Accela products can be purchased directly from the GSA Schedule Contract #GS-35F-0249R. For more information, please visit www.accela.com.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Deborah Papp Accela, Inc. 925-659-3244 Email Contact Ron Jenkins RBJ Consulting 972-473-3546 Email Contact