Cities can be more diversified and complex than any company. They have organizational structure and departmentalization issues like companies but operate at a level few private firms can match. Even so, they have one thing in common with large firms: they depend on modern technology.
Integrated technologies, to be specific. While the “tech silo” approach was all too common in companies and cities for decades, most concluded that connectivity and integration is the way to go. As an example, the City of High Point, N.C., transitioned its plan reviews to an electronic portal, but the implementation lacked a way to seamlessly transfer data to other applications.
High Point processes an average of 2300 permit applications per year, with approximately 2000 of those requiring plan reviews. Projects range from simple to highly complex, including land development, construction, and a broad range in-between, with several different entities reviewing. Although more than 90% of plans are submitted through the Accela Citizen Access Portal, its plan review and permitting tools are not tightly integrated.
Purchasing additional applications might only add to the problem if they were not capable to being connected properly. High Point found an answer with two providers. e-PlanSoft, a developer and provider of cloud-based electronic plan review solutions, and Velosimo, a provider of bidirectional connectors to integrate e-PlanSoft’s e-PlanReview with the Accela Civic Platform.
In doing so, High Point joins other prominent public sector agencies in leveraging Velosimo’s no-code connectors to modernize their services, delivering seamless and uninterrupted digital experiences for their staff and citizens. While the Accela platform provides practical, user-friendly workflows, the city’s current tool for plan reviews does not allow for seamless data flows.
Functionally, the city must manually separate, route, perform tasks, and then recombine plans into the larger project. By integrating e-PlanRevew with Accela, the city’s workflows will be optimized and streamlined to maximize efficiency and productivity with the seamless transfer of data and stages between applications.
e-PlanRevew provides a set of markup tools and features developed specifically for plan reviews and represents an improvement in how plan reviews will be performed. The city will also benefit from e-PlanRevew’s flexible viewing and versioning options, as well as easy and practical resubmittals. Integration will be handled by Carahsoft Technology Corp., a specialist in government IT projects.
Want to tweet about this article? Use hashtags #construction #infrastructure #cloud #futureofwork