Calif. county taps Accela for e-gov work
Connecting state and local government leaders
Residents and government employees of Sacramento County, Calif., are going to be able to do much more than they could before through the county's Web site after Accela Inc. implements several new enterprise E-Government solutions.
Residents and government employees of Sacramento County, Calif., are going to be able to do much more than they could before through the county's Web site after Accela Inc. implements several new enterprise E-Government solutions.
Accela of Dublin, Calif., won a 10-year, $3 million contract with Sacramento County to implement Accela Automation, the company's enterprise land management system. The company also will implement its wireless, citizen access and geographic information system software to run in concert with Accela Automation, which is being deployed for the Planning and Community Development Department.
County employees will be able to use the Web-based system to automate permitting, inspections, workflow, project management, plan review and code enforcement among other critical functions. Users will access the system using a Web browser, keeping the county's IT staff from having to configure and maintain the application on client machines, freeing up the IT staff.
The county will also implement additional solutions to facilitate application processing, including Accela Wireless, which delivers mobile inspection capabilities. Field inspectors will be able to handle their daily tasks from the field, using portable devices that allow them to remotely access permit-related data, complete inspections and create correction notices, the company said in a statement.
Updates will be uploaded to the agency database in real time for jurisdictions that have wireless connectivity in the field. For those that don't, they can use the application's offline mode, where information is uploaded to the agency database once a connection is established when the inspector returns to the office.
The county, which has more than 1.2 million residents, also will implement Accela Citizen Access to allow citizens to apply and pay for permits, schedule inspections, check inspection or permit status or print an approved permit from the Internet. Accela GIS will also be implemented. The GIS system incorporates map data and gives county staff access to all geographic land use, zoning and infrastructure information associated with land management.
Ethan Butterfield is a staff writer for Government Computer News' sister publication Washington Technology.