Governments Flock to Accela’s Automated Plan and Document Review Feature

In the previous post on our blog, we posted about the City of Tampa’s plans to enable building-permit-seekers to submit “digital files” of plans, rather than hard-copy.

We decided to follow-up that post with some further information about Accela Automation. What’s below is a press release from Accela’s web-site.

Fully integrated capability in Accela Automation enterprise software proves strong draw for local governments of all sizes

SAN RAMON, Calif., Dec. 6, 2011 – Accela, Inc., the leading provider of web- and cloud-based software applications for e-government, today revealed that multiple governments across the United States have decided to deploy Electronic Document Review, a free and fully integrated plan and document review feature within the company’s enterprise Accela Automation® software. In only four months since it was announced by Accela, more than a dozen governments have indicated their desire to move to Electronic Document Review – rather than pursue standalone plan review solutions that provide reduced integration with Accela Automation and require additional maintenance resources and costs. Underscoring the broad appeal of the feature’s powerful capabilities and extensibility is its planned use by city, county and state agencies serving populations ranging from fewer than 50,000 to more than 3 million.

A sampling of the governments intending to leverage Electronic Document Review in 2012 includes California’s San Diego and Monterey counties; the Arizona communities of Chandler and Avondale; Clearwater, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Lenexa, Kan.; El Paso, Texas; two groups within the State of Montana’s Department of Labor and Industry; and the State of Oregon’s Building Codes Division. Since Electronic Document Review entails no new licensing fees, the number of governments making plans to deploy the functionality continues to expand rapidly.

“Planning and land-use functions are arguably among the most customer-facing in government – and potentially the greatest contributors to revenue,” said Darrell Lewis, Vice President of Product Management at Accela. “A well-oiled plan review process can have a significant impact on local and regional economic growth and the development of a healthy business climate. Electronic Document Review is designed help our customers more easily achieve those benefits.”

End-to-End e-Government Efficiency

While Accela Automation already provides a complete solution for streamlining critical regulatory functions, such as permitting and licensing, the addition of Electronic Document Review creates an end-to-end review and management system for the various types of regulatory documents – plans, architectural drawings, licenses, and more – which are required for project applications and renewals.

Electronic Document Review allows government staff to incorporate document review and markups directly into the existing Accela Automationprocesses that automate, organize, and track reviews. The feature also provides access to documents when and where users need them across their agency teams. This end-to-end management of electronic documents can boost compliance with local regulations and codes, while also shortening project cycles to the benefit of residents, businesses, and regional economies. The International Code Council’s eCodes Premium Subscription is incorporated into Accela Automation, making eCodes digital code products directly accessible and referenceable by Accela Automation users.

In addition, Electronic Document Review’s tight integration with Adobe Acrobat X Pro provides easy review and markup of documents in industry-standard PDF format. The feature also supports current EDMS connectors to third-party document management solutions, greatly facilitating inter-team collaboration by making documents – and their comments and markups – available for review to all agency and public users. This capability accelerates document transfer and handling while also protecting the accuracy and integrity of edited documents.

Electronic Document Review requires no new licensing fees, although services fees for installation and post-deployment support may apply. Additional information can be found at www.accela.com/electronic-document-review.