Cobb County, Georgia Community Development Agency Selects Accela

Cobb County, Georgia, a major metropolitan area of Atlanta, selected Accela Automation from Accela to provide an integrated system for tracking and managing the permitting, land use, and licensing activities of six divisions within its Community Development Agency.

The agency is charged with responding to issues that affect the environmental, financial, economic, legal, and social welfare of the County. Accordingly, its Business License, Development and Inspections, Erosion and Sediment Control, Code Enforcement, Zoning, and Planning divisions will use Accela solutions to update their processes, improve staff efficiencies and productivity, and provide citizens and the business community with access to the County's database to conduct business online.

"One of our highest priorities in the Cobb County Community Development Agency is to provide the public with excellent customer service. The project with Accela is another example of our commitment to improve our customer service and improve the public's experience when they interact with Community Development. It is our goal through this project to provide the public with better access to the agency and streamline our business processes including business license applications, permit applications, and inspection requests," said Rob Hosack, Cobb County Community Development Agency director. "Accela proposed a solution that will help us accomplish our goals of better customer service and greater process efficiency. Cobb County looks forward to working with Accela and building a strong partnership."

As part of the $1.7 million contract, Cobb County also selected other Accela solutions to help it meet its goals:

• Accela Licensing automates and integrates the processing of an unlimited number of license, permit, and registration types from application through inspection, and within any investigatory or enforcement actions.
• 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, cases, 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, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems.
• Accela GIS integrates with Accela Automation to provide 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 Citizen Access provides 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.
• Accela IVR provides 24-hour voice recognition access to permit and inspection services, enabling staff and citizens to request, check, and verify permit applications and inspections from a touchtone phone, at any time.