Escambia County Awards Accela $2.3 Million Contract for E-Government Software Solutions

SAN RAMON, Calif. - Escambia County, Florida has awarded Accela, a provider of government enterprise management software solutions, a $2.3 million contract for e-government solutions. The county selected Accela Automation as the county's enterprise land management and licensing system as well as add-on products to improve efficiency and communication within the county's departments and enhance citizen access and self service.

More than 100 users and 35 inspectors in the county's building inspections, code enforcement, and planning departments will utilize the new system to automate permitting, development review, code enforcement, contractor licensing, fee collection, and planning and zoning activities, as well as functions associated with the state of Florida's concurrency management program.

In Florida, a set of state-mandated laws dictates concurrency management. The laws require counties to account for the impact of development projects by concurrently planning and implementing services and additional infrastructure such as sidewalks and water lines.

"Accela is the only company in the industry whose technology is up-to-date to the degree that it can meet our business and technology requirements today and into the future," said Bob Jacobson, director of Information Resources for the Escambia County Board of County Commissioners. "We are excited about partnering with a company who understands and can respond to the demand that growth will place on services and county-maintained assets and infrastructure."

The county currently issues approximately 55,000 permits and conducts approximately 74,000 inspections annually. The selection of additional Accela solutions will further support these and other functions:

• Accela GIS provides automated maps from a central database and gives staff direct access to view geographical representations of all land-use, zoning, and infrastructure information associated with a parcel, permit, inspection, or plan. Built on the ArcIMS platform by ESRI, Accela GIS integrates with Accela Automation to provide automated map analysis.
• Accela Wireless mobile government software application extends inspection management capabilities to 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, Windows 2000, or Windows XP operating systems.
• Accela Citizen Access provides access via the Internet to the county's permit and land management activities. Online permit applications will 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, 7 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.