Yearly Archives: 2016

Can the product being proposed be deployed in a decentralized or centralized manner?

Yes, each department can have its own permits, license, case/file types, activity and inspection types, users, rights, reports, etc. All these things can also be inherited from a higher level department. So there can be decentralization and centralization at the same time. A general case type can be setup at the jurisdiction or city level and then inherited by the departments below and the departments can also have their own file types that are not shared with other departments but can be setup to be read-only or editable by other department staff based on the role configuration.
From a technology standpoint, there is only a cloud-based software service that is accessible from any contemporary device and browser. In the event the question was related to technology deployment rather than the organizational deployment.

Describe how items move or interact between modules in your product.

Citizenserve started 13 years ago as a cloud based software service for community development departments. The solution has been developed entirely from listening to customers and citizens using contemporary web based technology. All current and future modules, features and functions are included in the subscription. The system is one integrated seamless system, this includes the online citizen portal.

Describe the efficiency the city can anticipate using your products in a mobile environment.

Citizenserve customers are naturally mobile because we work with inspectors and reviewers and the system is property or location oriented. We have had a mobile customer base from the beginning. Citizenserve is fully functional in the field and is device and browser independent. Smartphones, tablets, notebooks or desktops can be used to login and use all the features in Citizenserve. The Citizenserve and citizen portal use HTML responsive design and we expose device related features, such as speech-to-text for input and camera features in the application. Field staff will have access to everything in the field and can print documents or e-mail documents right from the field.

Building Permit Software Risk Management

There is a reason most IT initiatives fail, especially in government where budgeting is necessarily fixed. The community development department staff needs to come up with permitting software requirements and plan for an annual budget. The building permit software requirements determine a scope for the work the permitting software or licensing software vendor is to perform. Once the scope is complete the traditional permitting software vendor needs to move on to the next project and the community development staff is stuck with whatever was delivered for the budget. The permitting software vendor typically provides support within the project scope to fix bugs or issues under a maintenance…