Category Archives: Software as a Service

Remote Video Inspections

Citizenserve supports pre-recorded inspections or live remote video inspections. Contact us today to see how we can support your community development efforts from a safe distance. Request your live demo today!

Over the Counter Licenses

We hope you enjoy watching this demonstration of how Citizenserve can help you offer instant, over the counter licenses to your constituents. Instant, Express, On-Demand, or Over the Counter Licenses describe a license that does not require review by the issuing agency. Citizenserve can configure your citizen portal to allow your constituents to apply and pay for an instant license online, then receive their license in an email, or download it from the portal.

Citizenserve General Technical Features Q&A

These Citizenserve General Technical Features are our response to a formal Permitting and Land Management System Request for Information from a city of about 62,500 residents.  Read on for general technical information about Citizenserve's e-government software solution.

General Technical Featuresl

2.1.1. Describe your software licensing model.2.2.9. Provide details on supported browsers, browser versions and Windows operating systems.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is device and browser-independent and works on any modern browser.

General Technical Features - Servers and Databases

2.3.1. Describe the server environment required for your solution.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution and does not require server hardware or software.

2.3.2. Describe the server minimum specifications (e.g., OS, RAM) needed for each of the required servers.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution and does not require server hardware or software.

2.3.3. Describe the database versions, and patch levels supported as of January 2020. Include a sequence of preferred databases supported by the vendor based on the most stable and best-performing platform for the solution.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution and does not require server hardware or software. End-users can use any device and any browser to access the software.

2.3.4. <>Describe any database CPU and memory resource requirements. Include an architectural diagram that illustrates the database architecture.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is only offered as a Software-as-a-Service solution; the City will not require additional hardware or databases. We do not share diagrams of our database architecture for security reasons.

2.3.5. What are the file standards for database server files?

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution and does not require server hardware or software.

2.3.7. Please provide any installation documentation or standard operating procedures.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a Software-as-a-Service solution; the Citizenserve staff maintains and supports the application and database.

General Technical Features - Integration and Service-Oriented Architecture

2.4.1. Describe the solution’s ability to support single sign-on using an on-premise and cloud Active Directory to authenticate employees/users.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve supports the use of Active Directory for authentication and provides integration to the City’s Active Directory for an additional fee.

2.4.2. Describe the solution’s import/export feature-capability at the application level (above the database layer) and through the application interface.

Citizenserve Response: All reports are available in CSV or PDF file format.  We import data with customized SQL scripts.

General Technical Features - Software as a Service

2.5.1. Please describe in detail the company’s policy for handling the customer’s intellectual property.

Citizenserve Response: We only work with State and Local Government jurisdictions.  Customers own their data in all cases.

2.5.3. Describe the availability of metrics for the City of Redmond to measure consumption of services, such as bandwidth.

Citizenserve Response: The Citizenserve subscription includes unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited processing and unlimited support.  We provide reports on data size or setup monitoring on the City IP address, but we do not use the information for billing purposes.

2.5.5. Describe the options available for exporting data from the SaaS solution for external interfaces.

Citizenserve Response: The City can request and obtain a copy of its data at any time and there is no charge to get a copy.  The copy is provided in Microsoft SQL Server format.

Final General Technical Features

2.6.6. Provide the SLAs for system availability.

Citizenserve Response: From inception, Citizenserve was built as a pay-as-you-go subscription and Citizenserve has maintained a 99.99+% up-time for 17 years.  Any customer recourse for unacceptable service is subscription cancellation.  We have never had a customer cancel a subscription-based on system availability or performance.  Our customers are not locked into multi-year contracts. We appreciate the opportunity to describe Citizenserve's General Technical Features.

About Citizenserve
Citizenserve is a cloud-based community development software suite. We configure our software to meet your needs. In addition to Business Licenses and renewals, we also offer solutions for online Building Permits, Business Licenses, Development Projects, Code Enforcement, and Requests. Explore our site see how we can support your community development efforts!

See how one customer is rolling out Citizenserve in their community.

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Community Development Software Infrastructure

Learn more about Citizenserve's Community Development Software Infrastructure. The following questions were included in a formal Permitting and Land Management System Request for Information from a city of about 62,500 residents.  Read our responses below for more information about the infrastructure behind Citizenserve's e-government software solution.

2.2     Infrastructure (Citizenserve is only offered as a Software as a Service solution)

2.2.1. Describe the infrastructure architecture for the network, end user devices (PC / Laptops), server, storage, and operating systems that comprise the solution. Include architectural diagrams.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution.  No server hardware or software is required.  End users can use any device and any browser to access the software.

2.2.2. Describe the data centers supporting the solution for the City of Redmond. Include location and the redundancy and high availability architecture design.

Citizenserve Response: The main data center is Iron Mountain in Phoenix. Data and application servers are replicated to an Iron Mountain facility in Edison, New Jersey. Data and application servers are replicated locally in the primary data center, so we don’t have to move to the secondary facility if there is a hardware failure.

If a server fails, we have a backup server. If the facility fails, we have a geographically diverse backup data center.  If our data center provider fails, we have a standby facility capable of restoring operations in less than an hour.

2.2.3. Describe any WAN bandwidth requirements for connectivity between the City of Redmond’s network and the vendor.

Citizenserve Response: Any contemporary internet connection will work.

2.2.4. Describe any unique network requirements (LAN or WAN) for optimal operation of this solution.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a 100% browser-based software application and can be accessed from any desktop or mobile device.

2.2.5. Describe the network design requirements to ensure there are no latency issues.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a 100% browser-based software.  Any contemporary data plan is sufficient to use the software.  Performance is continually monitored regarding the software bandwidth and resource requirements to identify areas of improvement or bottlenecks.

2.2.6. Describe your solution’s backup protocol.

Citizenserve Response: Incremental backups or logs are made every 15 minutes and the logs are kept indefinitely so data can be restored to any point in time. Full backups are performed twice weekly and whenever a new version is released. Full backups are always test restored in read-only recovery mode to allow for logs to be restored if necessary to the backup copy. Database consistency checks are performed regularly with offline copies. At least one full copy is maintained per month for historical archiving.

The main data center is Iron Mountain in Phoenix. Data and application servers are replicated to an Iron Mountain facility in Edison, New Jersey. Data and application servers are replicated locally in the primary data center, so we don’t have to move to the secondary facility if there is a hardware failure.

If a server fails, we have a backup server. If the facility fails, we have a geographically diverse backup data center.  If our data center provider fails, we have a standby facility capable of restoring operations in less than an hour.

2.2.7. Describe the RTO/RPO’s for restores.

Citizenserve Response: System Recovery Time Objective (RTO) on production servers for minor failures such as a server failure is less than one hour. RTO on production servers for major failures such as a data center failure is four hours. System Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 15 minutes on application servers and database servers.

2.2.8. Provide an application and web services diagram illustrating the different components and functions of the solution. Include details on firewall requirements, servers, security, database integration, and software.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is a multi-tenant cloud-based Software-as-a-Service solution.  No server hardware or software is required.  End users can use any device and any browser to access the software.

2.2.9. Provide details on what browsers, browser versions are supported and what Windows operating systems are supported.

Citizenserve Response: Citizenserve is device and browser independent and can be used on any modern browser.

We offer integrated cloud-basedpermitting , licensing, development, code enforcement, and request tracking solutions. Your subscription also includes an online citizen portal. Keep exploring our site to find pricing information, to request your live demo, or to see how we can support your community development needs.

Visit Customer Profiles to see how our customers are putting our permitting software for governments to work for their communities.

Visit Yavapai County Community Development Innovates their Online Services to see how one Arizona County implemented citizenserve. And we hope you've learned more about Citizenserve's Community Development Software Infrastructure.