Development Services

This discussion of Citizenserve e-Government Development Services is our response to a formal Request for Information from a city of about 62,500 residents.  Read on for more information about some of the Development Services features included in our e-government software solution.

1.3.1. Provide a simple diagram or outline of the permitting system process. The diagram should depict the end-to-end range of a permit lifecycle from the pre-application process, permit fees, plan review, building permit fees, issuing permits, inspections, through the final approval and certificate of occupancy.

Our Response: Citizenserve Permits, licenses, case types, and file types are highly configurable.  This flexibility is necessary as hundreds of jurisdictions use our software for various types of permitting, licensing, inspections and enforcement.  The following short demonstration provides an overview of an example permit process:

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/permitting-overview/

1.3.2. Describe your solution’s capability to accept and review plans, issue development related permits, and track inspections.

Our Response: Citizens, contractors, and businesses work electronically with the City through the online portal.  They upload plan documents, review markups and comments, request inspections, review inspection results, etc. electronically.  Citizenserve delivers a built-in browser and device independent markup and comment tool.  Below are some short video demonstrations related to submitting plans and plan review:

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/permitting-overview/

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/permit-inspections/

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/online-permit-applications/

1.3.3. Describe the functionality for reminder and or expirations for development processes. Describe the ability to set alerts based on business rules to ensure deadlines for time in possession and business commitments are maintained.

Our Response: The workflow review routes are set up with timeframes and the user’s home page displays overdue activities.  We support workflow routes for all development, permit and license application types.  Metrics track and identify overdue timeframes.  Here’s a short video demonstration on workflow routes:

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/workflow-routing/

1.3.4. Describe your solution’s processing for duplicating a repetitive process and “cloning” permits.

Our Response: Citizenserve Permits are configured with custom fields that make up the application form.  We set up a custom process to copy a permit type into a new permit application.  We usually call this tool a “report”, but it is an interactive feature that does system processing.  The creation of unlimited reports like this is included in your subscription.  These are most helpful in master plan communities where developers use master permits to create new permit applications for similar projects.

1.3.5. Describe your solution’s capability to link all projects on a specific parcel, address, and/or a large development in order to track dependencies and history.

Our Response: All development, permit, license, case, and file types are linked to a property or set of properties.  When reviewing a property any file types are displayed, so everything about a location is in the property view.  When looking at a project, all permits on that project are available; for example, when looking at a contractor, all of the contractor’s projects are displayed.

1.3.6. Describe your solution’s capability to manage and monitor Historic Preservation processes including demolition permits.

Our Response: Historic Preservation processes and demolition permits are just different permit application types owned by their respective departments with their own interdepartmental workflows.  Citizenserve e-Government Development Services are a flexible solution for special permit types and processes.

 1.3.7. Describe any limitations to the number of different plan reviews or permits that your solution can handle.

Our Response: Citizenserve allows an unlimited number of permit types with an unlimited number of custom fields per application.  Each permit type allows an unlimited number of review routes which includes an unlimited number of review activities.

1.3.8. Does your solution distinguish between a plan review and a permit?

Our Response: Yes, file types are configured as Development Projects or Permit/Building Projects.  These are configured at the Organization, Department, and Sub-department level; so it is easy to separate Public Works Development Projects from Building Departments Development Projects.

1.3.9. Describe the solution’s capabilities to reference ordinances and building codes, and other regulations, i.e., state statutes. Provide a description of how this information is loaded and updated.

Our Response: Setting up codes and ordinances is included in the initial setup and implementation.  Updating codes and ordinances is included in the unlimited support.  The administrative features in the software are easy to use, so departments can also update their respective codes and ordinances without submitting a support request, if desired.

1.3.10. Describe the solution’s ability to integrate with the Washington State Labor and Industries system for the purposes of validating Contractor licenses.

Our Response: Since Redmond already uses Citizenserve for business licensing we may already have established this integration.  Generally, a http link built into the system as a custom field is an easy way to make a lookup into another system that is available through the internet or a http request.

1.3.11. Describe the solution’s ability to integrate with Business License management applications, such as Citizenserve.

Our Response: The City uses Citizenserve for business licensing so there is no need to integrate with Citizenserve.

1.4     Resource Management

1.4.1. Describe the solution’s ability to optimize and plan inspections routes. Elaborate on the capability to manage assignments based on geographic location leveraging GPS/AVL technology, skills certifications, workload, and priority.

Our Response: Our inspection scheduling processes is highly configurable.  Your subscription includes unlimited support, which includes the creation of interactive custom reports that can perform processing.  Some of our customers have complex rules for optimizing activities like inspections and the interactive custom reports with processing provide ultimate flexibility in implementing and refining process improvements.  The following video demonstration provides an overview of the general inspection features:

https://www.citizenserve.com/portfolio-view/permit-inspections/

And thank you for allowing us to discuss Citizenserve e-Government Development Services with you.

About Us

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!

Here’s what one customer says our software:

“This modern, intuitive, and easy-to-use software system will provide complete customer care to help our municipality provide online services to our residents. With the COVID-19, we saw how important it was to be able to connect with our residents using technology. Citizenserve will help enhance the building department processes by making it quicker by decreasing waiting times, submitting applications, and paying for applications online. The goal will be to eventually manage the entire permit and licensing system online from intake, through plans review and on to inspections.” See the full article here.