Today marks the first day of Public Service Recognition Week. Celebrated since 1985, the week honors the public servants across the nation whose hard work and dedication keeps our government agencies and communities thriving. Accela supports more than 2,000 government agencies around the world, and we’d like to thank all of the agency employees who support the towns, cities, counties and states we serve—YOU are our civic heroes and we’re honored to support you! Want to know more about our Civic Heroes? Check out the Customers page for some great stories from the agencies we support. This week, we’ll be tweeting about some of our amazing government agency heroes using the hashtag #PSRW,… Continue reading

Tags: Civic Hero, Customer, Thank You, Public Service Recognition Week

As the leading platform provider for government, Accela is always looking for innovative approaches to improving access to information and to citizen engagement. That’s why we’re so excited to announce the 2015 Citizen Engagement Awards with the Governing Institute. We’ve collaborated to develop this program to recognize the agencies and champions creating more accessible, transparent and citizen-centric communities. The awards program is open to any state and local government agency, with the following categories: City/County Government, State Government, and Leadership/Innovator. The Leadership/Innovator category is open to any elected official, government employee, civic organization or nonprofit agency supporting citizen engagement through innovative technology solutions. Nominations are open now and will be accepted online through April 16th and the submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria: Project scope and implementation to engage citizens Impact of citizen engagement efforts Utilization of technology to achieve results Creativity and initiative to make change Demonstrated leadership to drive change We will recognize the award winners at a formal ceremony at Accela Engage,… Continue reading

Tags: Civic Engagement, Customer, Citizen Engagement, Customer Awards

Coordinating projects in the public right of way keeps traffic moving and people safe. Agencies around the world are using technology to do just that. Winnipeg, Canada, is a great example of a city that moved from managing projects in spreadsheets to cloud-based, right-of-way planning between different departments, government agencies and utility companies. With online project collaboration, Winnipeg was able to achieve: Real-time, map-based coordination and communication Conflict detection prior to road construction and street activities Optimization of limited budgets and cost-sharing opportunities Greater transparency and citizen engagement Tune in to the webinar hosted by Governing on March 5th at 11 am PT to hear how Derrick Saedel,… Continue reading

Tags: Accela Civic Platform, Civic Engagement, Customer, Right of Way Management

With Asset Management, we can track all our assets. It has better enabled us to track areas of need for the sake of planning future construction and capital construction projects. In 2010, the Division of Water Quality was tracking more than 16,500 records across 22 databases annually. The challenge: siloed communication made monitoring and reporting in compliance with U.S. EPA and Clean Water Act requirements a slow, difficult process. Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government’s solution was to automate major operations of the Division of Water Quality, allowing them to more effectively: Manage construction projects Prioritize requests for service Assign work orders and automate work scheduling Build an asset library and maintenance history Regulate discharge of materials With Accela Asset Management on the Civic Platform,… Continue reading

Tags: Accela Civic Platform, Asset Management, Customer

We all talk about partnership and what a good partnership means to us. At Accela, we truly strive to work in partnership with our customers. Accela Engage 2014 was a true testament of our commitment to our customers. We’ve been focusing on how to be the best possible partner to our customers and to that end, we created the Customer Care organization as the next step in that journey. At Engage, we educated attendees on how Customer Care is revolutionizing the way we interact with our customers. Customer Care team members during Accela Community Live at Engage 2014 Two years ago, we experienced a paradigm shift at Accela…. Continue reading

Tags: Accela Civic Platform, Customer, Customer Success, Support

***Editor’s Note: Today’s post comes from Alan Holt, Manager of Data Services for the IT department in the Town of Framingham, Massachusetts.*** The other day I was asked by my director to take a survey about what motivates me to do my job well here in the Town of Framingham, Massachusetts. I was supposed to pick my top 3 motivators. Of course I started to check off MONEY, then paused and spent some time reflecting on what really does motivate me. When I handed in the survey, money did not even make the cut. I was surprised to realize my top choice was “Interesting Work.” I am the sole Accela support person and implementer at our site…. Continue reading

Tags: Apps, Customer, HTML5, Developers, Accela API

While in Fort Worth, Texas, for the inaugural Accela Asset Management User Group (AAMUG) meeting last month, the Fort Worth Stormwater Management Division invited several Accela employees to participate in a ride-along with their Field Operations work crews. As an Accela Product Manager, I was looking forward to observing how a work crew uses Accela Mobile Office to document work performed in the field and create new work orders, as needed, without returning to the office. I was prepared to observe a totally automated and paperless process, leveraging technology as an alternative to common “old school” techniques. Part of the City’s Transportation and Public Works Department,… Continue reading

Tags: Asset Management, Customer, Stormwater, Mobile Apps