The Civic Platform - Accela Technology

The Accela Civic Platform is a powerful foundation for our Civic Solutions, helping governments improve citizen services and fulfill the needs of growing communities.

The Accela Civic Platform includes all shared technologies and functionality within a SaaS environment to meet the varying needs of government agencies, from large states to small departments. It makes it easier for citizens to open and run a business, apply for permits and schedule inspections, and the platform provides agencies with the flexibility and scalability to enable innovation over time–without the need to invest in new technology.

Core Components

Workflow Engine

Automate simple to very complex processes involving multiple departments and numerous process components. Our workflow engine assigns tasks for users, manages SLAs, routes approvals and steps, and ensures all processes stay on track.
Data Management

The platform with our SaaS environment includes robust data management, providing the right information, to the right user, at the right time for any of our Civic Solutions.
GIS visualization

Improve decision-making and streamline process with the ability to include geographic data visualization for your permit, inspection and license processing. This is done with integrated map services and layers for both internal and field personnel. And enhanced search functionality helps workers view and manage the data associated across multiple parcels.
Mobile Interfaces

A full suite of robust mobile interfaces come included with all Civic Solutions. This means your inspectors, code enforcement officers, work crews, and other mobile users can have access to the data and forms they need, when they need it in the field, and on their preferred device, including PC, tablet, or phone. It also provides optimized scheduling and routing with GIS, and they can capture field data and submit it back to the office in real-time, without extra trips.
Citizen Access

With Accela’s SaaS platform, citizens can process permits and licenses, submit applications and documents, track status, and schedule inspections via a branded and highly-secure citizen portal, saving them significant time and effort. This means no more trips to agency offices to wait in lines, or make phone calls. Now citizens can engage with their governments as they do with their favorite consumer websites, 24×7, and using their favorite device.
Electronic Document Review (EDR)

This comprehensive project review and management system for plans, architectural drawings, licenses, and other digital documents saves time and effort when processing unstructured information. It is a complete end-to-end solution that keeps track of critical information and assures adherence to agency policies and codes.
Communications Management

In addition to the integrated citizen portals and internal notifications, our Civic Solutions also provide automated communications for email communications, alerts, and announcements, for citizens and employees, through integration with Microsoft Outlook.
Reports and Analytics

Within the Civic Platform, Accela provides a robust reporting environment with both standardized and ad-hoc reporting. This gives agency managers complete visibility into process data, to discover possible backlogs or bottlenecks, and inform process enhancements to increase department productivity and customer satisfaction.
System Extensibility

The ability to extend your Civic Solutions and integrate with other applications, both in the cloud and on-premises is provided by our robust API management system and pre-built connectors. We have experience deploying with a broad array of enterprise applications, which ensures you can continue to leverage your existing IT investments.

Citizens

Citizens can engage and have easy access to their government when and how they want it. Citizens get:

Anytime access and instant response with citizen access and mobile apps

Streamlined engagement with government through two-way conversations via social media integration and citizen engagement apps, as well as have the ability to track statuses and participate in the government decision-making process

Transparency, trust and a voice in the community with open data and Service Request Management, a configurable mobile app and web-based software, enabling two-way communication and real-time updates to requests. Service Request Management provides citizens access to government information and services, fostering more connected and engaged communities.

The Platform

Accela SaaS Platform is designed to meet the needs of agencies of all sizes, and provides modern technologies needed to ensure the highest degrees of scalability, reliability, and flexibility.

Scalability
Our cloud infrastructure scales to accommodate large user loads from both employees and citizens. In our cloud data centers, our system provides the capacity to meet your needs, no matter the growth of your community or the amount of additional services and solutions you deploy to users.

Reliability
The Accela SaaS platform is protected with full system redundancy, fail-over, and disaster recovery implementations, and we meet the strictest standards for system uptime.

Flexibility
Our platform is flexible to meet the unique needs of different agencies. Many of our customers start with our Civic Solutions, and through configuration – not customization – create the solutions that best meet their needs, without the need for 100% custom implementations.

Extensibility
Enabled with our Accela Construct API management system, with a full set of APIs to rapidly integrate a Civic Solution with other solutions

Civic Solutions and Civic Applications

All capabilities of the SaaS Platform are included with any Civic Solution or Civic Application.

Civic Solutions include some degree of implementation assets, including workflows, data structures, business logic, fees, web forms and standard reports, to quickly configure and deploy your Civic Solution.

Civic Applications take that further and are built from the ground up as turn-key solutions. They are fully supported by Accela’s technical support and are based on the best practices we’ve derived over hundreds of customer implementations.