Accela, Inc., leading provider of government enterprise management solutions and the Michigan Department of Consumer and Industry Services, Bureau of Construction Codes (BCC) announced today the commercial deployment of a new portal Web site for online permitting and status checking. The portal site is powered by Accela's VelocityHall and provides Michigan contractors with streamlined access to electrical, mechanical, and plumbing permits. The portal site found at http://www.michigan.gov/bccpermits enables licensed contractors to obtain new permits online in a matter of minutes. The previous process required contractors to mail in applications, providing a waiting period up to fifteen (15) working days to receive the required permit. Further, the VelocityHall technology not only eliminates mailing time, but the system instantly detects errors such as incomplete forms, invalid addresses, and other potential inaccuracies.
"The Bureau of Codes Construction welcomes the opportunity to offer the public an online service that will process permits immediately, increasing the building community's productivity," stated Henry L. Green, Director, Bureau of Construction Codes. "Eliminating the often lengthy turnaround time helps to complete projects on time, enabling new projects to quickly begin."
The BCC conducts business with customers from the entire state of Michigan, making the online service extremely convenient and efficient for contractors. The system has recently cleared a ninety (90) day period during which more than 500 permits were issued to contractors across the State. In 2001, the BBC processed more than 41,000 electrical, mechanical, and plumbing and expects as many as 6000 to be processed in 2003.
"Accela's end-to-end portal technology enables government agencies to communicate and coordinate more effectively with their customers -- saving time and money for both the state of Michigan and the citizens. By processing permits online, the State not only provides a better service to their customers, but also enables staff to concentrate on more pressing issues," stated Robert P. Lee, Accela president and CEO.
Michigan contractors are applauding the new service provided by the State and Accela. "This new service is a very useful tool that saves me an immense amount of logistical downtime resulting from previously going back and forth between my office, the State of Michigan, and the job site," states Kevin Krula, owner of KTM Heating & Cooling. "I am now able to instantly receive a permit number and proceed with business. What was normally a two week turnaround time for the inspection process, now only takes one to three days."
VelocityHall is fully integrated with Accela's land management solution, "PERMITS" Plus(R) which has served the Michigan Bureau of Codes Construction since 1995. With VelocityHall all transactions are written to the agency database in real-time, ensuring that the staff and citizens are continually working with the most current and updated information.
Other agencies in Michigan utilizing Accela products include: Detroit, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Livingston County, Ferndale, Novi, Plymouth, Southfield, Sterling Heights, and Washtenaw County.
About Accela, Inc.
Accela develops enterprise systems for permitting, planning, licensing, public health, emergency response, and many other processes for government agencies of all sizes. Accela's software solutions manage critical public sector applications for thousands of departments in major metro areas, cities, and counties such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington D.C., Miami-Dade County, Atlanta, Kansas City, San Diego County, and many others. For more information, please visit http://www.accela.com.
Quelle: PR Newswire
