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City of Hillsboro Oregon Selects Accela Automation for Enterprise Customer Service

24/7 Permitting and citizen-engagement capabilities will help government keep pace with rapid growth

HILLSBORO, Ore., March 21, 2012 – Accela, Inc. announced today that after a comprehensive review Hillsboro, Oregon will deploy Accela Automation® for the city’s new Enterprise Land Information System (ELIS). The new system will span the departments of Building, Planning, Water, Fire Prevention; the Police Department’s Code Enforcement Unit; and the Public Works Department’s Engineering Division. The ELIS will provide the public with 24/7 online submission and tracking of permit applications, electronic plan submittal and review, as well as numerous citizen-engagement apps that foster communication between government agencies and the public.

Hillsboro joins a strong community of Accela Automation users in Oregon. The State of Oregon’s e-permitting portal, 12 cities, and 12 counties across the State have deployed Accela products, providing a strong ecosystem for support and collaboration.

“Hillsboro’s foresight in deploying solutions that connect with the public will serve them both now and in the future. The Accela Automation platform is the perfect fit for those seeking to engage citizens and bring them closer to government,” said Maury Blackman, president and CEO.

Located in the high-tech corridor west of Portland, Hillsboro is Oregon’s fifth-largest city and the metro area’s fastest-growing, with a population that has leaped by nearly 30 percent in the past decade. The city is recognized as a well-planned community offering a diverse economic base, inexpensive and abundant land, and a large inventory of infrastructure-ready parcels of all sizes—including numerous office complexes and fully developed industrial parks. Hillsboro also prides itself on cooperative government and efficient services that have lured corporate powerhouses like semiconductor leader Intel, which operates a research facility in the city and is constructing a $3 billion fabrication plant to be opened in 2013.

To ensure that city services keep pace and connect with their growing population, Hillsboro recognized the need to automate many department processes with new technology. The city’s Building Department is upgrading from Accela’s client/server ‘PERMITS’ Plus solution to the web- and mobile-enabled Accela Automation, while other departments will migrate from their current land-use and permitting systems to the new Accela-based ELIS. The new system will enable various city departments to share new and historical information about permits, applications and other records; provide mobile workers with access to a broader range of maps and data; and allow citizens to apply, pay for and track their own applications online from their home, office or mobile devices.

MULTIPLE BENEFITS FOR MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS

The ELIS will boost the ability of Hillsboro departments to continue fulfilling their mandates amid expanding demands by tapping into the power and broad capabilities of Accela Automation. Among many benefits, Hillsboro will be able to:

• offer 24/7 online permitting for residential, transportation, and commercial/industrial developments, as well as projects pertaining to the expansion of the city’s public water systems;
• provide online tools for citizen service requests or complaints for non-emergency municipal code violations, and the subsequent issuing of citation and fines;
• expedite processing of fees for department services and fines for civil infractions;
• route and share information between departments for applications, reports, city council or court testimony, and much more.