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Accela Launches Two New Civic Applications for Business Licensing and Alcoholic Beverage Control to Spur Community Development and Meet Regulatory Challenges

The new Civic Applications enable agencies to provide “consumer-like” experiences for citizens, shorten time-to-value, and come pre-built with valuable best practices

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Accela, a leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, today announced the launch of its Civic Application for Business Licensing and Civic Application for Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC). The latest additions to Accela’s suite of out-of-the-box Civic Applications empower local and state agencies to harness cloud technology to modernize business licensing and alcoholic beverage control. The solutions automate critical activities such as issuing licenses and code enforcement, and significantly enhance governments’ ability to spur economic development. Along with the release of the new applications, Accela announced the launch of Accela Civic Platform V19.2 as part of the Fall 2019 Release, with new features that underscore the company’s commitment to providing solutions designed for ease of use, performance, and exceptional citizen engagement.

“We understand the challenges governments face today in meeting citizen expectations while keeping up with regulatory requirements and changing technologies,” says Troy Coggiola, Chief Product Officer of Accela. “Our new agile Civic Applications and platform enhancements reflect our commitment to building the best possible solutions for governments and continually refining our products to facilitate community development and improved outcomes.”

Accela’s new ABC Civic Application provides state and local departments with a powerful tool to efficiently review liquor license applications and accompanying documentation, conduct on-site inspections, and automate the issuance of licenses, renewals, and license transfers. The ABC Civic Application was developed based on Accela’s experience creating a solution for the state of Tennessee’s Alcohol Beverage Commission, among other ABC customers.

“We were able to digitally transform our entire department, which was previously paper-based, and now runs online with the help of Accela,” said Christopher Dowell, IT Director of the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. “We eliminated all walk-in traffic, check processing, and mountains of paperwork. Moreover, we’ve improved our agency’s performance by standardizing workflows, utilizing production metrics, and providing more accurate details to customers.”

Tennessee has seen dramatic efficiency gains and cut licensing time from an average of nearly a month for even the simplest of license types to a matter of days with the help of Accela’s technology. Combined with organizational change and mobile connectivity, the Commission was also able to consolidate its nine regional office locations into four locations, saving significant valuable resources, from cost of the buildings and infrastructure to minimizing new staff hires.

Accela’s new Business Licensing Civic Application assists governments with automated processing and issuing of business license applications to help stimulate growth and spur economic development. As cities and states look for ways to improve the experience of business owners, agencies are increasingly turning towards a modern licensing system as a key way to improve notoriously challenging licensing and inspection processes. The new Business Licensing Application offers a host of features to help reduce processing times, allow staff to focus on higher value tasks, and meet the usability expectations of staff and citizens alike.

Along with the new Civic Applications, Accela’s new V19.2 Civic Platform release provides updates and improvements across its process automation, mobile user, data analytics, and citizen-facing technologies. This new release includes improvements in office staff and citizen user experience, higher system performance and increased user productivity, and enhancements in reporting and data visualization for improved decision making.

Today’s announcement follows the launch of Accela’s Civic Applications built to help tackle the top regulatory challenges faced by governments today, including cannabis licensing, short-term rentals and environmental health. To learn more about Accela’s Business Licensing Application, please visit: https://www.accela.com/solutions/business-licensing/. To learn more about Accela’s Civic Application for Alcoholic Beverage Control, please visit: https://www.accela.com/solutions/alcohol-beverage-control/.

About Accela
Accela provides market-leading SaaS solutions that empower state and local governments to build thriving communities, grow businesses and protect citizens. Powered by Microsoft Azure, Accela’s open and flexible technology helps agencies address specific needs today, while ensuring they are prepared for any emerging or complex challenges in the future. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com