Accela creates software for state, county and municipal governments to streamline interactions with citizens by meeting them where they are, which is increasingly online. When I joined the company last year, my first priority was to listen to our customers and understand their needs. In my conversations, it was clear that local and state governments are experiencing a tough time navigating new innovations and industries driven by regulatory and technological change.
We’ve taken two steps to enhance the success of our customers.
Simplifying deployment of our solutions
Last Wednesday, Accela announced the availability of turnkey licensing and regulatory products for cannabis and short-term rentals (i.e. Airbnb, VRBO and HomeAway). The Accela Civic Application for Cannabis Regulation and the Accela Civic Application for Short-Term Rental Registration are the first product offerings in Accela’s new Civic Applications suite that will provide governments customizable, easy-to-implement solutions that solve new and evolving regulatory challenges.
The San Francisco Chronicle captured this step in our evolution:
The 500-person company has created “citizen access over the Internet” for more than 2,200 local governments to handle everything from pet licenses to restaurant inspections.
So far those have all been custom installations. But this week Accela is rolling out its first off-the-shelf products — and it’s serving markets that have emerged from the sometimes fraught relationship between the Bay Area’s rule-breaking entrepreneurs and rule-making governments.
Our new, scalable SaaS applications provide governments with robust solutions to two major challenges they face today in a much faster time-to-deployment and lower total cost of ownership than traditional solutions. While remarkably robust and out-of-the-box, the applications are also highly flexible and configurable to meet each agency’s unique needs.
Tailoring our product portfolio
One of our product lines, Accela Legislative Management, is designed to deliver better citizen connections with government. In 2014, we acquired NY-based IQM2 and enthusiastically welcome them into the Accela family. Our Legislative Management solution offering and adoption has been strong, and has garnered the eye of other industry leaders– one of which is currently the largest meeting management solution provider in government, Granicus.
After evaluating what might serve our customers best, we realized that having them align with a company dedicated to the unique interests of governments requiring a modern, legislative management tool, would significantly improve how their needs were served. When the opportunity of rolling Accela’s Legislative Management solutions into the dedicated Granicus legislative management platform was presented, we knew it was the best thing for our customers.
I wanted to share that Granicus has acquired the Accela Legislative Management solution suite, which includes Agenda & Minutes, Civic Streaming, Digital Boardroom and Boards & Commissions. This acquisition reinforces Granicus’ commitment to continued investment and innovation in the legislative management segment, and creates an opportunity for Accela to stay laser-focused on providing the best SaaS software for government regulation, licensing, and finance and administration.
Accela will continue to focus on what it does best–being a trusted provider of government solutions to foster more engaged and prosperous communities. Delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers means that we are focusing on our core through research and development, expanding our team, and launching innovative products.
In the months ahead, we will introduce more turnkey solutions in Accela’s new Civic Applications suite to help local and state government to empower communities. Stay tuned.
