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Accela Launches Government SaaS Applications for Planning and Building to Spur Economic Growth

Out-of-the-box solutions provide local governments a streamlined way to increase developer productivity in construction in a tight housing market and grow local economies faster while reducing implementation cost and timelines

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Accela, the leading provider of cloud-based productivity solutions for government, announced today the launch of two more Software-as-a-Solution (SaaS) applications that help governments better manage the planning and building process for residential and commercial construction and to spur economic growth. The Accela Civic Application for Planning and the Accela Civic Application for Building are the newest offerings in Accela’s Civic Applications suite, packaged solutions with pre-built and pre-configured components. The civic applications stem from Accela’s years of experience deploying custom, enterprise-level solutions for government.

“Accela is the industry expert in licensing, permitting and regulatory solutions, and has been leading best practices in planning and building for years. We are launching these applications to help speed up commercial and residential development,” said Mark Jung, executive chairman of Accela. “Our modern, scalable SaaS applications provide governments with robust solutions to major challenges they face today in a much faster time-to-deployment and lower total cost of ownership than traditional solutions. These new Applications will help more governments respond to the need for housing and to increase economic development while experiencing significant reductions in implementation time and cost when deploying.”

With Accela’s technology cities across the country including Tampa, Florida; Palo Alto, California; Hillsboro, Oregon; and McAllen, Texas have aligned with developers to meet their long-term economic goals—and the technology they put in place to get there. As customers, these cities have easy to use solutions that are speeding up economic development and dealing with the housing crisis communities are facing nationwide.

This is the case in McAllen, where Luis Vasquez, the city’s chief building official at the office of Building Permits and Inspections said turnaround time times have been slashed drastically.

“Thanks to our Accela solution, we were able to reduce turnaround times for residential permits from approximately three weeks to three days, and for commercial permits, from two months to five to 10 days,” Vasquez said.

The Civic Applications suite provides governments with modern SaaS solutions that allow agencies to be up and running in a matter of weeks or months. Traditionally, these systems can take years to build, yet now with best-in-class technology Accela is empowering governments to provide superior services to communities at lower costs. The Planning and Building Applications launch furthers Accela’s commitment to helping governments leapfrog ahead and embrace the latest technology.

Today’s announcement follows the launch of Accela Civic Application for Cannabis Regulation and the Accela Civic Application for Short-Term Rental Registration, which were the first product offerings in the Civic Applications suite. While the agile Civic Platform remains the backbone of Accela’s offering, the new out-of-the-box Civic Applications provide governments with quicker implementation, domain best practices and shorter time to value.

To learn more about Accela’s Civic Applications for Planning and Building, please visit: https://www.accela.com/solutions/.

About Accela

Accela provides a market-leading platform of SaaS solutions that empower state and local governments to build thriving communities, attract and grow businesses, and deliver citizen services. From planning, building, licensing and permitting, to asset and service request management, finance, environmental health and more, Accela’s SaaS offerings level the playing field for small and medium governments and enable small agencies to use the same software as the big cities. 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 complicated challenges in the future. Accela’s solutions serve more than 80 percent of America’s largest cities. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com.