There is a reason most IT initiatives fail, especially in government where budgeting is necessarily fixed. The community development department staff needs to come up with permitting software requirements and plan for an annual budget. The building permit software requirements determine a scope for the work the permitting software or licensing software vendor is to perform. Once the scope is complete the traditional permitting software vendor needs to move on to the next project and the community development staff is stuck with whatever was delivered for the budget. The permitting software vendor typically provides support within the project scope to fix bugs or issues under a maintenance…
Becoming Paperless Overnight
Somerville is located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts just two miles north of Boston. Occupying slightly over 4 square miles, its population of 75,754 makes Somerville the most densely populated community in New England. Hired in 2013, Inspectional Services Superintendent Goran Smiljic was charged with modernizing the Somerville Building and Health Divisions. With more than 4000 permits and 1500 licenses issued annually the department functioned entirely with manual and paper systems. Inspections were tracked on index cards, plans were stored in various locations in the office. Solution: All permit and license applications were setup on citizenserve to be submitted electronically. Multiple kiosks were located throughout the Inspection Services offices to…