News & Blog
August 5, 2014
City of Blair, NE Manages 200% Increase in Permitting Volume with CityView’s BluePrince Software
August 5, 2014: VICTORIA, BC: CityView’s BluePrince software helped the City of Blair, NE manage a 200% increase in permit volume after a major hail storm ripped through the town on June 3, 2014, damaging homes and businesses.The City of Blair has used BluePrince’s Community Development solutions to issue permits, register contractors, and perform inspections since 2010. The massive hail storm that ripped off siding and shattered windows in June caused an immediate upswing in roofing and siding permit applications, as well as a high volume of new contractor registrations for the City Administrator’s department to process. Just how big was the upswing in permitting applications?
Phil Green, Assistant City Administrator, provides a snapshot of the City’s increased processing as a direct result of the storm: “We have registered 190 new contractors since June 4th (which requires proof of insurance, verification of state registration, references, and payment) as well as issued 1,057 storm damage related permits! To put that number in perspective, over the last three years, we have averaged 570 permits for each year, which means we’ve already exceeded our annual output by 200%!”
The storm required Blair to increase staff members, including a full time building department clerk, two part time field inspectors, one temporary full time roofing inspector, and student interns. Because BluePrince is so intuitive, Blair’s new employees have had no problems familiarizing themselves with the system and were able to learn the system with little training. Inspectors can use their laptops to sign off on orders and enter inspection results while in the field, then sync it up with the database once they return to the office, so that BluePrince always maintains the most current and up-to-date information for all employees who are logging in.
“Having a system that is as flexible and expandable as CityView’s BluePrince has been a life-saver. We can easily add staff, load the software on a laptop, and send them into the field to start work,” says Green. “And we’ve seen no change in the speed of the system despite our recent volume.”
“Situations like this emphasize local government’s need for malleable software solutions,” commented Sean Higgins, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for CityView. “We are very pleased to have been able to help the City in this time of crisis, through the expandability and ease of use of the BluePrince solution, and we commend the City of Blair for its swift and decisive action in dealing with the increased workload.”
Since 2002, BluePrince has been helping local governments across the United States track and manage their permitting and community development activities and initiatives. With 90 customers in 25 states, BluePrince is a trusted partner in the local government community. For more information, please visit CityView’s Website.
For additional information contact:
250.475.6600 or 800.665.5647
About the City of Blair
The City of Blair, NE has a population of approximately 8,000 and is located 20 miles north of Omaha along the Missouri River. The City has been using the BluePrince software since August of 2010.
About CityView
Local Government Building, Licensing, Inspections, Public Works and other departments use CityView’s solutions to reduce customer call volume, shorten permit issuance times, increase citizen self-service, increase inspector productivity, and reduce paper and manual processes. Since 1982, CityView has dedicated itself to solving day to day business process and service challenges in local government. Visit us at www.municipalsoftware.com.
About Harris
Harris is a wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation and is a leading provider of Financial Management and Customer Information Systems (CIS) software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to all levels of local government, public power and water entities as well as school districts throughout North America. Harris’ focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers overtime. For further information on Harris Computer Systems, please visit our website at www.harriscomputer.com or call 888.847.7747.