How the County of Solano, California’s commitment to managed services created happy customers and a unified system

Challenge:

The County of Solano, California found themselves with two instances of their Accela Civic Platform. Their commitment to modernization was struggling as they were dealing with multiple public portals, an under-utilized asset management system, and a separate digital plan review system. The County knew changes were needed. These fragmented systems required constituents to navigate two separate portals based on their service needs, which resulted in confusion, inefficiencies, and a disjointed user experience. These challenges significantly hindered the County’s ability to provide seamless, timely, and effective services.

The County identified a few pain points including merging the two cloud systems, reducing duplicate system seats, an underutilized digital plan review system, lack of information sharing and no easy path forward without help. Additionally, the County had a standalone code enforcement system that was not being utilized as well as it could.

To solve their challenges, The County sought external help and a managed services provider.

Solution:

To address these challenges, Solano County initiated a comprehensive consolidation project. This plan involved bringing in a managed services provider who could lead assessing the Accela platform and related systems, identifying gaps, streamlining user workflows, and provide recommendations to optimize identified gaps.

After an RFI, Gray Quarter was selected as the Managed Services provider. The project focused on digitizing and consolidating services, while minimizing disruption and maximizing efficiency. The assessment identified key workflows, such as Code Violation Complaints and Residential Solar Permitting, that were digitized and integrated into Accela. It also introduced 10 new survey and 11 new Resource Management planning processes. The decisions made from the assessment were key in reducing duplicate spending and creating a true platform with one unified design to ensure a consistent experience.

With the help of Gray Quarter, the transformation project has markedly improved service delivery and operational efficiency by integrating multiple portals into the Accela Citizen Access platform. This integration has streamlined interactions and introduced a mobile service, enhancing field inspection efficiency.

As a result, annual administrative overhead was reduced by $189,178.00, while user experience improved, as evidenced by an 11% increase in resident engagement. The unified system has expedited response times, expanded service access, and boosted constituent satisfaction.

The addition of Managed Services has allowed the County to expedite improvements that would have taken longer on their own and required staff with deep knowledge of the system. The County will continue enhancing and augmenting these improvements with ongoing governance meetings and strategy sessions with their commitment to a multi-year agreement with Gray Quarter.