Accelerated by the pandemic, the movement to digitally transform government services is so universal now that those agencies pursuing rapid adoption scenarios are running the risk of the advance hype falling far short of the bottom-line results from such transformations.
This is particularly true in the domain of permitting system modernization where the pressing need to transform regulatory processes to alleviate the affordable housing crisis is increasingly resulting in loosely defined ‘low code’ mandates to equip rapid and widespread digital transformation. Although admirable in their ambitions, the recent increase of initiatives sacrificing definitive project deliverables in favor of overarching transformation ‘wins’ creates the potential for technology implementations that swing for the fences but ultimately strike out on critical system requirements.
George Santayana once said that, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” This maxim is important to remember in the current push for open-ended innovation projects, many of which hearken back to the original era of digital transformation when far too many organizations greenlit poorly defined technology initiatives under the aegis of ‘modernizing for the web.’ Ultimately this led to the ongoing ‘Buy vs Build’ debate with many realizing in hindsight that buying a mature COTS solution incorporating best-practices feature functionality is almost always the more prudent and productive approach, particularly for budget-constrained agencies that need to get it right the first time.
With current demands for digital transformation calling for rapid response once again, it is more important than ever that today’s Community Development Agencies have an exacting vision for a pending permitting system modernization project with the mission-critical outcomes well-defined and fully documented. As a market leading permitting solution provider for 40+ years, Computronix is fluent in both the crucial outputs that commonly define successful permitting modernizations AND the full potential for ongoing innovation that resides in our award-winning POSSE Platform. By clearly defining non-negotiable project outcomes going in, government agencies pursuing an ambitious digital transformation vision will be able to identify which key features are available ‘out-of-the-box’ and which will require further configuration of the underlying development platform. Having full transparency on each avenue empowers agencies to articulate a project vision that provides the best of both worlds:
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With that in mind, let’s explore the key project outcomes that are common to the vast majority of our permitting system modernization projects.
Often lost in the hype over digital transformation initiatives is the extensive value that is derived from simply having a system that makes your agency more efficient by a considerable factor. Particularly for government agencies that have learned to accommodate the limitations of expiring legacy systems, there can be a tendency to underestimate how truly impactful a modernized system will be in streamlining daily agency outputs. Efficiency gains can often have the most transformative effect of all by evolving an agency from a tasks culture dominated by inefficient and time-consuming duties to a knowledge culture dominated by data accessibility and guided automation.
Key outcomes in this area include the following:
Improved information accessibility is one of the critical facets of digital transformation where the hype is arguably deserved, given the truly transformative impacts that enhanced data accessibility can empower. However this area can often be where a modernization initiative can go awry if the project requirements have not been properly articulated to ensure the physical product that’s configured meets or exceeds all of the requirements envisioned within a more theoretical project vision. Given the system needs to efficiently index and process vast datasets while simultaneously ensuring the privacy and security of critical citizen information, it is here that a proven permitting software system demonstrates its value out-of-the-box.
Key data accessibility outcomes from a successful permitting modernization project include the following:
Within the overall scope of a permitting modernization project, improved data accessibility and citizen-led services go hand-in-hand. In fact, while improved data accessibility provides the infrastructure to transform your organization, citizen-led services provide the tools to transform your entire permitting paradigm from reactive to proactive driven by the market demands of your jurisdiction’s development community. With citizen led services, permitting, licensing, and development plan submissions leverage workflow automation specific to your agency’s regulatory requirements to align all stakeholders in a guided process optimized to ensure safe, accurate, and timely outcomes.
Key outcomes in this area include the following:
For many jurisdictions, compliance is a moving target mission that challenges regulatory agencies to manage the risk and measure the efficacy of evolving standards on a continual basis. A properly modernized permitting system provides the pivotal platform needed to streamline compliance workflows. Leveraging a real-time approach to risk management, big data and automation assistance work together to facilitate compliance business processes that are proactive and educational rather than overly prescriptive or prohibitive.
Key outcomes in this area include the following:
As a group, the substantial gains made in efficiency, data accessibility, citizen led services, and streamlined compliance are sufficiently robust to get today’s modern Community Development Agencies excited about the project outcomes from a successful permitting system modernization.
However, this is only half of the story!
In the 2nd half of this series, we’ll take a look at the gains your agency will achieve in the areas of IT Governance, Cybersecurity, Data Protection and Budget ROI.
Like this first installment, we’ll focus on those project outcomes that are achievable out-of-the-box when deploying a deep feature COTS solution like POSSE PLS. While ‘big picture’ innovation visions are certainly achievable with our award-winning POSSE development platform, you may find yourselves asking, “Why are we trying to reinvent the wheel with an open-ended development mandate when best-in-breed products such as POSSE PLS provide the overwhelming majority of the features we need now?”
