Nebraska city taps Accela for e-gov project

Accela Inc. has won a $1.2 million contract from the city of Omaha, Neb., to provide a Web-based, integrated permitting, licensing and inspection management system, the company said this week.

Accela of Dublin, Calif., will install the new enterprise application, called Accela Automation, which will be deployed for the planning department. It is designed to interface with systems in the fire, public works and finance departments.

The system will provide a centralized database for tracking and managing permitting and licensing activities, eliminating current disparate databases and allowing employees to interconnect and operate more efficiently. City staff will use the system to automate permitting, inspections, workflow, contractor licenses, development plan review and other critical functions.

Omaha currently issues 40,000 to 45,000 different types of permits annually. The city also plans to implement an Accela wireless system to allow inspectors to remotely input their results from inspection sites using a mobile device.

Omaha's citizen access portal will provide real-time, direct access via the Internet to the city's permit and land management activities. Citizens and businesses will be able to apply and pay for permits, schedule inspections, check the status of a permit or inspection, or print an approved permit directly from the Internet.

Omaha is the largest city in Nebraska, with more than 400,000 residents and a combined metropolitan area population of more than 790,000.