Accela, Nortel team for municipal wireless opportunities

Accela Inc. will partner with Nortel on its municipal wireless solution, a suite of wireless network technologies, applications and services to help cities bring broadband services to their field staff and citizens.

Nortel will include Accela's mobile inspection management application, branded as Accela Wireless, as a component of its new municipal wireless solution.

Accela Wireless is a mobile government application that complements Nortel's mission by extending processing capabilities to the field for land use and asset management activities, including inspections, investigations, code enforcement, work orders and service requests.

The application enables inspectors to spend more time in the field completing tasks, and less time traveling to and from the home office, so they can respond more quickly to requests and provide a higher level of service to citizens and businesses. Accela Wireless also can be used for performing rapid damage assessment.

Among the state and local governments that have implemented Accela Wireless are Cleveland, New Orleans and Michigan.

Accela Wireless recently was validated in Nortel's municipal wireless innovation lab in Raleigh, N.C. The lab focuses on research and development of broadband wireless solutions and provides a collaborative environment in which to test, integrate and demonstrate municipal applications from partners such as Accela.

"As wireless mesh becomes more prevalent, agencies are looking for applications that help them keep up with the expectations of the public, and that generate revenue," said Maury Blackman, Accela's senior vice president of sales and marketing.

Accela of San Ramon, Calif., offers Web-based enterprise software solutions that automate land, permit and asset management processes for federal, state and local government agencies.

Nortel Networks Corp. of Brampton, Canada, ranks No. 69 on Washington Technology's 2006 Top 100 list of the largest federal IT contractors.