Anybody out here using OpenGov solutions? Would love to hear about your experience. We’re trying to help one of our municipalities get set up with them, and it’s… well, it’s not my favorite project. Other perspectives welcome!
(I probably should have started asking which module they’re getting set up with, but I already typed up my two experiences below.)
In a previous life I worked for a municipality using their permitting system. On the backside it was a lot to get it configured, but as we worked through the processes it became a pretty smooth working system. The main person administering it had a LOT to do initially and as we worked through the initial phases, then again as more permits were built out. Started with Building permits of every different type/requirement associated with those types, then moved to liquor licenses, street tree ordering process tied to GIS, and I’m sure others had been built since.
In my current life, we are implementing OpenGov Enterprise Asset Management. Public Works had a lot of the initial load of determining which fields and integrations they needed to tie into it, then it came over to GIS to load data and as we attended the training sessions we learned a fair bit about the backend of the system, it’s very straightforward, and OpenGov did a lot on their side to integrate with our other systems (TreeKeeper, Gas Buddy, Utility Billing). For our first phases we had an implementation period, then a 3 month sandbox where PW could configure the application to what they needed, then after that time they basically copied that over to the full site and have been using it for 7 months or so.
We’re dealing with the permitting stuff.
Uh oh…
So, what was the timeline on setup / implementation for the permits?
Disclaimer: This was at least 5.5 years ago, so I’m sure things have changed on their permitting side of the business.
It was a multi-month process with the Village Planner leading the project, and building all of the processes from scratch. She worked with the building department to individually build out each permit and their steps and then who each of those steps is assigned to. For a patio, it had to have an initial intake of the plans and documentation on the company approved by the secretaries, if the company wasn’t licensed to work in the Village they had to go through that separate process. Then the plans would be reviewed by the building director for set backs and then it would go to GIS for an Impervious Surface calculation, and back to the building director for a final approval. I’m certain there are more steps, but each of them had to be built, have a default person to be assigned to, and then a workflow built on which steps are activated when a previous step is finished. She created the most basic permit, a water heater replacement or something like that, and then used that to build out other simple permits. She then copied that up to a more difficult one adding the other steps and then customizing them to fit the needs of that permit’s requirements/approval steps.
I was a part of the Tree Ordering form that was built, which we basically took the old paper form and turned it into a form in OpenGov and added a couple approval steps and tied it into GIS by pushing a tree location ID into the form from our GIS application. The resident could select their top 3 choice of trees, location request, etc. They were then sent to an external link to pay. Then after that round of tree plantings we exported the data out to update our Tree Inventory.
I’m hoping they have some templates now that you can work from instead of re-inventing the wheel, and if the municipality has someone on staff that can build out those steps, instead of you having to learn and apply their permitting process, that would be for the best.