How Box Elder County decreased building permit processing time and reduced manual data entry with Civic Review

Background

Box Elder County can be found covering a large part of Northern Utah. It includes cities ranging all the way from Willard to Snowville. The county has a current population of 57,866. They have experienced significant growth in recent years and are predicted to continue growing. This has resulted in more development across the county.

Challenges

Prior to Civic Review, Box Elder was struggling to keep track of their own permits. As a County, Box Elder had also made the decision to offer their building permit services to surrounding entities and municipalities. The total volume of these permits was steadily increasing and it was challenging to keep up with the demand in their old permitting system. 

The Executive Secretary/Permit Technician at Box Elder recalled,

Performing every action on the permit manually was a chore, especially entering in every permit by hand. As our permit volume grew, it became difficult to keep doing things in the old system, and it was apparent we were going to have to make some changes to our software provider.

Jessie Fernelius
Permit Technician

They also found that the review process was taking much longer than they would have liked.

Before [Civic Review] the review process could take up to half an hour or longer.

Box Elder County knew something needed to be done. The situation was frustrating for the County staff and applicants alike.

Solution

When selecting a software provider, Box Elder found that Civic Review was the perfect fit. They needed a process that was simple and efficient. The contract with other cities in the county for building permits and inspections made easy communication and streamlined processes imperative.

Everything about Civic Review for us was customized to our process. They came and learned about our operations and told us how it could work in Civic Review.

When it came to making the decision, they found that the support provided by Civic Review was just what they needed.

If we hit a snag, we send a message and the staff are on it working to help us resolve any issue. We have training to help us work on understanding the process better. It’s awesome.

Results

Box Elder has seen excellent results from their switch to Civic Review. The time spent reviewing permits has been cut in half!

Now, we can review everything in about 15 minutes on average.

They have found that staff and applicants are having a better experience with the application and review process.

It’s been wonderful to teach our cities to use it. I love telling customers how it can be used too. Once they know about some of the features, they get pretty excited about hopping on and being able to see what is going on with their permit, live.

Box Elder has successfully modernized their permit management process. They review permits faster, everything stays organized and easy to access, and they are able to track inspections with ease.

It made everything we do simpler and more streamlined. It was worth every penny we contracted for, for the value we got in return!

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