Irvine, CA, May 15, 2020: After diligently researching all their options, The City of Downey, California signed with e-PlanSoft™ for the ultimate electronic plan review management solution e-PlanREVIEW®. This is another milestone in the long-standing relationship between The City of Downey and e-PlanSoft™, and a key step in Downey’s Community Development Department’s (CDD) ambition to be a national leader in customer service and the land development processes for their community by offering a seamless customer service and land development process no matter the size of the project. Having a well-run citizen-experience program can give the staff a common customer-centered purpose while reducing complexity and unnecessary work in frontline processes, which is something that the City strives to be the best at.
EPR also meets the requirements for the $310,000 SB-2 Planning Grants Program Funding the City received in late 2019. The Planning Grant provides funding and technical assistance to all local governments in California to help cities and counties prepare, adopt, and implement plans and process improvements that streamline housing approvals and accelerate housing production. The City will be using these funds in the development, installation, and implementation of an electronic permitting and plan review system that will be used by the Planning, Building & Safety, Engineering, and Fire Departments. This new system will allow applicants to submit their plans electronically without the need to visit city hall.
“After evaluating different companies, e-PlanSoft™ proved to be the best firm with a competitive price point, flawless integration, and user-friendly interface in design and functionality,” said Downey Mayor Blanca Pacheco. “This new system will allow our City staff to conduct business in a more efficient manner, helping provide a more seamless customer service experience for our residents.
Sean Hooper, Director of Product and Customer Success for e-PlanSoft™, says: “As an Accela Alliance Technology Partner for several years, e-PlanSoft™ will offer The City of Downey the proven bi-directional connectivity they need to their Accela Civic Platform. Giving the City the ability to deepen the customer experience and provide their staff and their constituents a solution that improves staff efficiency and plan review turnaround time.”
The core functions of EPR will enable the City to benefit from greater industry innovation in many areas, including automation, orchestration, cloud-based resilience, security, improved communication, reduced project costs, and faster review times. This means increasing their overall availability for customers and services while being cost-effective with the opportunity to continue to grow. The solution we are implementing will enable the vital services provided by Downey’s permitting divisions to continue safely for both City staff and their customers. e-PlanREVIEW® will give them easy to use markup, measurement, overlay, stamp, and comment tools and allows users to use these tools to review the same document at the same time, seeing each other’s changes updated in real-time. They also get configurable user-roles based permissions and a greater technology stack using react, node, and angular.js.
“We are always looking for innovative approaches to bring the best customer service to our residents and businesses,” said Downey Mayor Pro Tem Claudia M. Frometa. “Utilizing this new electronic plan review system by e-PlanSoft further enhances our City’s goal of promoting efficiency within our operations.”
“We, at e-PlanSoft™, have been in the industry for over a decade and this is just another happy and satisfied client delivering the next generation of ePlan reviews to their communities. Brandy Parslow, Marketing Manager for e-PlanSoft™ comments. “We’re extremely proud to be part of their story and for them to be a part of ours.”
About Downey
Downey is a city located in southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, 13 mi southeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program. It is also the home of the oldest still operational McDonald’s restaurant in the world. Downey has been named “Most Business-Friendly City” in Los Angeles County by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC), for cities with populations greater than 68,000. Downey was selected based on criteria such as commitment to economic development; excellence in programs and services designed to facilitate business entry, expansion, and retention; competitive business tax rates and fee structures; availability of economic incentives; and effective communication with and about business clients.
About e-PlanSoft™
e-PlanSoft™ develops cloud-based electronic document review software that assists governmental agencies, construction and manufacturing industries, developers, and owners for their plan review, design review, product review, construction, and asset review management in real-time.
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