ePALS™ Solutions Suite

Land, Structure and Occupancy (LSO) Model

ePALS™ LSO model is a primary resource for address, structure, zone and land use information, as well as owner/tenant, infrastructure and asset information. Each location has a unique identifier by which all activities related to that location are tracked and administered. It also tracks a history of changes to a property’s land, structure, and or occupancy.
The Projects, Sub-projects, Activities (PSA) structure enables departments to customize their activities, cases, permits, licenses etc. It enables users to easily view Project level information, or drill-down to sub-levels to view more granular data. Users achieve true interdepartmental communication with the ability to review processes conducted by all city departments.
Features
Easily manage business functions and processes in ePALS.
Fees and Payments

• Automatic fee calculation based on type of business including prorating, reducing fee calculation and collection errors
• Tracks different fee types, historic fees, and method of payments.
• Exports all cashiering payment transactions to proposed financial system.
• Accepts payments in various methods and records account number, amount billed, amount paid and deposit amount.

Holds

• Issue holds / stop orders for any type of activity due to various business reasons.
• Implements holds interdepartmentally and automatically removes access (making data read-only) thus disabling any further processing on the activity.

File Attachments

• Attaches all types of files including:
  • Digital photos
  • Documents
  • Spreadsheets

• Attachments have associated keywords, which can be searched later.

Conditions

• Predefined conditions available to apply to various activity types.
• Users able to add one or more conditions to any level within ePALS™ (e.g., Land, Structure, Occupancy, Project, Subproject and Activity).
• Ability to automatically include conditions for any activity.

Contact Maintenance

• Maintains list of all external people associated with organizations
• Accepts contractor deposits.
• Assigns dummy contractor license numbers, if needed.
• Links to State Licensing Board to verify license validity.
• Ability to put holds on people involved (e.g., flagging expired contractor license).
• Option to view all the transactions by people type (e.g., contractor).

Search

• Capable of searching virtually everything within a system.
• Integrates smoothly with third party systems such as document imaging to reference data.
• Search functionality enables users to search by business license number, business name, number of employees, contact name, etc.
• Search and lookup historical payment information by receipt number, customer name, or street address.

Administration

• Complete complex tasks online including fee maintenance, fee schedule, updating contractor records, splitting lots, moving projects, adding new permit types, adding new zones.

Assessor import / export

• Periodically updates the assessor data.
• Maintains owner information (foreign address, etc.) of the owner
• Synchronizes with the Assessor’s office

Comments

• Ability to add one or more comments at any level within ePALS™

Digital Library

• Stores all digital files with option to import files as attachments to Projects, Subprojects or Activities.
• View exceptions occurring during import via ePALS™ web interface.
• Users can attach at least four keywords to each imported document.
• Search documents via the ePALS™ Document Search interface.

Printing and other functionalities

• Mail merge and print-on-demand / batch business license renewals.

• Print digital photo on taxicab vehicle and taxicab driver ID cards.

• Void transactions.

• Generate bar codes.

• Print decals and mailing labels.

• Print odd-sized paper or documents.

• Log inspections for home-based businesses.

• Track user comments.

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Integrates with External Systems

ePALS™ web-based services application easily integrates with and interfaces to a variety of existing systems, including but not limited to:

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

Able to request inspections and inquire into inspection results. Also enables contractors, residents, and other permit holders to access up-to-date, accurate information about the status of pending construction permits.

Historical Data

Reduces high costs normally associated with data conversion of historical information from existing land management data systems.

Electronic Plan Check Review Systems

Integrates smoothly with Avolve/ProjectDox, Bluebeam and e-PlanSoft.

Financial systems

Enables staff to reconcile day’s-end payments received toward various activities. Interfaces with fund accounting systems and push payments daily. The systems integration enables balancing deposits and monthly reports directly through ePALS™.

Assessor data

Synchronization enables users to import County assessor data to regularly update parcel data in ePALS™.

Document Management Systems”

Seamlessly integrates with most EDMS systems such as Laserfiche, FileNet and Tableau

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HOSTED on the Amazon Web Services Cloud (AWS)

The ePALS™ Solution Suite is hosted on the Amazon Web Services Cloud (AWS) web-based solution, which was developed shoulder-to-shoulder with government staff. ePALS improves interdepartmental communications by providing shared access to accurate, real-time data.

ePALS facilitates unparalleled integration between City departments including Planning, Permits & Inspections, Code Enforcement, Public Works, Business License and our e-Gov Online / Citizen Access Portal. All activities are linked to a parcel within the city and provides a comprehensive structure for ever-increasing amounts of data, enabling cities to streamline internal operations, enhance cost efficiency and advance citizen service.

Features

• ePALS is a 100% Web Based Solution. With anytime, anywhere access.
• Subscription Fee Based, No Annual Maintenance Fees. No Long-Term Commitments.
• Data Security, Redundancy & Disaster Recovery-Data hosted on secure site with automatic backups.
• 24/7 Access and Support Around-the-clock.
• Easy setup, no client software required. Rapid Deployment.
• Intuitive & Simple to Use. It’s powerful, yet simple.
• Minimal Upfront Investment- Lower costs for supporting various platforms.
• No Additional Licenses Fees. Unlimited User Access!
• Security Encryption/Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) – Safe, Secured & Protected.
• Real Time Network & Monitoring Tools Performance Management.
• Location Centric -Dashboard View of all activities related to a parcel.

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ePALS GIS

Interfaces with most Geographical Information Systems (GIS) such as ESRI, providing mapping tool to visually select address range with full range of desired functions. Users gain visual overview of activities happening in and around a location to create maps of varying complexity for diverse departmental needs.

GIS Interface Features

• Identify tool accesses attribute information stored with a parcel, such as property ownership, Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), property type, etc.
  • Users can cross-reference an array of parcel information using the APN.
• Users can display data layers such as:
  • Land use zoning
  • General plans Flood zones
  • Liquefaction zones
  • Seismic hazard zones
  • Fire hazard zones
  • Noise impact corridor.
• Routing inspection users can select address range or draw a geometric shape on the map.
• Users can also:
  • Obtain list of addresses and activities.
  • Violations within the range.
  • View property parcels and permits.
• ArcIMS product functionality enables users to
  • Add and remove layers on a map.
  • Create dynamic buffer zones around a map feature.
  • Use spatial overlay functions to query map features that intersect.
• Enables users to view data layers such as:
  • Parcel
  • Tract
  • Lot
  • Block
  • Survey monument,
  • Aerial photography
  • Topographic contours
  • Easements or encumbrances
  • Transportation right-of-way corridors.
• Utilize address geocoding functions to enter street addresses when searching for locations. Once found, users can review the results for the best match.

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ePALS Mobile

Field inspectors work in real time and/or offline while conducting on-site inspections and violations reviews using tablets or smartphones. ePALS mobile app captures signatures, allowing inspectors to finalize inspections if no violations.

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