City of Wichita Expands Relationship with Infor Public Sector to Improve Community Development and Regulation Processes

Infor Public Sector today announced the city of Wichita, Kan., population 360,000, has selected its Hansen 8 CDR solution to manage community development and regulation, reduce costs and improve productivity. The Hansen solution will provide the backbone of an expanded system that also includes DynamicPORTAL, Map Drawer, GeoAdministator, and mobile solutions from Infor Public Sector. The selection represents an expansion of Infor's relationship with the city of Wichita, which currently uses Infor Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) to manage the assets of the public works department.

The comprehensive system provides organization-wide management, including standardized reporting, of the planning, permitting and code enforcement processes. The city will use Hansen 8 CDR to manage approximately 40 different business processes in buildings, metropolitan planning, code enforcement, fire, building and elevator permits, and environmental, among others. Hansen 8 CDR was selected to replace Wichita's current Tidemark system from Accela software.

"Wichita is the most populous city in Kansas, requiring many complex departments and divisions, and our previous system could no longer meet our workflow needs," said Kurt A. Schroeder, superintendant of central inspection, City of Wichita. "Not only does the Hansen CDR system provide enhanced workflow, it will integrate with other Infor Public Sector solutions that will enable us to leverage the Internet, GIS and mobile devices to improve business processes and productivity for our contractors and inspectors."

Infor Public Sector's DynamicPORTAL will enable citizens and contractors to file for permits and licenses over the Internet 24/7, improving citizen service by eliminating the need to wait in line to file necessary forms and pay for permits. The solution feeds data directly into Hansen 8 CDR so that permits and licenses are tracked and approved by building department staff and routed to various divisions as necessary. Productivity will be increased for the department, which processed more than 26,000 permits in 2008, because much of the data entry required as part of the permitting process is handled by contractors online.

The Hansen mobile solutions will enable Wichita's inspectors and field workers to increase efficiency by relaying data back-and-forth from the worker to the Hansen CDR system, eliminating the need to travel to and from the office. Hansen mobile solutions will allow Wichita's field crews to directly access supporting information from the Hansen 8 database, transmit completed activities directly back into the system and receive new assignments for completion. Mobile solutions will also benefit the department supervisors, enabling them to adjust schedules immediately if problems arise. Additionally, Wichita will be utilizing Hansen's mobile capability to immediately and automatically notify contractors and permit holders of inspection corrections requirements for building and trade permit construction projects.

Infor Public Sector's Map Drawer and GeoAdministrator will enable the city to improve its geographic information system (GIS) capabilities by providing powerful information for the system. Map Drawer will help the city understand spatial relationships, locate and identify assets quickly and make more informed decisions. The GeoAdministrator system will enable the city to create multiple point and linear service lines in both GIS and Hansen 8, join or split linear assets, synchronize attributes, and perform quality assurance and quality control.

"The budget shrinkages spawned by the current economic crisis have put increased pressure on government agencies to provide more services with less money," said Bob Benstead, vice president, strategic planning, Infor Public Sector. "Forward-thinking cities, like Wichita, are implementing software solutions that will reduce costs and improve productivity, helping them to make the most of every dollar and also improve their level of citizen service for the future."