Accela Announces Fall 2020 Product Release to Help Governments Meet Growing Demand for Digital Services Through Modern Citizen Experiences and Analytics

SAN RAMON, Calif., Nov. 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Accela^®, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for government, today announced its Fall 2020 Product Release, which includes the launch of its Civic Platform^® V20.2 and updates to Accela Citizen Access, GIS, and Accela Mobile. The release also introduces Accela Insights, a new data visualization tool that enables agency staff to create modern and interactive dashboards seamlessly, the Premium Citizen Experience powered by OpenCities, new Civic Applications for Service Request Management and Occupational Licensing, and more. These updates are focused on creating modern, intuitive user experiences for government and expand on Accela's suite of robust cloud solutions designed to help agencies respond to evolving citizen and business needs during times of crisis and beyond.

"Accela is laser-focused on partnering with our state and local customers to create innovative SaaS solutions that provide the agility needed to adapt and respond to the rapidly evolving needs of their communities," said Troy Coggiola, Chief Product Officer at Accela. "Our latest product release represents Accela's response to our customers' needs for improved citizen experience as well as their desire to more effectively serve their jurisdictions with mobile and analytics capabilities that allow them to improve their levels of service even in the challenging environment seen this year. Further, the release of our most recent Civic Applications for Service Request Management and Occupational Licensing represent the consolidation of two decades' worth of domain expertise and customer feedback into solutions that reduce implementation complexity and increase employee and citizen satisfaction."

The Accela Fall 2020 Release provides updates and improvements based on customer feedback and partner input that enhance time-to-value, system management, citizen engagement, and overall user experience. Core to these updates is Accela Insights, which allows end users to seamlessly create dynamic and intuitive dashboards and reports for all levels of the agency. While data analysis is becoming increasingly important for governments, many agencies struggle to extract deeper insights from their data using the current tools on the market. With Accela Insights, agencies can easily translate complex data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights through a customizable dashboard without the need to hire external analysts. The new tool allows end users to access their data through business terms they understand and is seamlessly integrated into Accela's Civic Platform, creating a familiar user experience to reduce learning curves.

Other major aspects of the Fall 2020 Release include:

• Significant front-end and back-end improvements to drive community-focused outcomes and increase citizen engagement, including enhanced browser support for more consistent user experiences, automated data syncing to allow agencies to access data in near real-time for increased performance consistency and faster downloads, and Accela Citizen Access updates, such as brand builder improvements that provide more engaging websites with less development work.
  
• New Civic Applications for Occupational Licensing and Service Request Management to streamline previously manual and complex application, payment, and review processes and service requests, as well as updates to Fire Prevention, Business Licensing, and Environmental Health Civic Applications.
  
• Premium Citizen Experience powered by OpenCities, an additional offering available with the latest release that allows agencies to create citizen-focused websites, online forms, and digital services without custom coding, offering citizens a digital front door to all the necessary resources and departments in their cities. Included is a product package that delivers modern mobile responsive, accessibility compliant, fully-featured, and affordable websites.
  
• Forte Payment Systems, which extends Accela's support of online payment systems and allows customers to choose from many of the top credit card issuers and ACH/EFT originating financial institutions across North America.
  
• Enhancements to Accela Mobile to include extended offline functionality, personalized data lists based on user role, and optimized mapping for iOS. This offers more flexible data access and improved productivity of mobile workers.

Today's announcement builds on Accela's commitment to delivering modern digital tools to help build thriving communities, now and in the future. More than 80 percent of Accela's new customers purchased solutions in the cloud, and 66 percent of all Accela customers are currently in the cloud, underscoring SaaS technology's increasing importance for navigating modern governance. Powered by Microsoft Azure, Accela's secure and flexible SaaS solutions equip governments with the resources to quickly respond to evolving community needs, increase efficiency, and maintain resilience to benefit 275 million citizens globally. To learn more about Accela's Solutions, please visit https://www.accela.com/solutions/.

About Accela 

Accela provides market-leading cloud solutions that empower the most innovative state and local governments around the world to build thriving communities, grow businesses, and protect citizens. More than 275 million citizens globally benefit from Accela's solutions powered by Microsoft Azure for permitting, licensing, code enforcement, and service request management. Accela's fast-to-implement Civic Applications, built on its robust and extensible Civic Platform, help agencies address specific needs today while ensuring they are prepared for any emerging or complex challenges in the future. The company was recently recognized as a 2020 Microsoft US Partner Award winner for its innovative SaaS solutions to help governments respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was named as one of the Largest East Bay Tech Employers by San Francisco Business Journal. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com.

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Media Contact: Kate Helete, [email protected]

SOURCE Accela

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