Accela Closes Fiscal Year with Double-Digit Growth and New Customers Choosing SaaS Solutions

SAN RAMON, Calif., Aug. 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Accela®, the leading provider of cloud-based solutions for state and local government, today announced a fiscal year of business momentum fueled by powering governments' transition to SaaS in a landscape that has shifted permanently to a digital-first approach. The fiscal year ended with record growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and unparalleled professional services revenue performance. To bolster this momentum and in anticipation of continued market expansion, critical new staff were added across the company. This past quarter, Accela migrated governments to the cloud, rolled out new customer implementations, secured new partnerships, and announced its Spring 2021 Product Release, which included extensive mobile, administrative, and resident engagement enhancements to help agencies meet the growing demand for online services.

"Governments are emerging from this unprecedented period with a deeper focus on delivering a seamless and accessible digital experience for constituents," said Gary Kovacs, CEO of Accela. "Accela is the trusted partner making that experience a reality, and enabling agencies to focus on stimulating their economies while reopening and protecting  their communities. With customers moving to the cloud and our new partnerships and implementations, we're helping governments to raise the industry standard for what's possible in delivering impactful and efficient services, and dynamic resident engagement."

Accela's focus on helping on-premise customers upgrade to its SaaS platform continues to fuel its success. Nearly 65% of Accela Civic Platform customers are already on SaaS to accelerate their digital transformation.

One of the cities leading the charge to a cloud-first model is Weston, Florida. Ryan Fernandes, director of technology services for the City of Weston notes, "Now what you're going to see is big (SaaS) adoption moving forward and some of the old trepidations associated with cloud operations will be pushed aside as we have proven this model can operate in an efficient, effective, stable and secure manner with no loss to service delivery."

Prior to Accela, Weston was utilizing an antiquated on-premise system for planning and permitting that had no public-facing portal, forcing customers to physically submit paper applications at the office—a challenge in particular with the COVID-19 pandemic. Accela's cloud solutions lifted the burden of managing data centers off the city's IT staff, reduced the need for paper applications, and kept its operations running seamlessly when neighboring jurisdictions encountered pandemic-related barriers. 

Accela Adds New Customers and Global Solution Go-Lives
Accela is working closely with cities, counties, and states as they emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and address evolving resident, financial, and technological needs. Over the past quarter, Accela added several new customers including the City of Brownsville, TX; Memphis Fire Department; and the City of New Town, ND.

New go-lives in the quarter included the City of Chino, CA; the City of Hermosa Beach, CA; the County of Gwinnett, GA; Suffolk, NY; the Yakima Health District, WA; and the City of Tauranga, New Zealand. These jurisdictions join other go-lives that occurred throughout the fiscal year and contributed to robust revenue for the company.

Spring 2021 Product Release Unveiled
In May, Accela unveiled its Spring 2021 Product Release with enhanced insights and analytics capabilities. This release, which heavily relied on customer feedback and partner input, brings more resiliency, usability, and agility to help agencies with digital service delivery. The Spring Release gives customers extensive enhancements to their mobile, administrative and citizen experience applications. Updates included the Civic Platform V21.1, improvements to Accela's pre-configured Civic Applications and Accela Mobile, and new features for reporting and analytics.

New Solar Software Solution Helps Jurisdictions Achieve Permitting Goals
In April, Accela partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory to launch SolarAPP+ (Solar Automated Permit Processing Plus), a new instant online solar permitting platform for residential solar energy and battery projects. The SaaS solution was rolled out to 1,500 agencies at launch and made available at no cost to Accela's current state and local customers. With SolarAPP+, permitting timelines can shrink from an average of two weeks to almost instantaneous.

"We're excited to have an easy-to-use solution for our community that improves user experience for residents and agency staff alike through an instantaneous solar permitting process," said Carla Blackwell, director of development services at Pima County. "By leveraging SolarAPP+, our agency has been able to save valuable time, money, and human resources to process roughly 250 permits per month in the region."

New Partnerships Drive Revenue Growth For Agencies
The Accela partner ecosystem helped to extend more critical services to customers and the residents they serve. This quarter, these included:

• A technology (ISV) partnership with Short Term Rental (STR) compliance platform Harmari, which helps agencies to identify and monitor short term rentals, ensure compliance with local laws and generate increased revenues for agencies. Hamari's patent pending features, including a 24/7 nuisance hotline and violation reporting, complement Accela's STR registration and licensing process.
• The City of Yuba City, CA and City of DeLand, FL implemented a new digital permitting system integration with Forte Payment Systems, a CSG company, powered by Accela technology. As a result, these jurisdictions are able to utilize a best-in-breed, integrated solution for online and in-office transactions, resulting in increased transparency, improved user experience for citizens and staff, and more efficient use of resources.
• Several customer go-lives in partnership with Gray Quarter, including the City of Seattle, WA and the City of Louisville, KY, and new feature and function implementations for the State of Montana. Working together, Accela and Gray Quarter also helped customers see new results, including an improvement of at least 50% in housing permit processing times in DeLand, Florida and eliminating 90% of data entry work for Sonoma County's Water Well Monitoring Inspection System this quarter.
• Accela customers Brookhaven, NY; Culver City, CA; Montgomery County, OH; and Santa Barbara County, CA extended their investment in Accela by subscribing to Velosimo off-the-shelf connectors that integrate the Accela Civic Platform to Microsoft SharePoint, Adobe Sign, e-PlanReview, Kofile GovOS (SeamlessDocs), and Bluebeam Revu.

Accela Announces New Senior Government Affairs Leader and Accelarate 2021
To further its collaborations with some of the most sophisticated government agencies in North America, Accela appointed Dennis W. Alpert as its new head of government affairs. A well-respected government and political strategist, Alpert boasts experience at the highest levels for major global companies such as Walmart and Pfizer, and as a senior advisor in the White House.

Two thousand participants are expected to attend Accelarate 2021, its annual conference and training event, on October 4 through October 6. Register here to join state and local government leaders, product experts, and industry changemakers working to anticipate and meet challenges head-on.

Accela works with local and state governments across the nation. 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, which are powered by 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 Times. Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with additional offices around the world. For more information, visit www.accela.com.

Contact: Holly Langbein, (916) 769-2199, [email protected] 

SOURCE Accela

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