Manatron Becomes First Software Provider to Pass North Carolina's New Indexing Compliance Standards

PORTAGE, Mich., Sept. 27, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Manatron, Inc., a leader in providing integrated property tax and land administration software for governments worldwide, today announced it has become the first records management software provider to pass the North Carolina Secretary of State's compliance review for indexing standards. As a result, Manatron customers will be the first to comply with North Carolina's new regulations.

Since 1995, the Register of Deeds offices in North Carolina have enforced strict indexing standards, requiring data entry personnel to use several different abbreviations and indexing conventions. In 2012, these indexing standards will change, and each Register of Deeds office will be required to submit data as displayed on each recorded document. As a result, software providers were asked by the state to modify their applications for improved performance in search and retrieval to comply with the changes in indexing.

"We are excited to implement our new indexing compliance regulations throughout all of the counties in North Carolina," said Tom Morgan, land records manager for the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State. "Our new requirements and approach will allow residents to more accurately and efficiently search for property records in each county's system."

Manatron added several new enhancements to its GRM Recorder and Anthem applications in order to comply with North Carolina's new regulations. One added feature is a "sounds-like" search, which returns matches to a query that may be spelled differently in the index, but still sounds the same. Additional search enhancements also include an equivalency, which allows a jurisdiction to equate two terms. For example, if one term is queried, results matching the equal term are also returned. Finally, GRM Recorder gives type-ahead suggestions for searching property owners, suggesting up to five last names from the jurisdiction's index of records, as well as the  ability to ignore words such as "the" and "an", which could potentially skew a search.

"We are proud that Manatron's updated GRM Recorder software is the first software provider to meet North Carolina's new indexing requirements," said Early Stephens, Manatron chief technology officer. "North Carolina is paving the way for other states with this new approach, exemplifying how counties and states can incorporate advanced technology to better serve their constituents."

About Manatron, Inc.: Manatron, a Thomson Reuters business, provides software and services for governments worldwide to completely, fairly and efficiently assess real and personal property, and to bill and collect the related property taxes in their jurisdictions. Manatron's software manages the entire property life cycle, which includes land registry, cadastral mapping, deed recording, land records, GIS (Geographic Information System) integration, valuation, assessment administration, personal property, business licenses, cashiering, tax billing and collection, delinquents and tax sales and e-government. The company's corporate headquarters is located in Portage, Mich., and has offices throughout the United States. The Manatron International headquarters is located in Silver Spring, Md., with additional offices in Kiev, Ukraine and Cochabamba, Bolivia. Manatron currently serves over 1,600 customers and manages approximately 45 million parcels.

More information about Manatron, Inc. is available at the Company's website www.manatron.com. In addition, learn more about Manatron on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Manatron, Inc.