True Automation Signs Santa Clara County Assessor's Office in Groundbreaking Entry Into State of California

DALLAS, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Santa Clara County Assessor's Office has selected True Automation as its vendor for property appraisal and assessment software.  This agreement is True Automation's first step in entering the California market for property appraisal and assessment software.  Over the past eleven years, True Automation has been successful in the Texas market gaining over 50% of the market share of that state, and most recently has signed eight assessor and treasurer offices in the state of Washington.  California is the logical next step in True Automation's market expansion as there is not currently a software vendor that meets the specific needs of that market at an affordable price point.

"True Automation is the right solution for the state of California," said Osvaldo Morales, President of True Automation.  "True Automation is a market leader in appraisal technology.  With our breadth of industry experience, we are not just a generic software developer.  We bring the appraisal industry knowledge Santa Clara requires for a long-term solution.  We look forward to experiencing success in Santa Clara County as well as the entire state of California."

"The Santa Clara County Assessor's Office selection of True Automation was the culmination of many years of assembling system requirements and considering multiple alternative solutions.  We are very excited to finally commence the replacement of our current, internally developed system which is obsolete and runs on hardware that is no longer supported by the manufacturer.  When completed, True Automation will be the first vendor to offer a comprehensive, California compliant computer system for a major county," said Assessor Larry Stone.  

"Our mission is to provide an annual assessment roll including all assessable property in accordance with legal mandates in a timely, accurate, and efficient manner; and provide current assessment-related information to the public and to governmental agencies in a timely and responsive way.  True Automation's PACS (Property Appraisal and Collections System) will assist in us meeting this goal.  Once completed, we will no longer need to worry about whether or not the computer system will fail and jeopardize a $303 billion assessment roll that is relied upon by local government and schools," said Stone.  "We needed a solution that we can rely on, to meet our financial limitations, and a vendor we can trust.  After much research and deliberation, our evaluation team selected True Automation and PACS as the right solution for our county.  I am especially pleased that the project's price tag of $6 million will be financed entirely by funds set aside over a ten-year period from a state performance loan program (PTAP) and will not impact the County's general fund.  Our prudent, and often difficult, efforts to save funds is going to pay major dividends once the project is completed," said Stone.

Developed on a proven technology, PACS is built on the Microsoft.NET framework, provides customized interface and general feature extensibility.  The new system provides significant computerized appraisal assistance on all three approaches to value (cost, income and sales comparison) as well as an integrated multiple regression analysis module.  It is expected the new program will facilitate the efficient and accurate preparation of the annual as well as supplemental assessment rolls.

During the evaluation process, Santa Clara County interviewed two of True Automation's larger clients:  Bexar County (San Antonio, Texas) and Clark County (Vancouver, Washington).  After meeting with contacts at these two customer sites and observing PACS in use, officials from Santa Clara County determined that True Automation would be the right strategic partner in developing a solution for Santa Clara.  "Our extensive review of True Automation indicated a legacy of a commitment to solving customers' problems.  We spoke with their client base and customer service is clearly a high priority.  By working closely with the True Automation team, we look forward to being the first customer in California to install PACS and demonstrate these operational efficiencies in our day-to-day business process starting in 2012.  But now the really hard work begins, as we must expend limited staff resources not only closing the assessment roll and maintaining our existing, antiquated computer system, but must build a strong, close working relationship with True Automation to adapt their system to our needs," said Stone.

About True Automation

True Automation is the premier provider of property appraisal, assessment and tax collections solutions.  True Automation's suite of solutions includes PACS Appraisal, PACS Collections, Truth-in-Taxation.com and GIS Services.  Began in 1990 and incorporated in 1997, True Automation has quickly become the most progressive software provider for county tax and appraisal districts.  Since then, True Automation has grown to over one hundred employees, and over one hundred and eighty customers.  True Automation has enjoyed this revolutionary growth due to its unrivaled understanding of the property tax and appraisal process and its aggressive commitment to meeting the needs of its customers.  For more information about True Automation, visit http://www.trueautomation.com.

About The Santa Clara County Office of the Assessor

The Assessor's Office is responsible for annually determining the assessed value of all real and business personal property in Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose, the nation's 10th largest City and the "Capital of Silicon Valley."  The assessment roll includes 520,073 assessable roll units of real and business property.  In 2009 the total gross assessed value was $318.44 billion, the fourth highest in California.  For more information visit http://www.sccassessor.org.

SOURCE True Automation