Permit Turnaround
Cut by 60%.
By unifying intake, routing, inspections, and fee collection across planning and fire, one department cleared a six-week backlog in under three months - without replacing the permitting database it already ran on.
A growing city, a queue that kept growing with it.
Permit volume climbed 34% in two years while staffing stayed flat. The department's records were sound - the movement between them was not. Every handoff between counter, reviewer, inspector, and cashier meant another manual step and another day of delay.
Replacing the permitting system of record was never on the table. It held years of history, and staff knew it. What they needed was connective tissue on top of it.
- ✕Paper applications rekeyed by hand into the permitting database
- ✕Fire and planning reviews tracked in separate spreadsheets
- ✕Inspectors calling the office for the day's route
- ✕Residents phoning for status because nothing was published
- ✕Fees collected at the counter, reconciled days later
Five stages, one permit record.
Selectron layered onto the database the city already ran, stage by stage, over a single quarter.
Intake moved to the resident's schedule
Applicants started requesting reviews and inspections online, by text, and by phone - writing straight into the existing permitting database instead of a counter queue.
Routing stopped being a morning meeting
Smart assignment balanced reviewer workload across planning and fire automatically, using the same permit types and districts already defined in the system of record.
Field results posted before the truck left the curb
Inspectors carried the day's route with them, captured results and photos on site, and closed items in real time - no evening data entry.
Status calls dropped off the front desk
Every status change triggered the resident's preferred channel, so the counter phone stopped being the status page.
Fees cleared the same hour they were assessed
Fees were paid online at the moment of approval and reconciled back to the permit record automatically, closing the loop without a trip to city hall.
"We didn't rip anything out. Selectron sat on top of what we already had and made every step of it faster. Six weeks of backlog just quietly disappeared."
What changed for the department.
Intake, review, inspection, notice, and payment all write back to the same permit.
Staff stopped rekeying applications; the counter became an exception desk.
Every status change, message, and payment is timestamped against the permit.
The city's permitting database stayed exactly where it was.
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Your permits could move like this.
Bring your own permitting database. We'll show you what connected looks like on top of it.