Client need

A growing city needed to document its business processes related to permitting, plan review, and inspections to ensure retention of institutional knowledge, prepare to implement a new community development system, and provide a strong foundation to support continued economic growth and development. Because the new system would automate permitting and plan review processes, the city also needed to ensure current processes were streamlined to truly leverage the system’s benefits.

Baker Tilly solution

Baker Tilly conducted a business process review, examining and documenting dozens of processes related to residential and commercial development permits, plan review, and site inspections. During this process, Baker Tilly identified areas for process improvement and automation in the new system. In addition, our team recognized the need to train city staff members on business process documentation so this practice could be continued and expanded.

Results

Baker Tilly documented twenty-three key processes and trained five city staff members on business process documentation. Having thoroughly documented business processes prior to system implementation allowed the city to focus on system design and testing with the software vendor instead of spending time documenting current processes. The city plans to use the trained staff to document processes in other departments.

For more information on this topic, or to learn how Baker Tilly's state and local government consulting practice can help, contact our team.