Clariti, alongside implementation specialist Avocette Technologies, is thrilled to formally announce that the City of Santa Ana, California, has selected the Clariti solution to modernize its permitting, enforcement, and inspections applications. Annually, the city issues an average of 10,000 permits and conducts an average of 30,000 inspections. Using Clariti’s Building Permit Software, the city will transition to a fully digital permitting process for building and right-of-way permits, providing citizens with a way to apply online through a self-service portal and saving them a trip to City Hall. The solution will also provide staff in the Planning and Building Agency and the Public Works Agency, who currently rely on 100% paper-based processes, to serve more than 300,000 residents, with a comprehensive set of digital tools to streamline daily tasks, enhance productivity, and reduce permitting and inspection wait times.
"We're excited to partner with the City of Santa Ana and commend its commitment to delivering exceptional citizen experiences through modernizing its building permitting and inspection processes. This step forward will serve the city well and dramatically streamline its permitting workflows."
- Jake Dancyger, Co-CEO, Clariti
On the city’s decision to move forward with Clariti, Jack Ciulla, Santa Ana’s Chief Technology Innovations Officer, noted many deciding factors, including the solution’s high configurability to meet the city’s unique needs, the short timeline to go-live, and the completely online workflows that will make work simple and efficient.
“We were looking for a solution to replace our 20-year-old homegrown land management system that still requires citizens to come to City Hall to apply for a permit and for staff to print multiple paper copies at each step of the permitting process. We’re excited that with Clariti, all of our permitting needs will be handled through the online community portal. This will greatly improve the experience for both citizens and staff.”
- Jack Ciulla, Chief Technology Innovations Officer, City of Santa Ana
The city’s Building Safety Manager, Jason Kwak, echoed similar excitement for the project, explaining that as one of the oldest cities in Orange County, Santa Ana’s ageing infrastructure, including its current permitting and land management system, is in need of constant updates. With ongoing infrastructure improvement projects and booming new construction, permitting demands are high: Santa Ana’s estimated annual construction valuation is upwards of between $300 million to $500 million, with an estimated valuation of $1.7 billion over the past five years. In 2020, the city’s building activity was valued at over $492 million.
“Our city is experiencing tremendous growth in construction and building permit activity and because everything is paper-based, the permitting process isn’t as fast and efficient as we’d like. Our staff serves between 80 to 100 people at the counter every day, and plan reviews can take between four to six weeks depending on project complexity. Our goal with Clariti is to streamline the application process, reduce wait times for customers, and offer fully online self-service for applicants who don’t want to come in to apply in-person. The solution will really help staff, too, because they’ll have access to all of the information and tools they need online.”
- Jason Kwak, Building Safety Manager, City of Santa Ana
Partnering with Clariti aligns with one of Santa Ana’s five-year strategic goals to “streamline the methods of providing services to help ensure doing business with the City is easier and more efficient.” The city aims to improve the citizen and staff experience by offering citizens a way to engage with city staff remotely through an online portal and support staff with an easy-to-use, flexible system that will reduce backlogs and meet their evolving needs.
Implementation services for the entire project, including analysis, configuration, integration to third-party systems, data conversion, training, and ongoing support and maintenance, will be provided by Clariti systems integrator Avocette Technologies. The Avocette team is comprised of experienced analysts and developers with extensive experience in the implementation of municipal applications.
“Avocette is looking forward to working alongside the City of Santa Ana in the implementation of the Clariti platform, bringing the City’s vision into reality and providing support to ensure the complete solution will meet the city’s growing needs moving forward.”
- Scott Ross, CEO, Avocette Technologies
Both the Clariti and Avocette Technologies teams are excited to work closely with Santa Ana to deliver exceptional citizen experiences.
Clariti is a 100% software-as-a-service (SaaS) company offering innovative and empowering regulatory solutions for state and local governments. Our industry-leading solutions provide state and local governments with a suite of features and functionality to regulate their permitting, licensing, and inspection capabilities. Trusted by governments of all sizes across North America, Clariti allows agencies to design, automate, and expedite essential workflow processes, and streamline operations to enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
Avocette is a full-service IT company that’s been providing clients with solutions to meet their needs since 1977. We’re experienced in the challenges of permitting and licensing software, as demonstrated in more than 80 successful implementations for local and state governments. Our friendly team of industry experts will work diligently to help you achieve your goals and support these solutions throughout their lifecycle.
Santa Ana is downtown for the world famous Orange County, California. It is the County Seat, the second-most populous city in Orange County, and is home to a vibrant evening scene and arts community. Over 1,200 City employees work hard every day to deliver efficient public services in partnership with our community to ensure public safety, a prosperous economic environment, opportunities for our youth, and a high quality of life for residents. Learn more at www.santa-ana.org.
Jeremy Bosch
Senior Director of Marketing, Clariti
jeremy.bosch@claritisoftware.com
Dover, Delaware
