Buoyed by the latest round of stimulus funds delivered in the American Rescue Plan Act, your city is ready to put those dollars to use to maintain the critical government services City Hall provides every day.
But instead of just maintaining the ways you’ve always delivered those services, how about transforming them? Think of it as moving from permitting as civic service to permitting as civic investment.
From making permitting more accessible to helping drive economic development in your city and reducing cost, OpenCounter is ready to partner with your agency to transform your operations and make it easier to do the important work your team performs every day.
Here are five ways your city will benefit from procuring OpenCounter with American Rescue Plan funds.
1. You’ll have a virtual permitting counter that’s open 24/7/365.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. So regardless of the future twists and turns we may experience as a result of COVID-19 in the months and years ahead, it’s essential to make your permitting operations as agile as possible while also giving constituents the permit discovery info they need without having to take countless trips to City Hall.
With OpenCounter’s “one-stop-shop” for all things permitting, we make it easy for anyone to understand:
- site selection
- permit coordination
- cost estimations
- how and where to apply
And the best part? Your constituents can do that online, from any device, anywhere — at any time.
2. Your staff will save thousands of hours answering repetitive permit discovery questions.
When your constituents can quickly get the info they need for their projects with OpenCounter, there are far fewer questions for City Hall to handle. That means thousands or even tens of thousands of hours saved every year. And once your teams are no longer flooded with those early-stage inquiries about hypothetical or potential scenarios, they’re free to focus on actual projects driving real business development and revenue in your city.
3. You’ll remove the barriers to your city’s economic development and recovery.
If entrepreneurs can’t navigate your city’s business formation process, chances are you’ll lose those development opportunities to your business-friendly neighbors. And that means lost jobs and tax revenues.
But with OpenCounter, you can take your zoning and permitting operations to the next level. Our ZoningCheck™ transforms site selection into an easy process that applicants can complete in minutes — not weeks. And our Business Portal expertly guides applicants through the entire permit discovery process, making it possible for anyone to fully scope a new business in less than seven minutes!
4. You’ll add transparency to your operations.
OpenCounter takes the pain out of permit approval for municipal teams. We know every department can have its own office hours, approval processes, and systems of record, which means applications can easily fall through the cracks as they’re manually routed from department to department.
But with OpenCounter’s consolidated dashboard and automated workflows, we’ll bring all of the departments involved in your city’s permitting together to seamlessly keep the cascade of approvals moving — from Planning and Development Services to the Treasury, Fire Department, and beyond.
5. With purse strings tightened, you’ll help your staff do more with less.
Modernizing your city’s permitting to add internal efficiency and create a superior constituent experience doesn’t have to mean increasing City Hall’s headcount, office hours, or budget.
Not only will OpenCounter drive efficiency and collaboration across City Hall — remember those thousands of hours staff will save — but our cloud-based solutions can mean considerable cost savings for your city. No more investing in tech infrastructure that will be out-of-date next year. No more paying for extra servers or other hardware (or the electricity to power them). And when you need to update any of your zoning and municipal codes, we’ll do that free of charge for the duration of your OpenCounter subscription.
OpenCounter: Your Permit Discovery Partner
See for yourself how OpenCounter can modernize your zoning, permitting, and licensing systems, leading to greater efficiency for City Hall, cost savings — and happier citizens. Get in touch today to schedule a discovery session and learn more about using your American Rescue Plan funds to procure OpenCounter.
