Case study
The City of San Diego partnered with OpenCounter to streamline the process of starting a new business. The goal was to provide a tool that would educate entrepreneurs about the requirements and costs of their projects, and spare them from unnecessary trips to City Hall.
Erik Caldwell, the City’s Economic Development Director, recently shared the genesis of the project:
According to the Department of Economic Development, two things have come out of the implementation: the tool is proving to be more valuable for the City than just the customer experience, in that the information collected about people going through the process has been invaluable. Secondly, the tool has helped staff to be more proactive from a service delivery perspective. As Director Caldwell noted:
Although there were concerns about automating the process–both in terms of accuracy of information and displacement of staff time–the tool has been embraced by Development Services staff, as it has proven to be highly accurate, and allows them to focus on big projects, instead of answering repetitive questions about zoning or permit fees.
Furthermore, by reducing the friction in the permitting process, the City hoped to accelerate local job creation and maximize the impact of its economic development efforts. As Mayor Faulconer put it:
In the last three years, the San Diego Business Portal has been used to scope:
93,437
zoning lookups
51,481
business permitting projects
47,499
estimated staff hours saved
Learn more about how you can implement OpenCounter in your city.
