[September 04, 2014]

Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Selects Accela Civic Platform

Accela, the leading provider of civic engagement solutions for government, today announced the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) will deploy the Accela Civic Platform. The Accela (News - Alert) solution will replace legacy technologies to support the department's statewide licensing system, which serves the state's 9.7 million residents and one of the most diverse agricultures in the country.

In its dual role of regulator and marketer, MDARD provides citizens of the Great Lakes State with quality services and information. The department is comprised of six divisions that use a customer-driven and solution-oriented approach. Divisions are dedicated to cultivate and expand new economic opportunities for the food and agricultural sector; to safeguard the public's food supply; to inspect and enforce sound animal health practices; to control and eradicate plant pests and diseases; to preserve the environment by which the farming community makes their living and feeds consumers; and to protect consumers by enforcing laws relating to weights and measures.

MDARD will utilize Accela Licensing and Case Management solutions on the Civic Platform to merge licensing and inspection systems. By providing the highest level of configurability and flexibility to meet standard licensing and inspection needs, the solutions will streamline the issuance, tracking, and enforcement and inspections of licensesand businesses MDARD regulates. The department will also be able to easily create new license, inspection, case types and business rules associated with future regulations, statutory requirements and internal procedures. The State will also utilize:

Accela Citizen Access: A cost-effective way to move traditional counter and call center services to the web, providing citizens with easy and convenient multi-language online access to the County's permitting, building and planning information and activities.

Accela Mobile Office: Designed specifically for field use and leveraging the latest in mapping technology, Accela Mobile Office will help agency staff create inspections, investigations and code enforcement cases from the field. Department field workers will be supported by Accela GIS, which integrates Esri ArcGIS maps with the Civic Platform.

Accela GIS: Provides a robust solution utilizing the State's geospatial data to improve decision-making and help streamline processes. Accela GIS provides a geographic view of all licensing, inspection and case activities managed through the Civic Platform against map data managed and maintained in the State's Esri ArcGIS.

MDARD joins a growing number of government agencies that leverage the Civic Platform to manage civic functions for Land and Asset Management, Licensing, Legislative Management, Recreation and Resource Management and Public Health and Safety.

"We're very pleased to expand our longstanding partnership with the State of Michigan," said Maury Blackman, Accela CEO and president. "We look forward to continuing to support the State in its efforts to provide excellent service to its citizens and its incredibly diverse agricultural community."

About Accela

At Accela, we believe that engagement makes all the difference. We're ushering in a new era where democracy thrives when government works directly with the people, coming to citizens on their terms through mobile devices, social media and networks, and open data. By streamlining critical agency functions like land and asset management, licensing, legislative management, resource and recreation management, right of way management and public health and safety, the Accela Civic Platform bridges the gap between agencies and citizens. We help build better communities by powering thousands of services and millions of transactions daily for agencies of all sizes.

Accela is headquartered in San Ramon, California, with offices in San Francisco, New York, Melbourne and Dubai. For more information, visit www.accela.com.

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