Permits in Buffalo

[WNYresident]

Remember they were talking about cutting down the time/work it is to get a permit in buffalo?

Check them out.

http://www.citizenserve.com/Main/index.htm

[SolarEclipse]

That's a great idea! Except that the county would have to hire a Director of CitizenServe, Deputy Director of CitizenServe, Assistant Deputy Director of CitizenServe, and 3 or 4 software developers to manage the link to that site.

[Linda_D]

Originally posted by SolarEclipse
That's a great idea! Except that the county would have to hire a Director of CitizenServe, Deputy Director of CitizenServe, Assistant Deputy Director of CitizenServe, and 3 or 4 software developers to manage the link to that site.

None of whom would have any qualifications for their jobs except that they were friends or family of Joel Giambra!

As a computer "guru" of sorts, I've "been there, done that" and can say that the up-front costs -- hardware, software implementation, and staff training -- for a project like this would be expensive. The long term benefits, though, would more than make up for it. Technology is cheap; personnel is expensive.

The really sad part of this is that using this kind of technology is not only a solution to so many problems but that a city like Buffalo could use its block grant money to get it (of course, then it would have less to give to Bass Pro and other developers)!

[SolarEclipse]

Actually, if you read their site - it's a hosted service. So there are no hardware or software costs. Just licensing and training.

[Linda_D]

There would have to be new hardware on the user's end; I doubt that there are many lap tops in Buffalo Building/Code Enforcement department (maybe not even many PCs, except in the offices of managers who only use them to send email).

There are also networking and security issues with any purchased software. Where would the Buffalo data be stored? How secure is it from hackers? How reliable is the hosting site? Licensing fees can run to big bucks, and those don't go away. That there are lots of issues just shows how complex this can get -- and rest assured that this isn't the only vendor offering this kind software/service.