Terms were not disclosed.
Accela, one of the largest and longest-running technology companies serving state and local government, says that is has “fully integrated” into the Accela Civic Platform such ePermitHub offerings as Digital Plan Room and COMET Version Engine, which provide automation and tracking services for plans. The integration was relatively seamless, as ePermitHub used the Accela platform, Accela CEO Noam Reininger told Government Technology.
"It's almost essentially native," he said of the ePermitHub technology.
Accela customers will gain more access to streamline plan submission and permitting; “enhanced collaboration” via markups, comments, tracked changes and other forms of revision and communications. The company plans to build out automation features backed by artificial intelligence, according to a statement.
That last feature involves such work as making sure construction codes are compliant, making sure people who submit plans are informed about deficiencies before submission, and “quickly analyzing large plan sets to simplify plan reviewers' manual tasks,” according to Accela.
That means public agencies using those tools can shorten the permitting process, which in turns means less staff work and reduced costs, the company said.
"We want to make it smart and easy and very intuitive" for citizens and businesses to access these services, Reininger said.
Accela serves more than 600 agencies.
Last year, it bought permitting technology company OpenCounter from Euna Solutions. OpenCounter’s technology helped businesses and individuals with digital permitting efforts, including zoning lookups and estimation of fees.
The acquisition of ePermitHub is part of the larger goal of Accela to offer what amounts to end-to-end capabilities when it comes to permitting and plan review, Reininger said.
"I think this really sets us up for some time," he said when asked if other acquisitions of similar companies is part of Accela's current plans. "We now have everything we need on the building side."
At around the same time that Accela was buying OpenCounter, Clariti, which sells permitting and licensing tools to public agencies, raised $10 million, another indication of growth in that part of the government technology industry as more agencies bring more digital and mobile tools to these daily tasks.
