New development software saves Town staff time, paper; increases accuracy, efficiency.

Media Contact: Kristin Zagurski
Oct. 21, 2008 kzagurski@CRgov.com
720-733-3552
720-290-2283

Building inspections in Castle Rock generate only one piece of paper and take a lot less staff time now that the Town is using the latest community development software.

The previous system was labor intensive and involved a considerable amount of paper use, said Ken Swanson, the Town’s building inspection supervisor.

“Probably the worst thing is it wasn’t very accurate and didn’t give us reports that were needed by staff and Council,” he said.

With that program, building inspectors hand-wrote notes in the field and gave them to permit technicians back at the office, who entered them into a computer. And then, it was difficult to generate reports from the “obsolete” system, Swanson said.

That all changed recently, when the Town launched CRW Systems’ TRAKiT software.
The program’s functions include land-use, permitting, business licensing, contractor registration and overall project management.

It’s used not only by building inspectors and others in the Development Services Department but also by the Public Works, Utilities, Fire, Legal and Parks and Recreation departments.

Before, there was no central system used to track development projects – each department tracked projects independently. Now, all information on any given project is in the same place and accessible to all the departments, which can track projects and can add “red flags” and other notes to the files.

And by the end of the year, the public will be able to access project information via an open Web program that allows users to track a project’s status.

The new software, which cost about $300,000, is more accurate and efficient. Now, when a permittee calls for an inspection, the request is entered directly into the system and electronically assigned to an inspector. Inspectors use laptops in the field to enter notes and print one sheet of paper from inside their vehicles at the end of each inspection.

Said Inspector Marshall Hall: “I’ve learned more about computers in the past few weeks than I’ve ever known. It’s a great system.”

Check CRgov.com soon for the launch of the public component of the system, called eTRAKit.