The City’s Development Services operations span across a multitude of departments and divisions including Planning, Engineering, Building Inspections, Neighborhood Services, Park Planning, Fire-Rescue, Public Works, and Environmental Health. As a team, they are responsible for managing all permitting, planning and zoning, licensing, code enforcement, and inspections.

After extensive deliberation and careful consideration, City staff is recommending an award to Unisys Corporation, Clariti Cloud, Inc., and Avolve Software for the replacement of the City's current system, TRAKiT. Clariti Cloud, Inc. is the software vendor responsible for supporting, hosting, and enhancing the system, Avolve Software is the software vendor responsible for advanced workflows and markups for electronic plan review, and Unisys Corporation is the software implementation vendor and maintenance provider.

The integrated use of Clariti Cloud, Inc., and Avolve Software solutions will consolidate business operations to a streamlined and unified solution, create an extensive virtual online environment for use by the Plano community, address incompatibility issues with other City systems impacting customer transactions, and bring opportunities for significant improvements to operating efficiency and customer service.

The City’s current solution was first implemented in 2015. Since then, community needs and market demands have evolved, most prominently the capacity to conduct business online. The City contracted with an independent third-party firm in 2021 to conduct an assessment and gap analysis of our current solution. Findings indicated the solution is behind the functionality and technology now accessible and expected by the Plano community from modern solutions. The Development Services team operates in a patchwork environment where less than 30% of the business is performed within the software. Staff engaged the current vendor to address the gaps and City’s concerns but could not establish a path forward to address current and future growth needs.The TRAKiT system has numerous complex workarounds and capability gaps, making it difficult to migrate to a modern and fully enabled system easily and cleanly.

The City took an informed and intentional approach in searching for a replacement system. An evaluation committee consisting of business subject matter experts, technologists, and other stakeholders meticulously examined nine software solutions to address the City's need to acquire a new Development Services Solution that would streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and improve service delivery across our City's permitting, licensing, inspections, and code enforcement functions.

The evaluation process began with thoroughly analyzing the requirements and challenges in managing our current operations and TRAKiT. The team conducted extensive research, consulted with relevant stakeholders, and identified objectives to guide the assessment of the proposals. The evaluation process considered various features such as managing permit applications, license issuance and renewal processes, inspection scheduling and tracking capabilities, code enforcement, workflow management, data integration, reporting functionalities, user experience, technical support, and long-term sustainability.

The team's collaborative effort allowed for a holistic evaluation of the proposals, taking into account the diverse perspectives and needs of the City. After considering all evaluation criteria, three out of the nine vendors were invited to present a demonstration of their system. After the demonstrations, the committee determined that Unisys Corporation, Clariti Cloud, Inc., and Avolve Software provide the best value and functionality for the City.

If not approved, the City must continue to use TRAKiT. Due to outdated technology and security concerns, this would require the City to carry out a comprehensive redeployment of the current software to address the most critical concerns in order to stay operational, though it would lack modern functionality and necessitate extensive manual processes.

This request is for a seven (7) year contract with three (3) one-year City optional renewals to procure a Development Services Software Solution.  Funding for the implementation is available in the Technology Improvements CIP Fund in the estimated amount of $697,049 in FY 2022-23, $1,227,912 in FY 2023-24, and $573,211 in FY 2024-25 for a total cost of $2,498,172. 

Funding for future year maintenance and support is available in the Technology Solutions Applications Budget in the estimated amount of $674,410 for FY 2023-24; $849,282 for FY 2024-25; $873,293 for FY 2025-26; $898,007 for FY 2026-27; $923,444 for FY 2027-28; $949,625 for FY 2028-29; $976,573 for FY 2029-30; $1,004,308 for FY 2030-31; and $1,032,857 for FY 2031-32 for a total cost of $8,181,799.  All future year expenditures will occur within council approved appropriations.  

Approval of this item relates to the City of Plano’s Strategic Plan Critical Success Factors of Excellent, Innovative, and Accountable City Government.