MODEL # 98-10

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VOICE RESPONSE AUTOMATED INSPECTION SYSTEM
CITY OF CEDAR PARK, TEXAS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Jurisdiction Statistics:

• Population: 20,384
• Size (square miles): 17.5
• Dollar Amount of Construction Per Year: $156 million
• % Construction:

• Commercial- 18%; Residential- 82%

Regulatory Areas:

• Automation

PROBLEM:

Procedural Streamlining - Internal and External Communication

The Building Inspection Department of the City of Cedar Park was faced with a challenge that many other communities face: how to provide better customer service to a rapidly growing community with limited clerical help and the goal of saving budget dollars. Scheduling inspections, obtaining the status of completed inspections, and contacting inspectors while out were problems for customers, especially beyond the normal business day. Inspectors spent considerable time traveling back to the office to update the permit system, and the process of updating was cumbersome. Information from the permit system was not always up to date.

SOLUTION:

Automated Telephone Answering System

The Department attacked this problem by improving its communications system with the "Voice Response Automated Inspection System."

DESCRIPTION:

The Voice Response Automated Inspection System is a computer-based telephone interactive system designed to automate the day-to-day activities of the building inspection office. The system has three main features:

1. To allow a contractor or other authorized person to call the building inspection office from the field to request an inspection without building inspection office personnel involvement.

2. To allow a contractor or other authorized person to call the building inspection office and to obtain the status of a completed inspection.

3. To allow an inspector to call the building inspection office from the field to update the status of a requested inspection with a passing code or a violation code.

The system's functions are summarized as follows:

• Ability to request an inspection 24 hours a day;
• Ability to check the status of an inspection 24 hours a day;
• If the inspection was not approved, then the contractor can hear up to five reasons why;
• Provides daily inspection request log;
• Inspectors have the ability to update the system via mobile phone from the field;
• Files are automatically updated, taking some of the workload from the clerical staff and providing a better system of record keeping;
• Daily reports are given to appropriate utilities for connection;
• Better communication between the inspection department and customers is obtained through each inspector having a pager and mobile phone in all vehicles.

The equipment is furnished by Execu-Ware and consists of an IBM compatible PC with an additional plug-in board designed to answer four lines at one time. Three phone answering cards may be plugged into one PC for a total answering capacity of 12 lines. All messages are pre-recorded in digital form on the hard disk and played back to the caller according to a pre-programmed script.

The phone answering part of the system can be stand alone or can be integrated into a local area network. Some interface work is required if this system is to get its information from an existing software package. This usually requires the existing software package to export a few pieces of information to an ASCII file for technician's use.

Reports include, but are not limited to:

• Total inspections by any inspector
• Total inspections performed
• Total inspections failed
• Total inspections requested by any one contractor
• Total calls taken by the system for any one period

RESULTS:

The submitting party reports that with the system implemented, the department has saved time because the staff does not have to manually input inspection requests nor spend excessive time on the phone. This creates more quality time available for other customer service and projects. Record-keeping has improved, making the whole system more accurate, timely, and hassle-free. This increased productivity and morale, while preventing the hire of additional personnel.

The submitting party also reports that the Department has had great support and interaction with other Departments and the City Manager.

EVALUATION BY STREAMLINING COMMITTEES:

Advantages

• Easy installation;
• Low cost to acquire and operate;
• Jurisdictions that adopt this program will experience time reductions due to quicker customer response, and cost savings and productivity increase due to removal of support staff from the process.

Drawbacks

• Must be coupled with a good permit issuing and tracking system.

The Streamlining Committees designated this program as a streamlined model with the following modifications: "This model should be considered as a second step in the automation process. A good permit tracking system should be implemented first. This should also include a notation that significant advances in technology have taken place and that there are many generic packages available. Interactive Voice Response (IVR) should be considered without endorsement of this specific package."

IMPLEMENTATION:

This program was implemented by city council action, and put into place at a cost of $12,000.

FOR MORE INFORMATION OR ASSISTANCE IN CONSIDERING THE USE OF THIS MODEL, PLEASE CONTACT:

Robert A. Packheiser
Building Inspection Director
City of Cedar Park
600 N. Bell Blvd.
Cedar Park, TX 78613
Phone: (512) 258-2530, ext. 6238
FAX: (512) 258-1471
Email: packheiser@ci.cedar-park.tx.us

Or NCSBCS STAFF:
Carolyn Fitch
National Conference of States on Building Codes and Standards
505 Huntmar Park Drive, Suite 210
Herndon, VA 20170
Phone: (703) 467-2048
FAX: (703) 481-3596
Email: cfitch@ncsbcs.org