The city of Portland has hit the “reset” button on the effort to streamline its costly and circuitous building permit process, bringing in new personnel and even renaming the project.

The Information Technology Advancement Project (ITAP) is now the Portland Online Permitting System (POPS). It’s currently in a six-month “assessment” phase to examine what has worked and where the project went wrong, according to Jen Clodius, senior management analyst for the Office of Management and Finance.

“Frankly, it is rebranding,” she said. “And also frankly, ‘Portland Online Permitting System’ means a whole lot more to people (than) whatever ‘ITAP’ was.”

The project will now be overseen by Laurie Levy (pronounced Lev-I), a former manager at the Bureau of Technology Services. Also, both the Bureau of Development Services and the BTS will guide the project. Other staffing changes could come at the close of the discovery phase. It’s also possible the project could be broken into smaller, more manageable pieces.

A rebranded system should provide users a more positive experience, said Jeff Baer, head of BTS.

“Over the next five months, the team is really going to be focused on this discovery project,” he said. “It will thoroughly vet the status of work that’s been done to date. We’re going to establish very strong planning and governance structure, and look at options as we move forward.”

POPS is intended to digitize all the city’s permit records and allow online access to case management documents.

“As you can see, it’s a fairly complex project,” said Wilfred Pinfold, a retired Intel director now serving on the city’s Technology Oversight Committee. “It’s been a tough year to get here, but we’re now in a good position.”

Pinfold updated the Portland City Council on projects overseen by the TOC. He said he expects POPS’ progress ahead to be “incremental.”

The anticipated project completion date was pushed back several times, and the budget has swollen from $8 million to nearly $12 million.

“It has been a tough year for the ITAP project,” Pinfold said. “I feel like the right things have been done, and I’m feeling that this is the first time the TOC has been able to come to this table optimistic about the ITAP project.”

Compounding the difficulties is the fact that many city offices are affected. Employees ranging from fire inspectors to water inspectors are involved in the permit process.

Another problem is that technology changes fast, and much has changed in the five years since the project began. The goals for ITAP were so lofty, Clodius said, that it’s likely the system would have been outdated as soon as it opened to the public.

Last summer the city severed ties with its contractor, Sierra Systems.

Portland’s former ITAP manager, Rebecca Sponsel, no longer works for the city.

The post Portland rebrands effort to digitize permit system appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A project to streamline Portland’s permitting process is on hold indefinitely because of a string of issues.

Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who oversees the Bureau of Development Services, announced at Wednesday’s City Council meeting that the Information Technology Advancement Project (ITAP) was in “full stop mode.”

The council accepted the latest quarterly report of the city’s citizen technology project oversight committee. Members have expressed concerns with ITAP’s duration and cost, among other issues.

ITAP was first proposed in 2012 with an initial budget of $8.2 million, including $2.7 million in vendor services and software license costs. A report by the city auditor in 2014 confirmed that the bureau’s policies and practices were not always in line with city code.

The ITAP project began by ordinance in 2012, with completion anticipated for May 2015. BDS officials have claimed subsequent issues with the initial vendor have caused the cost to climb to above $12 million, and the completion date was pushed further and further off.

Commissioner Amanda Fritz was moved away from managing BDS in 2013 when incoming Mayor Charlie Hales reshuffled bureau assignments among the council. She told her replacement, Saltzman, on Wednesday that he was right to scrap the plan that began under her watch.

“It clearly is now time to say that what you purchased is not working out and cannot be made to work, and I appreciate you making that decision, commissioner, and moving on,” she said.

BDS Director Paul Scarlett said the project proved to be “unfeasible.”

“In short, we wish it was further along,” he said. “We acknowledge that and we feel that we have a good plan by having an independent assessment and really looking at what makes the most sense moving forward,” he said.

The post Portland puts paperless permitting project on hold appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Portland’s yearslong foray into paperless permitting has hit another snag.

The Bureau of Development Services let its contract with Sierra-Cedar Inc. of Georgia run out this month after the software vendor failed to timely deliver elements of the Information Technology Advancement Project – an effort to streamline and modernize the city’s permitting system.

The BDS is in the process of compiling a revised project budget and timeline, which it expects to take to City Council for approval by late fall, according to BDS spokeswoman Colleen Poole.

In 2010, the council got the ball rolling on the Information Technology Advancement Project, which was intended to digitize records, and allow project leaders to submit documents electronically. The next year the city conducted competitive bidding, and selected Sierra Systems (now Sierra-Cedar) along with three companies chosen to work under Sierra’s contract.

To date, the project has cost the city nearly $4 million. The anticipated completion date has been pushed back from 2015 to 2018. Three city commissioners have headed the effort.

The project most recently went before the City Council in December, when BDS director Paul Scarlett was questioned by commissioners about progress.

BDS officials are now working to procure new vendors and conduct an internal assessment of remaining scope of work while continuing with scheduled work.

The post Portland ditches paperless permitting contractor appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.