The connection streamlines the permitting process for the municipality, its staff and its constituents.
GREENWOOD, Ind. (Dec. 11, 2019) — The Indiana Office of Secretary of State contracted with Woolpert to build application programming interfaces (APIs) to connect Greenwood, Ind., to the INBiz portal. This connection, which recently went live, streamlines the city’s permitting processes internally and externally. Greenwood employs Cityworks Permits, Licensing and Land (PLL) software. The municipality is the first to integrate its local permit management system with the state’s INBiz solution to streamline its permitting processes.
INBiz is a statewide resource that partners with the Office of Secretary of State, Department of Workforce Development and the Department of Revenue to facilitate business registration, management, and compliance with state laws and regulations. Since the portal went live in 2016, it has grown to include nearly 400,000 users.
Woolpert is overseeing the analysis, design, development, and unit testing of identified APIs and integration points with Cityworks and supports the state’s INBiz team as it incorporates these integration tools into the INBiz product. Woolpert Project Manager Roy Interrante said these custom APIs provide the “appropriate hooks” to connect the portal with Greenwood’s Cityworks permit management system. Woolpert Lead Developer Bryan de Jesus added that APIs allow data to be pushed through to a database in a controlled way.
“APIs mimic the user, so you have the advantage of the application’s logic controlling the data entry,” de Jesus said. “We’ve developed APIs in the past for integrating Cityworks with other systems. As the number of Cityworks-offered APIs has grown, our library of custom integration tools has been replaced with out-of-the-box options. When there are not existing APIs for a specific integration requirement, as is the case here, we develop custom APIs.”
Interrante said the APIs created for this project are scalable to other Cityworks PLL solutions. “Essentially, any municipality in the state that uses Cityworks to manage permit applications and wants to integrate with the INBiz portal can connect via these APIs,” he said.
Greenwood GIS Manager Tom Maggard said the integration is a great benefit to the city.
“This integration allows us to leverage the existing customer base, some of which do work in Greenwood, in INBiz,” Maggard said. “This lets those companies create and manage Greenwood permits in an environment in which they are familiar and comfortable, 24 hours a day.”
Cityworks Partner Manager Emily Dux said Woolpert’s technical experience with Cityworks made the firm an essential addition to this project.
“Woolpert knows our software inside and out and has experts who are familiar with all aspects of our product,” Dux said. “It’s one thing to be able to implement a system, and it’s another thing to integrate that system with various external enterprise applications. Developing a robust set of integration tools that are used to build integrations is a whole other level. For that, you really need to understand how our product functions.
“For a complex and groundbreaking project like this, we wanted to make sure it was done right,” she added. “That’s why we brought in Woolpert.”
Interrante noted that connecting Cityworks to application portals like INBiz will be a game-changer for many cities.
“Cityworks has proved to be invaluable to municipalities across the country, digitally organizing and managing permit application processes,” Interrante said. “We are happy to have the capability to extend and improve access to this dynamic software, and we appreciate the faith that Cityworks has in us.”
About Woolpert
Woolpert is committed to a vision to become the premier architecture, engineering and geospatial (AEG) firm, and one of the best companies in the country. It’s a vision we’ve been fine-tuning for decades. It guides our decisions and investments, provides our clients with optimal solutions and offers our employees unrivaled opportunities. Woolpert is recognized as a Great Place to Work by its employees and is America’s fastest-growing AEG firm. With more than a century of experience, close to 1,000 employees and 30 offices, Woolpert supports public, private, federal, and U.S. military clients nationally and around the globe. For more information, visit woolpert.com