Des Moines Upgrades Permitting, Licensing and Inspection System

The City of Des Moines, Iowa, will be performing a legacy system upgrade of its permitting, licensing, and inspection system with new software – EnerGov, made by Tyler Technologies. EnerGov  will modernize the current system – named Tidemark – which has been in use since 2001. The new system will be able to process more than 70 kinds of government transactions – such as construction permits, liquor licenses, rental certificates, nuisance enforcement, and event permits.

The new software will also enable residents to make payments, file applications and requests, and upload plans digitally.  It will have a public-facing portal for residents to check the progress of their licensing requests and applications. According to the city, EnerGov will be used to manage over 50,000 cases per year by five city departments. EnerGov will be integrated with the city’s geographic information system (GIS) to represent data spatially. Examples of  spatial data include showing locations of construction projects, flood damaged properties, and public nuisance structures; and mapping inspection routes.  A number of mobile applications are built into the system to provide real time updates in the field, decrease inspector office time, and increase inspection hours.

Chief Information Officer Anna Whipple stated in a council session that the new software  is a “highly anticipated” upgrade over the current software the city uses, which is no longer supported. The transition was initially approved in 2018, but was delayed primarily due to the pandemic. The new system cost $2 million and is expected to go live on June 21st of this year.