"The City of Midland, Texas has been using EnvisionConnect since 2008. Prior to our selection of EnvisionConnect, our agency used a mainframe-based system that was originally designed for other purposes, but had been adapted in an attempt to suit our needs.

Our department is relatively small, and we don’t have dedicated IT staff at our disposal. Too, this was our department’s first conversion from one system to another; moving to EnvisionConnect represented significant change, and made a lot of staff a little nervous.

Our Implementation Experience

Decade led us through it in a very professional manner. During our Needs Analysis, and later, our training, Decade staff patiently explained the options EnvisionConnect provides, and made recommendations based on a full understanding of our processes and procedures.

The City of Midland did not have the capabilities to convert existing data electronically, so we decided to key in all of our records. However, we needed to obtain the latest information from our regulated entities. Although it wasn’t part of our Statement of Work, Decade provided and tuned the MS Word documents we mailed to update our records.

On top of that, using the Page Layout Editor, they designed the data entry screens to match the MS Word document format and fields. They pointed out that without matching the EnvisionConnect’s data entry forms to the MS Word document, our data entry was going to take more time than it should. That attention to detail makes a big difference – and is what I like about Decade. We now use the Page Layout Editor to make our own changes; we don’t have to wait for Decade to make them for us.

Something else worth mentioning concerning EnvisionConnect’s implementation is how well planned and executed it was. Decade’s twenty-plus years of experience shows – we knew what to expect, when to expect it and what to do to achieve it, whatever ‘it’ happened to be at that time.

The Day to Day Difference

Day to day use of EnvisionConnect has helped us in so many ways; it is hard to pick out the top few:

• Our inspectors can check financial, violation, and permit status in the field – they don’t have to call the office or rely on the operator’s assurances. This issue dogged us for many years prior to EnvisionConnect.
• Our regulated community is impressed with the financial system’s capabilities. The level of detail and history it provides has made our back office more efficient and less stressful. Our invoices and permits reflect a professional and competent organization. As well, since we can now respond to billing complaints by easily e-mailing invoices, statements and account histories in PDF format, we have reduced the number of times we are asked to ‘prove it’.
• We like the ability to link complaints to facility records. But, we really like the ability to link the complaint to the specific record that represents the regulated program against which the complaint was made.
• If we have a question or idea we’d like to implement, Decade’s staff is accessible and responsive. They know our ‘business’ and it shows."

Juan Davila, Lead Public Health Inspector, Midland Health & Senior Services

< All Stories                                                                                   Next Story >