Biz services going online in Detroit: Website takes city from ‘1950 to 2011'
Ask any business owner what he or she would like Detroit Mayor Dave Bing to accomplish, and you'll likely get two answers: Cut red tape for business, and ramp up code enforcement.
Now, a new city website aims to do just that.
The rollout of an overhaul of the city's Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department that will place most departmental services online already has started. And a similar upgrade for the Department of Administrative Hearings -- the department that handles blight violations -- is in the planning stage.
Combined, the two have the potential to transform the city, said Karla Henderson, Bing's group executive for planning and facilities.
"None of this information was on the Web before," she said.
Detroit-based Compuware Corp. is building the roughly $2 million building department system. A cost for the proposed changes to the Department of Administrative Hearings service hasn't been determined. Compuware will do that work, too.
When both systems are running, Henderson said, city officials will be able to pull the records for a piece of property "very easily, and look at all the violations ... solid waste went out there, property maintenance went out there, they had a hearing on this date. Right now we don't have that, where we all talk to each other."
In fact, most of the city's business services still are not online, she said.
To renew a business license or to pull permits for contracting work, it's necessary for a business owner or homeowner to come to the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center, fill out a form -- some date back to the 1970s -- and stand in line to submit the form, a process that can take a half-day or more.
When the new system is in place, the same process will take four to five minutes, said Thotakura Kishore, senior director of global delivery at Compuware.
"This is a complete redevelopment of the process, the way the department works," said Jeffrey Sanscrainte, director of business development for government at Compuware.
The city issues between 45,000 and 50,000 permits and 20,000 to 25,000 business licenses annually.
Continued at: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article...akes-city-from
