Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission Develops Web-Based Reporting System

For most city governments, regulating land development projects is a massive undertaking. Builders, homeowners, and commercial developers all vie for the attention of limited agency resources as they seek permits and approvals on projects ranging from minor kitchen remodels to massive civic development projects. The trickiest part for overworked city employees is managing a diverse landscape of information in a cohesive way. Zoning laws and building permits are in a constant state of flux, and without an accurate system for storing and exchanging information, many people are left in the dark.

With help from Information Builders and its WebFOCUS reporting technology, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission has improved the way it handles building permits and related data for 14 jurisdictions in Kenton and Campbell counties, Kentucky.

"Our agency faces numerous challenges as we strive to serve multiple legislative bodies," says Michael Schwartz, deputy director for Current Planning at the planning commission. "We needed a way to report on parcel and permit data individually for each city. WebFOCUS enabled us to create a customized reporting environment that streamlines the entire process."

Founded in 1961, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission identifies issues facing the community and then implements plans that will improve the quality of life in both incorporated and unincorporated areas of Kenton and Campbell counties. Dedicated to serving the citizens of northern Kentucky, the commission recommends directions for growth and development for Kenton and Campbell counties over the next twenty years.

Solid BI Technology Anchored by Strong Local Support

Until recently, the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission had a hard time maintaining consistent IT practices among the various legislative bodies of Kenton and Campbell counties. Under Schwartz's guidance, they set out to create an information system that was capable of storing and standardizing all of the planning information for each city, including zoning permits, building permits, code enforcement documents, applications for variances, and appeals.

Soon after they embarked on this important project, the planning commission realized they needed to acquire more robust technology for entering and tracking permit data. "Elected officials wanted to establish a one-stop shop for managing zoning and building permits, powered by a common back-end infrastructure," Schwartz reports. "There are 20 different legislative bodies in Kenton County alone. We knew that by bringing these cities under one umbrella for generating zoning and building permits, we could achieve tremendous economies of scale, since each legislative body wouldn't have to have its own technical experts on staff."

The reporting software needed to work seamlessly with other software products in use within the counties. One of them, called Pentamation, used a proprietary Informix database, which made it difficult for the commission to create customized reports. The Planning Commission evaluated a number of BI vendors in its search for a flexible reporting package. "We needed to supplement the basic Pentamation environment so we could supply additional reports to our various legislative bodies," says Schwartz. "At first we evaluated BI software from Cognos, but it was too expensive an difficult to use."

After that the Planning Commission evaluated WebFOCUS. "We were immediately impressed with the clear and concise capabilities of WebFOCUS," Schwartz states. "It was more intuitive and easier to deploy than the other BI tools and report writers we had used in the past. And because users can access WebFOCUS reports through standard Web browsers, without having to purchase any additional software, it had the perfect architecture for serving our constituent legislative bodies. To top it off, Information Builders was very responsive and had solid local support in our area."

Constructing a Layered Hierarchy of Information

After purchasing the software, the Planning Commission engaged Information Builders Professional Services for help in developing a reporting dashboard for managing zoning and building permits. They used WebFOCUS Visual Discovery to transform permit and parcel data into interactive reports, charts, graphs, and tables. "The consultant worked with us for about two weeks and provided very useful information," Schwartz says.

The Planning Commission went on to create similar dashboards for viewing data about code enforcement information and appeals. These dashboards serve as an intuitive visual interface to a well-organized database, sorted by city. "The great thing about WebFOCUS is that we didn't have to do anything to prepare the data for reporting," adds Schwartz. "All we had to do was point it to our existing databases."

WebFOCUS reads the data directly from the Informix database. For example, one report reveals the number of permits that have been submitted within the last 60 days. It can be sorted by the type of permit and the category of permit. Another report summarizes all permits issued between designated dates.

The dashboards are also linked to a geographic information system (GIS), enabling users to pull up parcel maps along with the associated permits. According to Schwartz, integrating textual reports with images makes the information easier to understand. "We have a very rich database of GIS information that includes parcel data and property identification numbers, which is directly linked to our permit data."

Through the dashboard, users can dynamically change graphical views by selecting, zooming, pivoting, or re-coloring the images, giving them lots of tools for uncovering new relationships within the data. They can also drill down to gather details about a particular property via links to the Pentamation application. Due to the way the database is sorted, it's easy to select data from a particular city or region. "Fort Wright is not concerned about a permit that gets issued in the city of Edgewood, and vice versa," Schwartz points out. "WebFOCUS maintains those distinctions. The basic format of the reports is the same, but the data varies according to the role of the user. WebFOCUS keys off of existing geographic codes within the database to keep each city's data distinct."

An Extensible Architecture that Supports a Dozen Cities

Initially launched in Fort Wright, the agency expects to deploy the reporting system to other cities in the near future. Since adopting WebFOCUS in May 2006, 13 legislative bodies have gotten behind the BI initiative, and others are sure to follow. "The city administrator of Fort Wright was very impressed with the new capabilities," says Schwartz. "WebFOCUS is so easy to use that I was able to bring him up to speed in less than an hour."

Eventually, the Planning Commission wants to extend its BI dashboards to all of the legislative bodies in Kenton and Campbell counties. Based on their experience so far, this undertaking will not be difficult to pull off, partly due to the excellent training classes and local support offered by Information Builders. "Our management team and a few other people took a couple classes with Information Builders, which proved to be very worthwhile," Schwartz explains. "They helped us get a better understanding of what we could do, how it could be done, and how to build the reports for use in the dashboard."

Once the reporting dashboards are fully deployed, they will be used by city administrators, city clerks, public works administrators, and mayors within more than a dozen city governments. Additionally, now that the Planning Commission has proven the power of Web-based reporting, other public entities in the county will undoubtedly be interested in accessing this same information for slightly different needs. "There are a number of agencies that will want this data in the same or a similar way," Schwartz predicts. "For example, the school districts would like to know what kinds of permits are coming their way, so that they can prepare for an influx of school children. The utility districts, sanitation districts, and the water districts will want some of this information as well."

In the not too distant future, Schwartz envisions using WebFOCUS internally for budgeting, zone-change applications, and subdivision plat submittals. "We can use WebFOCUS to access any database, and leverage our GIS system to geographically display the results," he explains. "This system will be useful for many other agencies, particularly those that have to plan five or ten years into the future."

"Information Builders has been very helpful in determining where we want to go and how to get there," Schwartz concludes. "WebFOCUS has empowered us to access data when we need to, which will improve productivity for our city personnel."