Case Summary
The City of Oakland, California was founded in 1852 and is
a full-service city with an estimated population of 415,492.
Oakland is located in Northern California in the San
Francisco Bay Area, the sixth-most-populous metropolitan
area in the United States.
Oakland is the eighth largest city in California and serves as
the county seat for Alameda County. Based upon 2006
statistical data, Oakland is the third largest city in the San
Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose and San Francisco.
2007 revenue for transient occupancy, business, parking,
excess litter, rent adjustment & utility tax reached over $200
million.
Oakland is a major west coast port and home to several
fortune 500 companies including Kaiser Permanente &
Clorox as well as corporate headquarters for national
retailers like Dreyer’s and Cost Plus World Markets.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, the California cities of
Oakland & Long Beach, are the most ethnically diverse in
the United States, with over 150 languages spoken in
Oakland.
Oakland offers a temperate and seasonally arid
Mediterranean climate. Attractions include Jack London
Square, the Oakland Museum of California, the Chabot
Space & Science Center, Lake Merritt and Chinatown.
The city has standardized on Microsoft® technology
including Windows®, SQL Server and Office. Progressive
Solutions® Incorporated (PSI), the city selected application
vendor, incorporates Microsoft® standards to ensure
reliable, robust & progressively improving software.
Progressive Solutions®,
developer of the QuickServe™ Suite,
brings heightened security, efficiency and
convenience to users. PSI has incorporated next generation
hardware and software technology enabling market-ready
governmental enterprise solutions. Based in Brea, CA, the
company distributes their product through an extensive
network of value added reseller channels and has entered
into strategic partnerships.
The Project:
The revenue collections staff at the City of
Oakland is known for ensuring that those who owe the city
taxes pay their fair share. Staff struggled with outdated
home grown business registration software for many years.
After over a decade of searching for adaptable commercial
software, staff concluded that no vendor to date offered
adequate flexibility, breadth and depth. Fortunately, PSI
contacted the city and offered a demonstration. The city
conducted extensive user evaluations. Staff concluded that
the combination of PSI technology and customer service
were exceptional. Clearly PSI was willing and able to meet
all of Oakland’s stringent requirements.
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Terry Adelman serves as the city’s Revenue Manager and
supervises 50 staff members. According to Terry, "PSI’s
references substantiated PSI’s impressive representations
and their 29 years of experience increased our confidence
that our implementation would be successful.
Numerous customizations
were tailored to our exact
needs simultaneously with the conversion of our legacy
data. PSI customizations made sure funds were not
commingled thereby facilitating compliance with the city
municipal code. Our experience with PSI was identical to
the experiences of those we contacted. While our old
system was unable to calculate certain fees per the
municipal code, PSI ability to easily perform these
calculations exactly per the code is expected to result in an
annual $225,000 revenue increase. Calculations of multiyear
penalties and interest are quick and easy. PSI also
implemented several
high speed document scanners
which instantly attach documents directly to tax accounts
saving substantial staff time previously required for
document filing and retrieval. PSI’s products are
light
years ahead of our previous software and all other
software we have reviewed. PSI’s service continues to
exceed our expectations!
Our previous revenue collections software was
cumbersome and lacked numerous features such as:
automated journal entries, automated zip plus four address
validation, ability to integrate business registration with
transient occupancy, utility, parking, excess litter fees and
rent adjustments. PSI’s enterprise business tax system
consolidates eight previously independent/separate tax
software systems into one high quality tightly integrated
solution.
PSI has reduced the labor required for operations and
provided city staff with valuable tools to audit accounts and
to further automate the import of tax payments (lockbox
processing). The city desired a full featured application that
could integrate with their general ledger package, provide
flexible ad-hoc reporting and offer the efficient means to
notify and track individual account activity. With PSI, the
revenue division has achieved its goals."
LicenseTrack™,
revenue collections software from
Progressive Solutions®
has enabled the city to reap the
benefits of improved automation of their Revenue
Collections operation. Upgrades and minimal report
customizations are included in the annual support so ad
hoc requirements do not require additional mid year
budgeting.
The Future:
The city has selected PSI’s MailCentral™
product to maximize the automation of outgoing mailings
for the 2009 Business Registration and the Rental
Adjustment Programs. As needs and technologies
continue to evolve at the City of Oakland, Bill Milny,
Revenue Analyst, is confident PSI will be there to assist the
city with their changing needs and will continue in their
mission to continuously enhance the software.
PROGRESSIVE SOLUTIONS®
P O Box 783 Brea, Ca 92822-0783
714-671-1597
sales@progressivesolutions.com
www.progressivesolutions.com
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