Pensacola, FL uses Acta to save 100s of staff hours & increase permit revenue

The City of Pensacola’s Building and Planning staff were spending too much time providing general and case-specific information about permitting to the public over phone and email. But, staff had their own way of communicating information about standard processes that would result in miscommunication and frustration between the customers and staff. Jonathan Bilby, the Director of Building Services and Sherri Morris, Director of Planning, were looking for ways to save staff time on phone calls and emails. They also needed ways to standardize the way staff was communicating with the public so that they could avoid costly misunderstandings by the customer. 

The City’s Building Department uses Acta to communicate to customers about the permitting process, consulting on case-specific questions, providing timeline estimates for permits, and making sure plan review comments actually make it to the customer instead of getting lost in their spam folders. 

“Our customers deserve quality information at each point in the permitting process. With all of the responsibilities we have on a daily basis, Acta helps us assist customers, provide consistent information, and maintain standard operating procedures without us having to think a lot about it.” -Jonathan Bilby, Chief Building Official. 

Within one month of using Acta, both Building and Planning Departments used Acta over 300 times, saved 75 staff hours, and $3,000. Staff is sending good, consistent information to customers, and can focus on higher-value tasks. 

Pensacola accomplished all of this and had a payback period of 1.5 months, using Acta.

‍