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MyGovernmentOnline Permitting Software

jar546

jar546

CBO
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
13,320
Location
Not where I really want to be
Our jurisdiction is switching from SmartGov to MyGovernmentOnline and going live on February 1, 2024. We have reached our limit with SmartGov and although they might be great for a one-man operation with limited permits, however, for multiple departments doing plan review, the workflow is sub-par.

MyGovernmentOnline is out of Louisiana and is actually a government agency that is an actual building department so they are not profit-driven, hence the great pricing. They do what we do and they have been working on and using their own software for the past 18 years. I evaluated their software for over 2 years before committing to the change. There were a few upgrades they were making that I waited for, one of them being the integration with Bluebeam.

So far the buildout has been pretty good, but I do have experience building out permitting software. I will do a review once we go live and have a few months of experience in the real world. I chose to run the existing system until the contract ends at the end of June so the systems will be running parallel for about 4 months or so. This will allow us to close out permits and those contractors that are under the old SmartGov system won't have to relearn another system in the middle of their project. In addition, that allows us time to work on the data migration from the old system to the new which is the Achilles heel of any software change and the most difficult part.

Does anyone have any experience with MyGovernmentOnline (MGO)? I am here at an MGO conference and they are releasing new updates and changes to the system to keep up with and in some instances, lead the industry with workflow and other practical options. I did visit some other municipalities that are using MGO. What I found interesting is that some municipalities are using the bare basics of it and others are using it to its full potential.

Thoughts?
 
I am very interested in this if it will work with Blue Beam. Please let me know your opinion after you have gone live and had a chance to work through the bugs that may be there.
 
UPDATE:

We went live February 1st and are still working out the bugs. In my opinion, MGO expanded too quickly, are spending time creating a new platform and just don't have the staff to handle new implementations, routine maintenance and the massive task of creating a major upgrade. It is functional and certainly a better experience for the public that applies for permits & schedules inspections through their portal but it is coming at a bit of a cost in labor to the Building Department. It is a great system and works well, but ironing out the implementation issues has been more time consuming and delayed than expected. This was without a data migration from our old system. We are still running our old system until June 1st when all the old permits that are left will be migrated.

Anyone else out there working with MGO?
 
mtlogcabin said:
I am very interested in this if it will work with Blue Beam. Please let me know your opinion after you have gone live and had a chance to work through the bugs that may be there.
Click to expand...
It works with Bluebeam, however, the MGO sessions are not actual Bluebeam sessions which is a bit of a learning curve when you are used to working with an actual Bluebeam session. We are still ironing out some kinks.
 
Jar - Looking forward to future updates. Our jurisdiction is about to invite a number of vendors to the table for a discussion regarding replacing our in house built system, likely early in '25. Bluebeam integration would be a big win for us, given how much time our plan review staff have invested in learning how to use BB over the last few years!
 
Ok, so we've been live with MGO since 1 Feb 2024, and all is well. MGO has a major upgrade coming in the next few months, and the software I agreed to and what we will be getting will be even better. Looking forward to the upgrade. Has anyone else taken the plunge with MGO?
 
We have been using the MGO permitting software for over 1 1/2 years. I must say that we are rather happy with the move. All of the data from the previous software was moved over correctly from the beginning, and we were able to iron out the wrinkles rather quickly. There are always issues whenever you change software companies, so this one was less painful than others I have experienced. There were some major benefits and changes along the way.

First of all, we paid $0 for the implementation, which is unheard of in this industry. Next, we went live with their long-standing legacy product while the new upgrade was in process. This was not an update, which is routine; this is a major upgrade to the system. The customer portal was finished first, and we are implementing some finishing touches on the back office of MGO with this new upgrade. They took something great and made it better.

We were logging into MyPermitNow, but the major upgrade changed it to MGOconnect. It is faster, more modern-looking, and has increased ergonomics and usability. There were a ton of new features implemented based on our recommendations and feedback from other jurisdictions. No permit software is perfect, but with MGO, they listen and make necessary changes. I've encountered other permitting software companies that had active deficiencies in their programs, causing problems, and recorded them as "enhancement requests" as though there were no issues. That is not the case with MGO. MGO is a government agency that does what we do for a living, has its own Building Official, so it knows the struggles we have on our end.

As MGO rounds the corner with their new, massive upgrade, I would highly recommend that you give them a try. The prices are extremely reasonable, no matter what size department you have. Their ability to integrate with Adobe and Bluebeam for plan review is like the icing on the cake. I get absolutely nothing for giving them praise and recommending them, so this is from the heart. I've even flown to their headquarters and worked directly with their CTO to help refine the project and provide another aspect to how the system is and can be used. This is how receptive they are to always improving.

If you want to check them out, Click Here To Try MGO
 
jar546 said:
We have been using the MGO permitting software for over 1 1/2 years. I must say that we are rather happy with the move. All of the data from the previous software was moved over correctly from the beginning, and we were able to iron out the wrinkles rather quickly. There are always issues whenever you change software companies, so this one was less painful than others I have experienced. There were some major benefits and changes along the way.

First of all, we paid $0 for the implementation, which is unheard of in this industry. Next, we went live with their long-standing legacy product while the new upgrade was in process. This was not an update, which is routine; this is a major upgrade to the system. The customer portal was finished first, and we are implementing some finishing touches on the back office of MGO with this new upgrade. They took something great and made it better.

We were logging into MyPermitNow, but the major upgrade changed it to MGOconnect. It is faster, more modern-looking, and has increased ergonomics and usability. There were a ton of new features implemented based on our recommendations and feedback from other jurisdictions. No permit software is perfect, but with MGO, they listen and make necessary changes. I've encountered other permitting software companies that had active deficiencies in their programs, causing problems, and recorded them as "enhancement requests" as though there were no issues. That is not the case with MGO. MGO is a government agency that does what we do for a living, has its own Building Official, so it knows the struggles we have on our end.

As MGO rounds the corner with their new, massive upgrade, I would highly recommend that you give them a try. The prices are extremely reasonable, no matter what size department you have. Their ability to integrate with Adobe and Bluebeam for plan review is like the icing on the cake. I get absolutely nothing for giving them praise and recommending them, so this is from the heart. I've even flown to their headquarters and worked directly with their CTO to help refine the project and provide another aspect to how the system is and can be used. This is how receptive they are to always improving.

If you want to check them out, Click Here To Try MGO

I was impressed with how MGO handled the upgrade and integrations, and it reminded me that companies like those featured on https://www.cogniteq.com/blog/top-iot-companies specialize in exactly this kind of complex, scalable IoT-driven solutions for real-world use.
Click to expand...
I’ve noticed one of the biggest pain points with MGO isn’t just speed, but how inconsistent the inspection scheduling works when multiple departments overlap. In my case it created double bookings that no one caught until weeks later. The only workaround I found was exporting daily schedules into a separate calendar system just to keep things straight, which kind of defeats the whole idea of streamlining. Has anyone else tried integrating it with external tools to reduce that chaos?
 
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