How Avondale, AZ Achieved Improved Efficiency, Solution Utility, and Satisfaction

Challenge:

The City of Avondale, Arizona, was facing significant challenges with the underutilization of its Accela Civic Platform, resulting in widespread staff frustration and inefficiencies. Although the City had leveraged Accela for over 14 years across multiple departments - including Building, Engineering, Fire, Planning, and Finance - the system’s full potential remained largely untapped due to gaps in understanding, training, and workflow alignment.

As the City’s population neared 100,000 and service demands grew, these challenges became more pronounced. Staff voiced ongoing concerns ranging from vague dissatisfaction to specific issues such as slow system performance, missing or inaccessible reports, limited awareness of platform capabilities, and inconsistent collaboration between departments.

Without a clear framework for identifying pain points or aligning priorities, teams struggled to make meaningful improvements. The result was a fragmented user experience, reduced efficiency, and diminished confidence in the system’s value - all of which created unnecessary challenges for the City in delivering services to its citizens.

Solution:

To address these challenges, the City of Avondale engaged GovPath to conduct a comprehensive Business Process Review (BPR) aimed at pinpointing root causes and unlocking the full potential of its Accela Civic Platform. The primary objectives were to streamline workloads, strengthen interdepartmental and customer communication, and deliver actionable recommendations for process optimization and staff training.

GovPath facilitated more than a dozen collaborative sessions with staff across departments, reviewed the system’s configuration, and conducted a thorough assessment of business processes and actionable requirements. This in-depth analysis culminated in a 70+ page report detailing prioritized findings and recommendations - providing the City with a clear, strategic roadmap for operational improvement.

During the initial phase, GovPath’s collaborative sessions were intentionally software-agnostic, focused on identifying best practices and designing processes that aligned with the City’s goals. As those needs became clear, Accela was then factored into the final recommendations as the optimal solution to support and enable the City’s refined business processes.

The BPR process not only identified inefficiencies but also established a unified understanding of system capabilities, enabling the City to align resources, clarify priorities, and track progress toward measurable outcomes.

To ensure sustained progress, the City also invested in GovPath Managed Services and Professional Services, gaining access to a dedicated resource supporting all Accela-related corrective maintenance within the current solution, and a professional services team for larger enhancement projects. This blended approach empowered Avondale to act on recommendations efficiently, complete smaller enhancements quickly, and move forward with confidence - ensuring every effort and investment aligned with City needs and strategic goals.

Results

Through GovPath’s Business Process Review and the subsequent Managed Services and Professional Services engagements, the City of Avondale realized significant improvements in system performance, user satisfaction, and organizational alignment.

Enhancements were implemented more quickly and efficiently, leading to a dramatically improved user experience and a more empowered, collaborative workforce. Staff gained clearer processes, better training, and greater visibility into system capabilities, allowing them to work more confidently and effectively within Accela.

Crucially, the initiative gave staff a stronger voice in shaping solutions. By actively engaging team members in identifying challenges and defining priorities, the project shifted perceptions from frustration to ownership - transforming cross-departmental relationships into genuine partnerships. Departments now collaborate seamlessly, communicate more effectively, and share collective responsibility for the system’s success.

Operationally, the City saw a significant reduction in IT support tickets and system-related complaints. With clearer accountability and understanding across business units, staff resolved issues more efficiently, resulting in fewer disruptions and improved service delivery to both internal and external stakeholders.

Ultimately, Avondale achieved the efficiency and effectiveness it sought by fully leveraging its existing Accela platform - avoiding the cost and complexity of procuring and implementing a new system.