Maui County has launched a new web-based permitting system.
MAPPS, or Maui’s Automated Planning and Permitting System, has a Customer Self Service portal, or CSS, that offers online access to the county’s permitting and planning-related information, where users can apply for plan reviews, permits, specific business licenses, request inspections, pay invoices and follow along with the application status, the county said in a recent news release.
Because the new system is web-based, users only need an internet browser to access it. As a result the county will no longer accept paper applications.
A county spokesman said MAPPS was selected as part of a request for proposal process to replace the legacy system, Kiva and KivaNet, which needed to be replaced due to its age.
The county negotiated a price of $4,418,876 to implement the system with multiple modules and the configuration of more than 130 county business processes from six departments and divisions into the software, the spokesman said.
There are several benefits to the new system according to county officials, including enhanced customer service, an automated workflow, electronic plan review capabilities, and the introduction of mobile technologies like iPads with the MAPPS mobile apps.
According to the spokesman, the processing time for permits varies depending on the type of permit and project, and agency reviews. The county, however, expects the MAPP system to improve processing time in a number of ways.
Applications can be submitted online with no office hours restrictions, he said, and receiving digital applications reduces the need for manual data entry by staff.
Additionally, "Routing documents to various agencies can now be done simultaneously with real time collaborative review capabilities where everyone is working off of the same copy of the plans and other files, versus having multiple copies in circulation," the spokesman said. "We are eliminating the time required to physically transfer or mail documents as part of these reviews and do not require one review to be completed by one agency before it can be routed to the next agency per review cycle."
Some delays are expected as staff and public get up to speed with the new system, and the county works through the backlog that built up while the permitting and planning offices were closed leading up to the MAPPS launch, the spokesman said.
The county also needs to work through "hybrid cases," or applications in progress during the transition and that may need additional attention and manual updates.
But Maui County has taken lessons from neighboring islands who have made transition to online permitting systems.
Hawaii County faced an unprecedented backlog in its permitting last year, in part due to its transition to the Electronic Processing and Information Center, or EPIC, system – a digitized version of its permitting process.
"The County of Maui has collaborated with Hawaii Island and collected feedback about its lessons learned from its rollout of the EPIC system to help us prepared for the launch of MAPPS," the Maui County spokesman said. "While there are significant differences in the EPIC system vs. MAPPS, including different modules that were adopted and the fact that the MAPPS system is hosted on the County of Maui services and not the vendor's servers, we were able to get valuable information from our knowledge sharing.
"One important piece of feedback had to do with how the public preferred to learn the new system," the spokesman continued. "Hawaii Island found that its users preferred written documentation with step-by-step instructions, and this led the County of Maui to develop an additional set of user guides to complement the MAPPS self-help tutorial videos."
Maui County also has on-site support from the software vendor for four weeks following the launch and launched a MAPPS support website at mapps.mauicounty.gov.
