This April, Oracle returned as a sponsor and exhibitor at the American Planning Association’s National Planning Conference (NPC). The American Planning Association is one of the nationally-recognized professional associations in the community development industry, representing over 40,000 members with 47 chapters in the United States. The NPC brings together APA members and related professionals (and when in Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin!) to discuss key topics and trends in planning, connect with peers, and meet with partners that offer products and services that are relevant to planning.
Trends in Planning
At this year’s conference there was a lot of discussion around technology. Here are a few specific areas that were top of mind for many folks:
- The evolution of thoughtful planning – at the conference, many of the education sessions were focused on goals related to housing availability, sustainability, and equitable land use. With that in mind, ESRI’s ArcGIS Urban gained a lot of attention for its ability to enable planners and design professionals to collaborate on scenario planning and impact assessments using interactive, 3D modeling to visualize the future. You can learn more about ArcGIS Urban here.
- “Digital Twins” are gaining traction – when talking to planners at the conference, all of them were familiar with the concept of a digital twin and the value that model would provide. While only a handful of them said their government organization had a digital twin, many mentioned it was a priority and something they believed would be developed in the next 1-2 years.
- Government Technology is lagging behind – when we spoke with conference attendees, the most common theme we heard about technology was “what we’re using today is okay, but it should be much better”. That’s not uncommon given that:
1) technology is more and more prevalent in our everyday life;
2) people constantly compare using technology for personal use against their professional use;, and
3) technology use in government has traditionally lagged behind other industries and uses.
While the above reaction is understandable, it also indicates room for improvement.
- Technology for Planners is siloed – one of the questions we often ask planners is “how many technology solutions are you using today?”. It’s not surprising for them to respond with “a few”, but what’s surprising is the number of folks who said they have different “point solutions” for each facet of their work, such as:
- Scheduling and managing pre-application meetings
- Public submission and agency review of planning applications
- Providing constituents with a land use “wizard”
- Scheduling hearings and creating agendas
- Running reports and analytics
- Storing and retrieving documents
How Does Oracle Fit In?
With Oracle Permitting and Licensing, planners get a cloud solution that tackles the challenges listed above in the following ways:
- We recognize the value and benefit of having an interactive, 3D environment and scenarios for modeling during the planning process. Experts at Oracle are engaging with the ESRI Urban team to understand their data model and technology, and with Oracle technologies are exploring the ways we can bring these cutting edge capabilities into our solution;
- Users get a modern solution that is enhanced four times a year through quarterly product updates;
- As IT organizations look to consolidate their IT ecosystems, Oracle Permitting and Licensing delivers a single solution that mitigates the need for multiple point solutions;
- Agencies can take advantage of innovations with other Oracle technologies like video chat, co-browse, integrations, extensions, and more.
Learn More
Modern cloud technology solutions can help public-sector organizations overcome many of the challenges they face. By migrating to the cloud with Oracle Permitting and Licensing, organizations can embrace innovation and push the limits of what their employees and constituents have come to expect from their government. Oracle is excited to be able to partner with government organizations on their journey to the cloud, and you can discover more about Oracle’s Permitting and Licensing solution here.