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City rolls out Access Albany 3‑1‑1 app; staff outlines features, costs and integration limits
Summary
Staff presented Access Albany, a new 3‑1‑1 app based on CivicPlus/SeeClickFix that offers automatic routing, geo‑fencing, anonymous submissions and multilingual support; staff reported a soft launch is live, a hard public campaign will begin in September, and first‑year subscription pricing is about $39,382.58 with a 5% annual uplift.
City staff demonstrated Access Albany, the new 3‑1‑1 customer‑service app built on CivicPlus/SeeClickFix, and answered board questions about routing, ownership and system integration.
Ms. Monk presented the app’s features: automatic routing of requests to the appropriate department by request type and location, real‑time status updates for registered users, an anonymous‑submission option, multilingual support, and customizable dashboards and KPIs for wards and districts. The presentation noted that the app can reduce duplicate tickets by combining closely matched reports and that internal users can also use the portal for interdepartmental work orders.
Ownership and integration: IT staff (Mister Dawson) said the vendor owns the underlying software (SeeClickFix/CivicPlus) but the city can heavily customize the portal and embed it into other city websites. Nicole Sprawl, the city’s 3‑1‑1 call center supervisor, confirmed that tickets submitted through the app will create routed service tickets and that departments can set SLAs and escalation rules.
Cost and contract term: staff reported a year‑one cost of about $39,382.58 and said annual renewals will carry a roughly 5% uplift. Board members discussed the advantages of 3‑ or 5‑year terms to obtain pricing breaks; staff said a one‑year initial commitment was recommended so the city can evaluate functionality and integration with legacy systems (QAlert) and AMI interfaces.
Launch plan and next steps: the app and website have soft‑launched; a hard marketing campaign begins in September (television, social, billboards) and staff plans to remove the legacy QAlert app from app stores beginning Sept. 1 with full public deactivation on Oct. 1. Staff said they will bring contract documents and a recommended term to the commission for approval.
