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City presents new 'Access Albany' 3-1-1 app; board reviews contract term and integration options
Summary
Staff showcased the new Access Albany 3-1-1 app (CivicPlus/SeeClickFix), outlined features (auto-routing, multilingual support, GIS-based geo-routing, KPIs) and said the first-year subscription is about $39,382–$39,853; board members asked about ownership, API/integration with AMI and longer contract terms and were told the vendor retains source-code ownership but the city can customize and embed the portal.
City staff demonstrated Access Albany, the municipality's new 3-1-1 app built on CivicPlus/SeeClickFix technology, and outlined plans for a September hard launch and a media campaign.
Ms. Monk explained that the platform will provide automatic routing to departments, real-time status updates for registered users, an anonymous submission option, geo-routing by municipal boundary using GIS, multilanguage support and customizable dashboards for KPI tracking by ward and department. The platform is intended to reduce duplicate reports and allow staff to view completion rates and other performance indicators in real time.
Board members asked detailed questions about ownership rights, API/integration and historical-data access. Mr. Dawson said CivicPlus/SeeClickFix retains ownership of the application's source code but that the city can embed and customize portals and dashboards; staff also said the existing QAlert contract provides continued backend access to historical tickets for a limited period.
Staff said the first-year subscription price was quoted at about $39,382–$39,853, with an expected 5% year-over-year price uplift thereafter; staff recommended an initial one-year subscription with the option to evaluate a multi-year term later for better pricing. The legacy QAlert public app will be removed from app stores beginning Sept. 1 and deactivated for public submissions on Oct. 1 to allow ticket migration and processing.
Members also explored potential integrations (for example, billing/AMI and a possible separate AMI customer portal). Staff said some integrations may be possible via custom dashboards or buttons that link to other city systems, but full source-code edits are not available to the city under the vendor license.
