Assessor's Appeals Management and Automation Project

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office handles property valuation appeals for various property types. The appeals process that previously existed was an extremely manual activity. File folders were created for paper based appeal documents submitted by petitioners and physically transported to appropriate departments to complete the property valuation review process. This process was cumbersome, labor intensive, and error prone. For calendar year 2008, the Assessor’s Office handled approximately 26,000 appeals. This number was expected to increase significantly for the 2009 calendar year because the downturn in the economy resulted in a significant drop in property values. To provide the internal capacity to handle the increase in workload without adding personnel, there was an immediate need to streamline and automate the manual process. The Maricopa County Assessor’s Office partnered with the Maricopa County Office of Enterprise Technology to select and implement an Electronic Document Management Software system to replace the current manual property valuation appeals process. The new EDMS system utilizes electronic folders to route documents to the appropriate division for completion of the property valuation review process. The EDMS system streamlined the appeal process workflow, provided better visibility of staff workload for management, and aligned with Maricopa County’s Green Initiative by eliminating the need to print paper documents.