Accela provides solutions for government agencies to streamline processes and enhance community engagement, driving efficiency and transparency in operations.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Accela | 3.1% |
| Microsoft Dynamics CRM | 20.5% |
| SAP CRM | 17.5% |
| Other | 58.9% |
Accela offers a comprehensive suite designed to modernize governmental operations. Its platform facilitates automation, enabling agencies to manage resources effectively, improve regulatory compliance, and respond to public needs efficiently. Accela fosters an environment of digital transformation, assisting agencies in adopting innovative solutions for better governance, public safety, and environmental management. By leveraging cloud-based technology, Accela ensures scalability, security, and adaptability to meet evolving public sector challenges.
What are the key features of Accela?Accela is utilized in industries like construction, healthcare, and public works for its ability to streamline processes, enhance compliance, and improve service delivery. In construction, it aids in permit processing, while in healthcare, it enhances facility regulation. Public works benefit from streamlined project management and resource allocation, helping maintain infrastructure more effectively.
Accela is used by over 1,000 government agencies in the United States and Canada. Some of its customers include the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, and the City of Toronto.
| Author info | Rating | Review Summary |
|---|---|---|
| Full Stack Developer - TAMM OS/ Accela at Department of Health Abu Dhabi | 3.5 | I work in the Abu Dhabi health department and use Accela for licensing and certificates. Its rapid development as a low-code platform is valuable, though custom portals need improvement. We switched due to scalability issues with our legacy system. |
| Frontend Developer at Department of Health Abu Dhabi | 3.5 | I find Accela's visual inspection and workflow features valuable, but the tool tends to slow down with extended use, and deployment can be complicated. |
I'm working in the government department for health in Abu Dhabi. Previously, in the transport department, we issued building permits and contracts with consultants. Currently, we issue licenses for health care, such as for professional doctors and nurses. We issue licenses for health insurance companies, and we issue birth and death certificates.
We have deployed the solution on the G42 cloud, but previously it was on-premises.
As a company working with Accella, we find it very beneficial. We can develop features in very little time. Likewise, the cost is not too high compared to other platforms like IBM and other local platforms on the market. We get good support from Accela, so we get support if we face some product-level issues.
I value the rapid development features. It's a low-code platform, so we can build services rapidly. I also like the size of the data supported. Accela can export the biggest data with huge performance.
Accela needs some improvements when it comes to custom portals. Suppose we want to develop our forms or formats in different designs. I would like to see integration with analytics and the Power BI dashboard.
I would also like more support in analyzing a problem and identifying an issue or suggesting an enhancement.
It's been about five years working with Accela.
If Accela is used correctly, it is stable. It is stable if we don't go with custom queries. And even if we use custom queries, it is stable if we take care of the deadlocks. But that depends upon implementation also. How well you implement it depends on your performance. If you do not implement Accela correctly, its stability can be affected.
Accela's horizontally and vertically scalable. Its scalability is very good. The solution performs very well even with large sets of data.
In DMP, there were about a thousand users internally. Including our public users, there could be millions. Public users are front-end users, and I'm also talking about business officials who review applications and approve or reject them.
It was a customized solution like a VPN. We used some open-source tools and some paid tools. But we mostly had custom-developed tools.
As for why we switched from Accela, this is a very important question because that was a legacy system, and it was running for 11 years. Of course, we reached a point where we wanted to scale our applications, and we had a legacy system that could not support scaling and required more time to implement any applications. That was one of the reasons we chose a low-code platform. We evaluated multiple solutions in the market. As part of the bidding, Accela was the lowest with more features.
The initial setup is straightforward. During deployment, we first do all of the development in the development environment. We start with naming a service, a service type, and so on. Then, we identify the custom fields inside the forms. Identifying the forms and identifying the fields inside the form. Forms, here, are called custom groups, and fields are called custom fields. We define a set of custom fields and groups and the fields inside that. We provide the English translations, and then if some tables are needed, we do the custom list. Then, we identify the documents required in the service, and we configure them. Then, we configure the set of statuses in the application. Then, we give the sequence number of the application and define its workflow for the backend officer. Once all these things are done, we define the workflow for the front-end user. We drag and drop these kinds of forms and fields, and we define the pages. On each page, we can drag and drop the forms which we previously configured. We can also drag and drop the documents. Once that's done, we publish it in the development environment.
To move it to production, we create a package. We choose a set of services that we want to move. Then, inside the service, the forms we change come automatically. Similarly, the workloads we change come automatically. However, we need to choose the documents. The status groups come automatically. Multiple things come automatically once we choose a service. We need to choose some of the things manually. We choose them to create a bundle and export it. On the destination environment, we import that bundle, and we run the deployment.
For normal deployment, like when we change a service or implement a new service and develop a solution from test to production, only one person is enough. However, that depends on the services. For these deployments, it takes around two hours to deploy.
Accela required maintenance. The maintenance depends upon the features of the versions and how soon they go with new versions. Normally, Accela does not frequently release versions. It might be once every five years. As a part of upgrading the existing application, it requires a large amount of data and people because we cannot go directly to a new environment. We replicate the deployment in a different environment and do the testing. For our size of data and our department's size, we need eight to ten people to maintain the solution, with a minimum time period of two months.
When we chose Accela, it was affordable. But with new solutions in the market, we can see cheaper ones with the same features.
Previously, Accela was on-premises, and we faced infrastructure costs for scalability. Now, the solution has moved to the G42 cloud, so scaling servers is not a big deal, and it's not very expensive. There are two pricing factors: Accelas' price and another comes when we report an issue, and they enhance the product. Other costs come from the number of internal users. If we want to increase that number, we will be charged. Similarly, the number of developer licenses is charged because Accela provides a tool kit for developers.
We evaluated some IBM and Oracle solutions.
I would advise prospective users to look at other available solutions. If they cannot find anything else, Accela is the best at providing a low-code platform, even for big data, while offering rapid development and supporting a huge amount of data. But if they want more customization, a better look and feel, and more control over the applications, then they can choose something else. Choosing the solution depends upon the requirement they are trying to meet.
I rate Accela a seven out of ten.
The Accela's most valuable features are visual inspection and workflow.
The tool's performance becomes slow with usage. Its deployment is also complicated.
I have been using the product for five years.
The tool's code is stable. I rate it a seven out of ten.
Accela's scalability is good. I rate it an eight out of ten. My company has more than 1000 users.
The tool's tech support is good.
The tool's deployment is a two-step process. Server deployment takes months to complete. It takes months to align the tool with your business process.
Accela did the deployment.
I rate the product a seven out of ten. You need to have a separate UI. The tool's current UI is old.
