You’ve probably been there: sitting through another software demo where the vendor shows you their “robust platform” and insists their way of managing permits is “industry best practice.” Meanwhile, you’re mentally calculating how many staff hours you’ll lose retraining your team and reconfiguring decades of established workflows.
Here’s what many building officials and permitting directors discover too late: most government permitting software treats your department like it should fit into a predetermined mold. The result? Frustrated staff, confused applicants, and a nagging feeling that technology is supposed to make your job easier, not harder.
MCCi Community Development platform on a different philosophy. Your processes exist for good reasons. Your workflows reflect years of refinement, local ordinances, and community needs. The best permitting software doesn’t force you to abandon what works; it amplifies your department’s effectiveness.
Let’s explore what makes government permitting software truly work for municipal and county operations, and why building officials across the country are rethinking their approach to technology.
Your Workflows. Your Way. Your Success.
The Challenge: Most government permitting software forces departments into inflexible workflows, wasting staff time on workarounds while applicants face confusing processes.
The Solution: MCCi Community Development is 80% configurable to your specifications, with support responding within an hour, weekly updates, and seamless integrations—all without expensive customization fees.
The Bottom Line: The best permitting software amplifies what your department does well and adapts as your community grows. Smart government permits respect your expertise and enhance effectiveness.
The Real Cost of Inflexible Government Permitting Software
Before we talk about what makes software effective, let’s acknowledge what doesn’t work.
Many permitting departments are struggling with systems that seemed promising during the demo but revealed limitations after implementation. Perhaps the software requires workarounds for common scenarios. Maybe it forces you to create permits using terminology that doesn’t match your local codes. Or worse, it might lock essential features behind expensive customization fees.
These aren’t minor inconveniences. When your permitting software doesn’t align with your actual work, the impacts ripple outward:
Your staff loses time toggling between systems, creating manual spreadsheets to track what the software should handle, and explaining to applicants why the online portal doesn’t match the actual process.
Your applicants face friction when the digital experience contradicts your department’s established procedures, leading to incomplete applications, frustrated contractors, and more calls to your front desk.
Your leadership questions the investment when reports don’t provide the metrics that matter for your community, or when “simple” changes require vendor quotes and months-long timelines.
County building officials and city administrators need smart government permits that reflect reality, not a vendor’s assumptions about how permitting “should” work.
What Makes the Best Permitting Software Different
After working with municipal and county permitting departments nationwide, we’ve identified what separates adequate software from exceptional government permitting software. It comes down to four essential qualities that protect your investment and empower your team.
Configurability: Your Workflows, Your Way
Think about how your department operates today. You’ve probably developed permit types, inspection sequences, and approval workflows that reflect your community’s specific needs. Some counties need agricultural building permits with unique criteria. Others have historic district overlays requiring specialized review steps. Many jurisdictions are managing the surge in solar installations, ADUs, or short-term rental applications. The best permitting software accommodates this diversity without requiring extensive (and expensive) custom development.
During implementation, your dedicated team works with you to configure everything from workflows and form letters to permit types and portal appearance. You decide what information applicants can access, how naming conventions appear, and how processes flow through your department.
Hannah B., Deputy County Administrator of Saline County, Kansas, explains the difference: “The other software companies seemed like a one-size-fits-all approach, with no flexibility. We had to mold to their platform. MCCi molded their platform to us and how we operate.”
Here’s the aspect that matters even more: you maintain this configuration control after launch. As your community grows or regulations change, your team can adjust the system without submitting requests and waiting for vendor responses. This flexibility proves particularly valuable for rapidly developing counties where today’s edge-of-town is tomorrow’s growth corridor.
Responsive Support: Because Your Work Can’t Wait
When your permitting system hits a snag on a busy permit day, you can’t afford to wait. Applications stack up, contractors grow frustrated, and your staff scrambles for workarounds while waiting days for support callbacks. Support quality directly impacts your department’s ability to serve your community. That’s why MCCi prioritizes “client delight” as a core value.
Submit a support ticket and our team responds within an hour—usually faster. You’ll connect with knowledgeable staff who understand permitting operations and focus on resolving your challenge, not reading from a script. For critical issues, we provide 24/7 support because problems don’t respect business hours.
Stephan M., County Planner at Pottawatomie County, Kansas, notes: “I’ve never heard ‘that can’t be done’ from anybody at MCCi. If we need it, they always find a way.”
Integration Capabilities: Connecting Your Systems
Manual data entry between systems doesn’t just waste time. It introduces errors, creates compliance risks, and frustrates staff who know there must be a better way.
County GIS departments maintain property data. Finance departments process payments. Plan review may happen in specialized software. Your permitting system should connect these tools, not create islands of information.
Smart government permits depend on robust integration capabilities. MCCi Community Development was designed as an API-first platform specifically to enable these connections and minimize redundant data entry.
We’ve developed over 20 integrations, with the most popular including:
- Esri ArcGIS: Connecting permitting with your GIS infrastructure for accurate property information and spatial analysis
- Payment Processors: Enabling secure online payments that automatically update permit records
- Electronic Plan Review (EPR): Linking plan review comments directly to permit applications
- Microsoft 365: Syncing with tools your staff already uses daily
- PowerBI: Generating sophisticated reports and dashboards for leadership
Don’t see your critical system listed? We build integrations based on your department’s needs. Many counties and municipalities require connections to specialized systems, and our team has the capability to develop these links.
Integration capabilities separate adequate government permitting software from platforms that truly enhance departmental efficiency.
Making the Right Choice for Your Department
Choosing government permitting software involves more than comparing feature lists. The decision impacts your staff’s daily experience, your community’s perception of government responsiveness, and your department’s ability to adapt to future challenges.
Building officials and county administrators should evaluate potential platforms based on these questions:
Can you configure the system to match your processes, or must you change your processes to match the system? Flexibility in workflows, terminology, and procedures protects your department’s institutional knowledge.
What does support really look like? Request specifics about response times, support availability, and the team’s familiarity with permitting operations. Vague promises about “dedicated support” often disappoint.
How frequently does the vendor improve the platform? Systems should evolve continuously, not remain static between major version releases every few years.
What integration options exist? Your permitting system should connect with GIS, finance, and other critical tools, not operate in isolation.
What do current clients say? Speak with building officials at jurisdictions similar to yours. Their experiences reveal more than any demo.
The best permitting software doesn’t just manage permits; it empowers your department to serve your community more effectively. It reduces friction for applicants, provides staff with efficient tools, and gives leadership visibility into operations.
Why MCCi Community Development Works for Government
Municipal and county building departments choose MCCi Community Development because it addresses the real challenges you face daily.
Our platform offers the configurability to match your unique processes, the support to keep operations running smoothly, the continuous improvement to stay current, and the integration capabilities to connect your systems.
We don’t believe in forcing government departments into rigid workflows or charging premium fees for basic flexibility. Your community deserves better. Your staff deserves tools that enhance rather than hinder their work.
Hundreds of counties and municipalities have discovered that government permitting software can actually simplify rather than complicate their operations. The difference lies not just in features but in philosophy: building technology that adapts to government operations, not the reverse.
Ready to explore what truly flexible government permitting software looks like for your department? Our team understands the unique challenges building officials, code enforcement officers, and county administrators face because we’ve dedicated our company to solving them.