Augusta-Richmond County Board of Assessors Shares Impressive Statistics Related to its Use of MobileAssessor

The consolidated government of Augusta-Richmond, the second largest city in Georgia with a population of over 200,000, has realized a 216 to 1 return on investment (ROI) after implementing MobileAssessor by Data Cloud Solutions.

The county implemented MobileAssessor to replace a paper filing system that was cumbersome and required too many work hours to maintain. The process of collecting field data on paper, and then entering that data in the office resulted in duplicate data entry which was not only redundant, but also lent itself to an increase in data errors. Additionally, the county did not have the necessary tools or processes in place to quickly analyze current and pending work assignments.

As a forward-thinking leader, Chief Appraiser Alveno Ross’ vision was to improve the overall efficiency of the office by implementing a mobile-based system fully integrated with the county’s Computer Assisted Mass Appraisal (CAMA) system.

Mr. Ross started with the mindset of “begin with the end in mind” and identified the following key objectives:

• Ability to manage & track workflow
• Reduce the use of paper
• Eliminate duplicate data entry
• Improve data quality
• Save time and money

In 2018, Augusta-Richmond County began surveying the marketplace to identify a mobile-based solution that would help them achieve their project objectives. The county required an intuitive and fully configurable, commercial off the shelf (COTS) solution that would import/update data directly into the CAMA system. The desired features included: optimized routing, easy workflow assignments, productivity tracking, sketching, GIS, instant photo association, and real-time quality control with detailed auditing.

As part of the evaluation process, the county also researched the differences between a check-in / check-out solution and a cloud-based solution. A check-in / check-out solution would require devices be in the office at least twice per day, would freeze data in the CAMA system as parcels were checked-out, and would limit the amount of data available to the appraisers while in the field. The restrictive nature of this type of solution coupled with a high risk of data loss and the ongoing burden that would be placed on county IT resources, a cloud-based solution was identified as a critical requirement. The evaluation process concluded with MobileAssessor by Data Cloud Solutions as the one clear solution that not only met all the requirements set forth by the county, but exceeded them.

Following a successful implementation of MobileAssessor, all of the county’s key objectives were met. The county has seen a sharp increase in the amount of completed assignments during their annual field work cycle. Completing field work at a faster rate has allowed the county to accelerate work connected to other projects and revaluations that they previously did not have the time to fully address. The implementation of MobileAssessor also coincided with a project that allowed them to interface CAMA with the county’s permitting system. With the permit workload already created in CAMA, the process of shifting to MobileAssessor was swift and immediately beneficial.

The resulting statistics are listed below.

• 12,089 field reviewed parcels and 28,162 new photos added in 2019
• 27,532 field reviewed parcel and 18,281 new photos added in 2020 (Q1-Q3)
• Fuel Usage – overall reduction over 12% due to MobileAssessor’s optimized routing from one parcel to next during the annual discovery “permitting” period
• Assessment Change List 2020 – reflects 95.19% increase in field reviews over the last 3-years average; and 76.69% increase over the prior year (2019)
  • Gross digest valuation increase – 11.77%
  • Net digest valuation increase – 10.72%
• Assessment Change List 2020 – reflects 349.93% increase added to digest over the last 3-years average; and 272.95% increase over the prior year (2019)
  • Gross digest growth increase – 8.35%
  • Net digest growth increase – 8.09%
• Calculated / Measurable Return on Investment (ROI) = 216 to 1

The full Augusta-Richmond County Case Study is available for download via this link – https://bit.ly/AugustaCaseStudyDCS

About Data Cloud Solutions

Data Cloud Solutions provides cloud computing solutions and consulting services for collecting, reviewing, and managing large amounts of data.

The CAMACloud platform, including MobileAssessor, is a fully integrated suite of tools for enhancing the way users collect, verify, analyze, and improve data. The platform includes modules for mobile data collection, desktop review, multiple regression analysis, sketch validation, and comparable property reports. CAMACloud’s workflow is 100% configurable and works with any database.

MobileAssesor is the most widely used mobile application in the mass appraisal industry with 5000 users across 200 counties, 28 states and 2 countries.