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New Year and New Citation Numbering
There were several electronic citation changes that took place at the New Year. All electronic citations were required to have 12 digits by the State Courts. Additionally, fine schedules that were printed on the violator copy have been replaced by mandated language on violator rights and obligations. In place of the fine schedule are a phone number and a web site for the violator to use to determine the fine for their violation. Updates were pushed out to all squads at midnight on January 1, 2012.
LOGIS created and provides an Electronic Citation Report which is a reproduction of the ticket from the data exported from the citation. Many agencies receive this, alleviating the need to print a second citation. Most courts also get the report from LOGIS to assist in their business needs.
Network Services Managed Service
eCases
In December Network Services released a SharePoint site for use by Dakota County and several Dakota County cities. This site’s primary function is to simplify the sharing of court case information between the county and the participating cities.
MeetingPlace/WebEx
LOGIS just completed the upgrade of our MeetingPlace to version 8.6 which incorporates the WebEx desktop and video control into our meeting environment. Now our staff will begin to rollout this new environment out to participating IP Telephony members.
New Templates Available in the Class eMarketing Center
Active Network, the developers of Class—the LOGIS Parks and Rec system—have a very useful eMarketing Center web site. The template section of the eMarketing Center is your go-to platform to take your Parks and Rec communications to the next level. Choose among the large selection of templates and customize them with your banner, colors and logo in just a few clicks!
Ask and you shall receive. Active Network has added 5 new templates to help you promote your activities and boost your registration. Download the new templates now!
Looking for some inspiration? Take a look at how organizations like the Town of Duxbury, MA have customized the templates to boost their registrations. Get inspired now!
If you have any questions about the templates or need help accessing the eMarketing Center, contact LOGIS at 763-543-2600.
The 2011 Legislature repealed the homestead residential Market Value Credit (the agricultural credit did not change), and enacted a similarly designed homestead Market Value Exclusion. This change is effective for taxes payable in 2012.
Program changes have been completed to accommodate the new way of calculating Taxable Market Value. This year instead of giving a Homestead Market Value Credit, a Homestead Market Value Exclusion will be applied to the Market Value for home owners to reduce the Taxable Market Value. Validation of program changes is near completion and a new version will be released in the near future.
Utility Billing — Bill Print Outsourcing
The cities are on their way to completing the bill print outsourcing project in 2012. LOGIS will no longer be printing the utility bills for our member cities and the cities have been searching and making selections for mailing vendors to print their bills from an electronic file. Currently, five cities are sending “live” electronic files to their mailing vendors.
A group was formed several months ago consisting of ten LOGIS cities that combined their resources in a mailing vendor search. The group prepared an RFQ, reviewed responses, and held a meeting with the vendors. After narrowing the search to three vendors, the group made site visits to each company. After research, cost evaluation, and vendor assessments, the group selected Impact Proven Solutions. Implementations will begin in January and the entire project will be completed by 2nd quarter 2012.
PIMS Release
The latest PIMS version is currently in test with a large selection of new changes and improvements. Some of the modules that will be affected are: Business License, Code Enforcement, Contractors, Database Utilities, Inspections, Permit Entry and Septic to name a few.
While there are still a few items in programming, we hope to roll out this update to all the cities within the next few weeks.
Property Data System now Calculates Time Adjustments
Real Property Assessors need to adjust the sale prices for market appreciation or depreciation to the effective date of appraisal. The need was there, and recently the LOGIS Property Data system (PDS) was enhanced to include this feature.
Time adjustment is not really an adjustment based on the passage of time; rather it is the relationship between supply and demand which has changed over time. Programs and reports were modified giving assessors the ability to input both a percent change and a time period to automatically report these adjustments.
LOGIS Utility Billing Staff Attends 2011 Harris User Conference
The 2011 Harris Customer Conference was held in Anaheim, CA and was attended by two LOGIS staff members. This year’s theme was ‘At the Movies.’ For example, ‘Gone with the Wind’ discussed utilizing Actions as related to Collections Processing. And ‘American Beauty’ highlighted new functionality in Infinity.Link.
Through numerous sessions, the conference offers an opportunity for LOGIS staff to learn about new features in CIS Infinity as well as other add-on modules available. Such modules include Infinity.Link and Infinity.Mobile. A sneak peak at CIS Infinity Version 4 development was shared.
Representatives from HiQube, a division of Altair, demonstrated their Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Analytics solution to the Executive Committee, a representative of several Advanced clients. The software’s efficient reporting and analysis capability allows for a more effective decision-making process. LOGIS invited HiQube to attend the Spring 2012 Utility Billing User Group meeting. You will be impressed!
LOGIS Hosts Special Assessment User Group Meeting
In October, LOGIS hosted the annual user group meeting for Special Assessment users. This year was more important than other years as there has been some turnover of staff at all levels.
These meetings are an important time for our support staff to meet with the user base and exchange information. It is also a chance for the users to meet each other and to exchange ideas on how each city handles the yearly processes. End of year processing was the main topic of discussion. An end of year check list was presented to the group to aid them in the rollover processes.
So far about 1/3 of the group has completed year-end with very minor complications. Congratulations and good luck to the rest! Call if you need some assistance.
