Over the last several days we have received an abundance of questions regarding COVID-19, its impact on local government offices, and on how to utilize the full capabilities of your Beacon/qPublic.net website during this unprecedented time

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At Schneider Geospatial, we have realized that our best ideas and most innovative solutions have been a result from collaboration from our clients. We truly are stronger working together as a community and with this in mind I urge you to share with us the ideas/successes that your office is implementing while dealing with the impacts of COVID-19.   
 
Below are some of the top solutions regarding your Beacon/qPublic.net site that are currently being utilized across the country.

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1. Core Beacon/qPublic.net Site: Your Beacon/qPublic.net site is designed to be a direct extension of your office. As a result, almost every physical interaction with the public can be accomplished remotely.

   • Staff working from home can access all parcel information, even if your County does not offer remote access to your CAMA software. 

   • Public announcements can be updated as often as needed; take a look at Paulding County, GA.

   • All of our teams are available, including our support team which can be reached at support@schneiderGIS.com. 

   • For site specific questions, direct your taxpayers to the “How to use the Beacon/qPublic.net site” Demo Videos located under Announcements on your main search page.

2. Subscription-Based Not-A-Dime Clients:

   • In order help our clients serve their constituents during these uncertain times – with many offices closed or restricting access to the public – Schneider Geospatial will enable for our Not-A-Dime Beacon/qPublic.net sites: 20 free record views (valid for 1 year) added to new and existing metered use accounts upon request. This will not affect time based subscriptions. In order to use the free record views, users must have an existing account or create a new account. Once activated, users can call our Support line at 866-362-6789 to have the credits added to their account. We plan to add credits to accounts through April 9th.

   • Each county is welcome to post the above paragraph to their website or however they wish to communicate this to their constituents. Please note, this access will not cost the counties any additional fees; Schneider Geospatial will bear the cost for service.

3. Assessment Notices: NOAs/TRIMs can be attached to each parcel allowing taxpayers to view and download.

   • In some cases, we can work directly with your print provider to obtain the PDF output of your notices.

   • Take a look at St. Johns County, FL.

4. Online Appeals Module: We have had several counties that are transitioning to allow taxpayers to appeal online. 

   • This module educates the taxpayer on the appeals process while showing them why their parcel was assessed at its current value.

   • Richmond County, GA saw a 6% decrease in appeals after their first year of offering online appeals, while Johnson County, IA saw more than 50% of appeal applicants stop their application during the process when presented with comparable results.

5. Forms: Just about every form that your office requires can be setup and provided to the public via your Beacon/qPublic.net site.

   • Forms can be interactive or static.

   • Take a look at Madison County, FL.

6. Community Website: We are seeing many counties transition to a cleaner version of their department’s website.

   • Provides the ability to instantly update announcements/content versus having to go through IT/support.

   • Take a look at Whitfield County, GA.

 

We hope this helps you to continue to provide services to your constituents during this time. If we can be of any other help, please, let us know.

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