AUSTIN, Texas & CHICAGO & SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Government technology firm CityBase has partnered with the City and County of San Francisco to launch a new online recreational cannabis business licensing system, enabling companies that want to sell cannabis to submit their permit applications and fees in one place. CityBase is a business unit of GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq:GTYH) (“GTY”), a leading provider of SaaS/Cloud solutions for the public sector.
The City and County of San Francisco’s new Office of Cannabis and its Office of Digital Services partnered on the effort with CityBase. The licensing system can be accessed at officeofcannabis.sfgov.org.
“In partnership with CityBase and the San Francisco Office of Cannabis, we’ve worked hard to revolutionize the way we offer cannabis permits,” said Carrie Bishop, Chief Digital Services Officer for the City and County of San Francisco. “It’s one of the first examples of a city creating a seamless permitting process online that is entirely digital and designed to make it easier for applicants to navigate. This approach is now informing digital permitting across the City, and we’re excited to continue using technology to simplify complex services, including business permitting, for our residents.”
On January 23 in Los Angeles, Bishop will discuss results and best practices of the permitting solution at the Cannabis Compliance West event, on the panel “Easy and Equitable: How San Francisco Streamlines Cannabis Business Permitting.”
“San Francisco is raising the bar for what residents and businesses can expect from their government,” said CityBase CEO Mike Duffy. “This effort is a great example of how city agencies, in collaboration with tech companies, can streamline complex permitting processes for businesses and government alike. It’s a true partnership, and it generates remarkable results.”
The cannabis permitting process is particularly complex because a recreational dispensary must have the approval of the planning, police and fire departments, to name a few.
San Francisco’s licensing technology enables each of the relevant departments to track every step of each permit in a single online view. City and county agencies can proactively move applicants to the next stage of the process by sending them the next required forms, with key business details prepopulated from the information applicants already submitted.
This case management technology increases collaboration across agencies and, thus, the speed at which permits are issued.
Chicago-based CityBase intends to bring the cannabis licensing system to other cities and apply it to other complex business permitting processes.
“CityBase’s platform was designed for flexibility,” said Josh Goldstein, CityBase’s Chief Product Officer. “Our platform allows us to easily accommodate the wide range of city and state regulations we see across the country. We were even able to build the cannabis licensing services before the State of California had finalized its own licensing guidance. And we’re partnering with governments to supply the solutions that make it easier on governments and businesses to be in legal compliance.”
About CityBase
CityBase makes government and utility technology that modernizes and unifies the way people find, apply, and pay for services. CityBase works with local governments, agencies and utilities to integrate payment functionality, business processes, and communications onto a central, cloud-based platform that consumers can access through the web, mobile, kiosk, IVR, or point of sale. Learn more at thecitybase.com.
About GTY Technology Holdings Inc.
GTY Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:GTYH) (“GTY”) brings leading public sector technology companies together to achieve a new standard in stakeholder engagement and resource management. Through its six business units, GTY offers an intuitive cloud-based suite of solutions for state and local governments, education institutions, and healthcare organizations spanning functions in procurement, payments, grant management, budgeting, and permitting: Bonfire provides strategic sourcing and procurement software to enable confident and compliant spending decisions; CityBase provides government payment solutions to connect constituents with utilities and government agencies; eCivis offers a grant management system to maximize grant revenues and track performance; Open Counter provides government payment software to guide applicants through complex permitting and licensing procedures; Questica offers budget preparation and management software to deliver on financial and non-financial strategic objectives; Sherpa provides public sector budgeting software and consulting services.
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