Case Study: Large County Employee Servicing Company achieves streamlined digital permitting and 61% more permit capacity with Brightly Software

One of the largest counties in the US Streamlines Permitting with Brightly’s SmartGov

One of the largest counties in the U.S., covering several thousand square miles with about 1,200 employees and a 32‑person Community Development team, was hampered by a paper‑based, inconsistent permitting process. Counter intake, scanning, emails and siloed division practices meant permits often took months to move from application to closure even though actual processing time should have been days.

By fully adopting Brightly’s SmartGov—digitizing files, training every division and launching a customer portal in January 2020—the county unified workflows, enabled remote work and eliminated manual status emails. The result: all permitting tasks are digital and accessible remotely, customers can apply and upload plans online, the county handled a 61% increase in permit requests without adding staff, and average issuance time fell dramatically (from over 300 days to roughly three weeks).