Hennepin County

"As we deploy more applications to EAServer, we are seeing a compounding of efficiencies. We can develop applications more quickly because we can reuse portions of the framework from previous applications."

Kristin Ross
Lead Developer/Architect
Hennepin County

Hennepin County, Minnesota's most populous county, needed to improve the delivery of its services and access to information by delivering new Web-based initiatives. Using Sybase technology, the county deployed a flexible and cost-effective solution enabling it to expand its services despite tightening budgets

Business Advantage

The fact that Sybase EAServer provides a service delivery channel that doesn't require human resources has real appeal, especially in times of economic turmoil. What once cost Hennepin county an estimated $11 to $13 per transaction to do a face-to-face traffic ticket payment now costs about 13 cents.

Key Benefits

Reduces searches from hours to seconds
Improves access and ease-of-use
Saves significant amount in transaction costs

Sybase Technology

Industry

Public Sector

Improving County Services
Encompassing the greater Minneapolis metropolitan area, Hennepin County provides its more than one million residents access to hundreds of services online. It recently won a Digital Counties "Best of Breed" award for its successful multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional collaboration application that is considered the first of its kind.

Hennepin County 's challenge was to improve the delivery of services and access to information through the development of Web-based services and applications. The solution architecture needed to be flexible, cost effective and accommodate future Web application development.

EAServer Powers e-Government Efforts
In 1999, Hennepin County initially deployed Sybase EAServer to deploy multi-tier Sybase PowerBuilder applications and new Java Web applications. Once the applications went into production, it became apparent that the ease of use and scalability of Sybase's powerful application server could be applied to other projects within the county government system. Hennepin County now has more than 20 EAServer applications.

"As we deploy more applications to EAServer, we are seeing a compounding of efficiencies," said Kristin Ross, lead developer and architect, Hennepin County. "We can develop applications more quickly because we can reuse portions of the framework from previous applications."

Sybase EAServer provided integration capabilities to synchronize information scattered across multiple counties providing online access to court calendars, criminal case history research, electronic pay stubs and online payments as only a few examples of Hennepin County's e-government efforts.

Trimming Costs While Expanding Services
In a time of economic belt-tightening across the entire country, Hennepin County is using Sybase EAServer to trim costs while accelerating and expanding services to constituents. In some cases, searches that used to take hours are now completed in 12 seconds.

"Because of the economy, we are seeing people recoiling from county budget issues," said David Beckman, information technology manager, Hennepin County. "The fact that Sybase EAServer provides a service delivery channel that doesn't require human resources has real appeal. It costs the county an estimated $11 to $13 per transaction to do a face-to-face traffic ticket payment. An online transaction now costs about 13 cents—a very significant savings."