On Thursday, the 1st of August 2013, the Department of Planning released its new inspection portal for use in Grand Cayman. The Portal is the first phase of the Department’s new Online Planning System. This first phase will drastically revamp the inspection process and how inspections are requested by contractors and processed by the Department. Starting on the 5th of the month, all inspections received will be routed through the OPS system. Also starting from the 5th of August, all Contractors, Construction companies, Architects, Engineers and other design professionals are invited to sign up to have access to the system. Helpful training videos will be available online on the Planning website and face to face training sessions on the system’s use will be conducted twice per week for the month of August.

The first phase of the OPS will enable clients to submit their inspection requests online. “One of the most demanding processes within the Department is how we handle inspections of buildings under construction,” says Haroon Pandohie, Director of Planning. “With the OPS, we will drastically reduce the time it takes to process, execute, and document an inspection,” he continued. “This will save the department time and man-hours, and speed up every construction project for every contractor in the Cayman Islands.”

The Department of Planning has worked with Brac Informatics Centre (BIC) to develop the Online Planning System (OPS) which is a customised cloud-based application with paperless workflow and automatic notifications to users. “BIC is extremely pleased to see the launch of OPS,” said Alee Fa’amoe, Director of Client Solutions at BIC. “By leveraging over ten years of web and database integration experience, we’ve been able to meet and exceed the objectives of the Department of Planning to streamline their workflows, starting with the field inspections in this phase.”

Here is a summary of some OPS  benefits for Inspections:

•          Contractors can now submit inspection requests online. Online requests will have more prefilled information and save users time per submission.

•          The Department’s inspectors conduct their inspections with wireless tablets. This means they will record updates in real time and Contractors can know the inspection result immediately.

•          A central portal for contractors to use for all government inspections related to construction increases contractor efficiency and streamlines the Certificate of Occupancy process.

•          A central portal simplifies submission procedures and provides more accurate paper trails of completed workmanship.

•          OPS will provide greater information about permit inspections in one central location and will enhance the Project Manager’s ability to manage schedules with sub-trades.

•          OPS uses less paper and takes less time; this means reduced costs and faster turnaround times per task for contractors.

•          Net positive impacts on contractor productivity means improvements in the country’s GDP.

Department of Planning OPS Project Manager, Charles Brown, says this is just the first step in a larger effort to make the Department paperless. “By the time we complete the full OPS roll-out, the Department will be 95% paperless,” said Brown. “At this stage the processes for requesting a Certificate of Occupancy, other final documents and Electrical Connections with CUC will also be trackable online. In future releases the Department will be providing an inspection road map for Contractors to follow, and in the long term, electronic plan submissions for Permits and Projects and the incorporation of the OPS functionality in the sister islands,” he said.