Original Process:

Every day City Of Houston Code Enforcement inspectors drove, in city owned vehicles, from home to the downtown office of the Planning Department where they input the previous day's inspection reports into the City of Houston's mainframe computer. Some inspectors reports were transcribed by separate data entry staff.

The previous night, the City mainframe processed inspection schedules for each inspector. Inspection worksheets for each project to be inspected were printed. Worksheets were manually sorted by each inspector, arranged in a sequence to perform inspections. Inspectors began work day by driving from the Planning Department office.

Inspectors hand wrote inspection reports at each location. Reports were transcribed into the computer system the next morning. Failed inspections required a separate document to be posted at the failure location and the failure information was not input into the City's computer until the following day. Typical inspection reporting required greater than 24 hours to update the Planning Department data base.

Failure notices were not available to either Code Enforcement or contractors, until the following day, at the earliest. After the last inspection of the day, each inspector drove back to the office where they turn worksheets in for keying, or entered data themselves. more

Problems / Issues:

• Time wasted making a trip each day to the downtown office to receive daily inspection
  worksheets and return to input inspection reports.

• Delay of up to twenty-four hours before inspection results are entered into the
  City Of Houston's computer.

• Hand written documents promote transcription and transposition errors and do not
  provide consistent inspection reporting.

• Miscommunication and misunderstanding between inspectors and contractor on
  inspection results and start/stop work issues.

• Excessive vehicle usage and resulting expense.

• Data entry staff required to input inspection reports.

• Inspector overtime due to workload.

Solution:

InterSpect© provides a realtime wireless solution for data entry from the field inspection point into an Integrated Land Management System (ILMS) used by the City of Houston. InterSpect© and wireless RIM© portable computers enable inspectors to post realtime inspection results. Inspection results are transmitted from RIM© terminals to City of Houston mainframe computer instantly becoming available
to customers (contractors) through the internet and an interactive voice response system.        Next