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The Challenge: DLGF Required Certification
As the third largest county in the state of Indiana, Vanderburgh County includes the city of Evansville and surrounding areas. The County prides itself on remembering its past while focusing on the future. The County also remains committed to fostering a strong sense of community and economic opportunity for all citizens as well as a responsive, results-oriented local government.
In 2007, as the State of Indiana announced it would require all county tax billing and collection software to be certified, Vanderburgh County evaluated the current state of its existing software, which had been custom-developed many years ago. "The cost and effort to certify the software would have been too cost prohibitive," said Bill Fluty, the Vanderburgh County Auditor. "We also knew the functionally of the software had fallen behind, so we wanted to turn to a new solution that would also improve our process efficiencies." 
When beginning the search for a solution provider to address this challenge, the County did not realize yet that it would have to deal with additional challenges that would emerge along the way. This included new property tax circuit-breaker caps as well as a change by the County on how it would handle taxpayer applications for the Homestead Exemption.
The Solution: Manatron GRM ProVal and MVP Tax
One of the first solution providers that Vanderburgh County considered to address the tax billing and collection challenge was Manatron. The County had already partnered with Manatron for many years since the deployment of Manatron's GRM ProVal property appraisal solution, which helped the assessor's office staff become much more efficient.
"GRM ProVal is easy-to-use, and it has allowed us to speed-up the process of submitting information to the State so that we can maintain our compliance," said Jonathan Weaver, the Vanderburgh County Assessor. "The solution allows us to classify things in an orderly manner and for many years has helped the citizens of Vanderburgh County by facilitating our ability to provide property value information."
The success of the GRM ProVal solution played a big role in prompting Vanderburgh County to choose Manatron again for the tax billing and collection solution. As required by law, the County conducted a thorough RFP process to evaluate other vendors as well.
"At the end of the RFP process, we chose Manatron because they outscored the other vendors by demonstrating their experience and showing us how they had achieved substantial market share," Fluty said. "Manatron demonstrated how they have the resources and the knowledge of what happens within the State Legislature so that they can keep a close watch on legislation. They also have the ability to modify their software quickly when new laws impact the tax code."
Fluty added that another key reason for the selection was that Manatron became one of the first solution providers to be certified by the State of Indiana. Manatron also showed how they could help Vanderburgh County achieve on-time billing. "They never flinched when considering our requirements, and they demonstrated confidence in their ability to deploy the solution within the time frame we required," Fluty said. "They also showed us how they could convert the old system to our new system and were straight forward on pricing as well as the resources they would provide to handle the deployment."
The Deployment: Building of a Partnership
Manatron deployed MVP Tax in 2009 by migrating the data from the previous Vanderburgh County tax billing and collection system over to the new system. This required additional system adjustments since data references had different name designations from one solution to the other, and each solution had a different set of data items. To keep the project on schedule, Manatron met with Vanderburgh County on a weekly basis. This helped avoid stumbling blocks, and Manatron trained the County staff to guide them through every step. The close partnership between the County and Manatron was critical because of all the hurdles that had to be overcome.
"What we accomplished was a minor miracle when you consider that we needed to transfer all of the data from an outdated system into MVP Tax and train our staff," said Rick Davis, the Vanderburgh County Treasurer. "We also had to deal with new property tax circuit-breaker caps issued by the state that forced all but two counties in Indiana to fall behind on tax billing. But with MVP Tax and help from Manatron, we billed on time in the fall and spring, and we settled by the end of June. This allowed us to disburse funds to all of the County departments and prevented the County from having to borrow money, which would have cost the taxpayers in the long run."
In the fall of 2009, shortly after the MVP Tax solution went live, Manatron went the extra mile when the treasurer's office had to revise 48,000 tax bills. This occurred when the County tax council granted Homestead exemptions after the first fall tax installments were already mailed and past due. The County had to re-bill those citizens eligible for the exemption, and even issue refunds to those citizens that had already paid their fall taxes.
"Manatron reacted very quickly to help us with this situation," Davis said. "It required a lot of extra work on our part, but Manatron provided additional resources and helped us use MVP Tax to lessen the amount of overall time we spent getting back on track."
The Benefits: Improved Office Efficiencies That Lead To Reduced Operating Costs
For Jonathan Weaver and the Assessor’s office, one of the more recent benefits of GRM ProVal is the integration that Manatron has provided with Pictometry, a solution that provides online aerial images of properties. Manatron is a Pictometry business partner and configured the solution so that it's accessible as a tab folder within GRM ProVal.
"Pictometry improves our overall efficiency and accuracy by allowing us to see aerial images from our office that let us observe all four sides of a property," Weaver said. "This reduces amount of on-site time at properties and will save us significant money during our next general re-assessment. We can also now see new construction, such as a deck or a garage, and measure them without leaving the office."
For Rick Davis and the treasurer's office, MVP Tax has given Vanderburgh County several improved operating procedure efficiencies. With the previous system, any task that required data-processing or report-generation had to be submitted to the data-processing department. This process took an entire day for results to come back. With MVP tax, everyone on the staff can run reports on their own and generate results right away.
"This is especially helpful for reports that are run incorrectly," Davis said. "With the old system, it would take another day on top of the first day, which put us two days behind. Now we know right away and can correct the mistake and re-run the report in minutes."
"We noticed immediate improvement to automated processes to the extent where we did not need to replace one of our employees who resigned," Davis added. "This saves us nearly $40K per year in salary. And for the first time in 20 years, we are printing our bills in-house rather than outsourcing. This will save us $50,000 over five years."
The solution has also provided benefits to the citizens of Vanderburgh County. "We used to have long lines when people paid their taxes during deadline time, but we no longer do," Davis said. "The public is in-and-out without having to wait in line, and the tax payers have responded with positive feedback. This also helps our employees by removing the stress of serving customers that have to wait in line for a long time. The tax payers also appreciate receiving the correct information immediately without any mistakes."
Vanderburgh County citizens also benefit from Manatron’s eGovernment solution for online payments, which compliments MVP Tax. eGov shows the payment status and historical payment history for each citizen and allows title companies to conduct title searches online. The general public can also see if the current owners of a property are delinquent on their taxes.
"Manatron eGovernment makes it easier for us to process collections since onsite payments are automatically transferred into MVP Tax," Davis said. "It's also helpful to citizens that need to see if escrow payments have been made by the mortgage company."
From Auditor Bill Fluty's perspective, MVP Tax has also provided significant benefits. "Many counties did not bill on time due to certification requirements of the state in 2009, but even through our conversion, we billed by the deadline and settled by the deadline so that all of our departments had their funding without having to borrow. The Manatron solution allowed us to stay on schedule, which was a big accomplishment given that we are the third-largest county with 90,000 parcels and 180,000 citizens."
From the viewpoint of all three offices—Auditor, Assessor and Treasurer—Manatron is a resource the County can rely on to interpret complicated changes by the Indiana legislature that have to be incorporated into the property valuation and tax billing systems. Manatron alerts Vanderburgh County before changes go into effect and helps the County react properly. Manatron also continues to show County personnel how to perform functions and run reports more efficiently.
"The partnership has turned out very well," Fluty said. "Manatron delivered exactly what they said they would, and we hope to work together for many more years."
"Manatron will be especially helpful when we integrate MVP Tax with GRM ProVal, which the State is requiring us to do in 2010," Weaver added. "This will help us further reduce expenses and share processes across all three departments—auditor, assessor and treasurer—which will make it easier for citizens to interact with the County."