This rapidly growing county is streamlining customer service through an interactive Internet site.

Intergraph announced that Dallas County, Iowa, one of the top 10 fastest growing counties in the United States, is using Intergraph Web mapping solutions to speed delivery of customer requests for geospatial data. The county created a new, easily navigable Web site, http://geodallas.co.dallas.ia.us/, enabling users to create maps and visualize other location-specific information from home or office computers, thus eliminating trips to the county courthouse. Not only does the new site save time and money for citizens and businesses, but it also allows county personnel to focus on other functions to support the area's tremendous growth.

Using GeoMedia WebMap technology, the site integrates disparate datasets from six different county offices including property lines, centerline data, rivers, lakes, political borders, section lines, property owner description data and more. Web site visitors can use online tools to plot to scale and plot aerial photos, gather general property data, find a voting location, query buffer zones in relation to houses, look up real estate taxes and view assessment data.

Since the website went online earlier this year Web traffic is averaging 400 unique users a day, and foot traffic and telephone inquiries related to acquiring geographic information have dropped by 50 percent in various county offices.

Source: Intergraph, June 16, 2005