County Navigates Peak Appeal Season with Tyler Solutions

• Industry: County Government
• Location: Lake County, Illinois
• Employees: 30
• Population: 750,000
• Tyler Client Since: 2018
• Tyler Products Used: Enterprise Assessment & Tax [powered by iasWorld®], Enterprise Permitting & Licensing [powered by EnerGov™], and SmartFile

Challenges

Lake County, Illinois had always been cognizant of the changing consumer environment when it came to property assessment and taxation. However, as the pandemic continued and its suite of legacy systems reached its life expectancy, the organization sought help from providers to support their growing needs and challenging processes.

Back in the early 2000s, the county’s 26,000 appeals were filed with three paper copies each. Appeal review season would take nine or ten months, said Robert Glueckert, chief county assessment officer. The documents would come in on skids and staff would spend hours timestamping every piece for compliance and tracking.

Years later, even with the county’s homegrown system for file lookup, these stacks of paper remained within the county office walls. The team recognized that modern functionality, integration, ease of use, efficiency, and customer service were critical components it would need to solidify operations across the county and beyond.

As it came time to replace the internal legacy solution, multiple vendors were considered, and the complex Illinois tax code presented challenges to any out-of-the-box tools. To address these challenges, the county needed an accurate, efficient, and paperless solution to equip assessment professionals and office staff while also affording its constituents modern conveniences and transparency.

Solution

Lake County was looking for a software solution that included:

• A paperless workflow for managing every step of the property tax life cycle
• A dashboard that would allow administrators to monitor key performance indicators
• The ability for constituents to engage in an online property appeal or file for an exemption online
• A complete management system to inspect, review, and defend property tax values

The county chose Tyler’s Enterprise Assessment & Tax, as well as SmartFile, to modernize its office. The flexibility of the solutions allowed them to expedite appeals, certify tax rolls faster, and meet the needs of constituents like never before.

Results

With these new solutions in place, Lake County has transformed the efficiency and productivity of the assessment office. Constituents can now electronically submit documents for appeals and complete the process from the comfort of their home. These changes proved to be immediately beneficial. The county completed just under 26,000 appeals in a six-month timeframe during 2019, and kept pace in 2021 as the pandemic made remote interactions even more critical.

That same year, as the third-largest county in the state of Illinois, Lake County was also the third in the state to file final abstracts. The third-largest county in Illinois is now a 21st century model of efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

“In my opinion, Tyler is one of the strongest companies out there, offering one of the best products available today. They’re responsive. They’ve been a great team player to work with, and I appreciate all the time and effort that they’ve put in.”

— Robert Glueckert

Chief County Assessment Officer