Camino Visits McKinney, TX!

Last week, Camino’s business team met for the first time in-person since the beginning of the pandemic. While it was an incredible chance to catch up with the team and get to know each other after months of hard work, the highlight of our trip was definitely getting the chance to visit our partner, McKinney, TX.

We met with their Development Services team led by Brandon Opiela and Business Operations Analyst Samantha Pickett for a walkthrough of their permitting process, and a look at how they are using software to support the incredible growth they are seeing as a community just outside Dallas. McKinney’s Building guide, which they call DNA (Development Navigation Assistant), has been able to help them continue to provide excellent customer service and permit turnaround times even while dealing with the ongoing pandemic and staffing shortages.

As Brandon described the various challenges they face as a department, he emphasized how difficult it was (pre-Camino) for staff to consistently and accurately explain the permit process to residents. The building process is truly complex, and the specific requirements can vary dramatically based on the locations and details of each project. His staff mentioned how Camino has been instrumental in delivering a level of consistency in their process that was hard to achieve when residents were calling in with questions (and sometimes getting answers from multiple people). Camino saves McKinney’s staff hours each week that they would have otherwise spent on those calls, and ensures they are accepting complete and accurate applications that take them less time to review and process. 

McKinney’s commitment to using innovative technology was inspiring to our team and we’re thrilled to see them on the leading edge of a nation-wide trend towards automation. Some permitting departments we speak with are reluctant to incorporate technology into their processes, but McKinney sees software as a necessary and inevitable part of progress for their department. McKinney is determined to implement systems like Camino that promote user-friendliness and intelligence as a way to better serve their new generation of homeowners. 

Our team left McKinney energized and full of ideas about how we can learn from their successes and help our other partners. We always appreciate feedback from our customers through email and over the phone, but seeing Camino in action in person gave us a renewed sense of purpose and confidence that we really are changing the landscape of permitting software for the better.