the more drastic changes made things difficult. For example, we went from a free form name and ad-
dress scheme to separate fields such as last name, first name, house number, quadrant, and street. I
wrote a conversion program that got close to 95% correct and we used the office staff to correct the rest
manually.
Satisfying our users was another big hurdle; however, we resolved this problem by creating a small
user’s group consisting of a representative from each department. The members of the user’s group
would filter all the requests, needs, and wants from their department and present only those that each
department truly needed. It was a lot easier for us to satisfy the users on a department level than on an
individual level.
We then ran into performance issues with our early functioning versions. After doing some experi-
menting we found that the amount of processing on the server was bogging things down. So, I moved
most of the processing from the server to the client and our performance issues disappeared. Now,
when a user runs an intensive batch program, nobody else in the office notices. With our obstacles out
of the way, we completed Merlin in 2010 just in time for the 2011 roll year.
Merlin boasts a tabbed user interface that provides all the information they want at their fingertips.
Users can click on tabs and view specific information about land, buildings, sales, etc. They are able to
rearrange the order as well as add and remove tabs whenever needed and Merlin remembers those set-
tings and reloads them every time the user logs on. Merlin also provides a quick read-only data view
that displays the most commonly used data at the top of the screen. This area has been especially help-
ful when dealing with customers on the phone. To top things off, a control bar provides the tools
needed to select parcels and roll years as far back as 1989 and access searches, the change log, prop-
erty record cards, and our Merlin GIS interface.
We interfaced our CAMA system with GIS using an API developed by Bruce Harris and Associates. It
provides a two way link between our GIS and CAMA data. Merlin GIS includes all the tools you would
expect, such as zoom, pan, and select, plus, you can create property record cards and even run a sales
analysis batch job on selected parcels.
The Merlin batch system allows users to select from a wide range of batch programs, define parame-
ters, save copies of their jobs, and run or schedule jobs. Since the batch programs run on their local
PC, they do not compete with other users’ jobs and most complete within a few seconds. Reports can
be printed, emailed, or saved in various formats such as PDF and Excel. The system allowed us to rec-
reate state forms, removing the need to manually fill out these forms. Additionally, the users can use
the batch system to download raw data for analysis in programs such as Excel.
Our building sketch tool is an excellent example of avoiding redundant code. In Wisard, every program
that displayed a sketch had code for drawing the sketch. That meant that the sketch screen, the printed
property record card, and the website all had its own set of this very complex code and what made it
even worse, it was written in two different languages. In Merlin, we created one object that knows how
to draw a sketch. This object is used everywhere a sketch is needed, so there is only one copy of the
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“
We could design the new system exactly the way we wanted it and continue to reap the
benefits of an in-house staff for support.
”
