Price County is located in north central Wisconsin. With a population of approximately 16,000 and a 28,000 parcel count, the County boasts abundant forest land along with over 18,000 acres of water. Recreation activities such as hunting, fishing and hiking are widely popular throughout the County.
In the early 2000’s, Price County was utilizing an in-house system for appraising and taxing all of their property. This system relied on manual data entry and was extremely inefficient for the Treasurer and Real Property Lister offices. In time, the technology became inefficient.
Price County, along with four other counties, developed a consortium in order to develop a new system. Chris Lucas, then a developer for his own company, Lucas System Solutions, developed the new system with assistance and input from the counties. The process of developing the software was a cooperative effort, with the counties and Chris Lucas meeting on a monthly basis. The new solution was named Novus-WI.
Manatron Novus-WI is a comprehensive Government Revenue Management® (GRM®) property and tax management solution designed specifically with the needs of Wisconsin County Government in mind. It features fully integrated modules that incorporate Real Property, Personal Property, Receipting, Reporting, Tax Management, Address & Road Management, Zoning, Foreclosure (In-Rem & Tax Deed), and Public Access all in one software suite.
Built for Wisconsin County government -- by Wisconsin County government -- the Novus-WI software suite workflow is geared toward the needs of county staff throughout our annual year. State forms have been reproduced and incorporated where applicable for easy recognition and translation of everyday tasks. Because the Novus-WI solution has been created on the Microsoft .NET® framework, it is easy for the county professional to transfer information directly from their office to the online portals that Wisconsin provides all in one easy step.
With Manatron Novus-WI, all functionality comes from one enterprise database and is referenced live by all county staff. Gone are the days of independent software running in each department making it inefficient to complete daily tasks. The Manatron solution utilizes one enterprise database that serves the needs of all county staff. Information can be accessed from anyone’s desktop, making county processes more effective and efficient.
“The switch to the browser-based system brought a bit of a learning curve but it was necessary in order to bring better technology to our office,” commented Lynn Neeck, Price County Treasurer. “In addition, it allows connection between our office and other browser-based applications throughout the county as well as with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.”
With the Novus-WI solution, Price County is able to access more information that is integrated with the Real Property Lister. In addition, local officials are able to upload their data for import into the current system. Both result in less manual data entry within the County’s offices.
After completing the Novus-WI solution with the other Wisconsin counties, Chris Lucas joined the Manatron team in January of 2008. Chris continues to install and support the Novus-WI solution throughout the state of Wisconsin.
“Chris has been wonderful to work with,” stated Neeck. “Any time there is an issue or problem he’s taken care of it right away.”
“Chris has always been there continuing to work to make the system what we need it to be,” said Price County RPL, Janet Krucky.
For more information about the Novus-WI solution, please visit www.manatron.com/solutions/novus-wi.aspx.