City of Cambridge builds a fully digital, hybrid-ready assessor’s office with Alltus

Context & Challenges

Cambridge’s Assessor’s Office manages nearly 30,000 parcels, but like many local governments, it was operating in a post-pandemic hybrid model that wasn’t built for legacy workflows.

Physical disks. Manual data entry. Paper forms. Endless back-and-forth with taxpayers.

Manual processes weren’t just slow. They created risk for human error, which can lead to data inaccuracies, taxpayer complaints, and a growing workload for the Cambridge staff.

The department wanted one thing: modern tools, so staff could focus on higher-value work instead of chasing paperwork.

Solution

Cambridge partnered with Alltus to modernize four core workflows: Deeds, Forms, Business Personal Property (BPP), and Front Desk. The Alltus platform integrates workflows across modules to give taxpayers a seamless experience, while reducing the administrative burden on staff and letting them grow their careers on higher-level work.

Deeds: From one month to two weeks

Before: Deeds arrived on physical disks. Processing a single batch took about a month, and three staff handled tedious manual data entry.

After: With Alltus Deeds Automation, processing time dropped to roughly two weeks. The system automatically matched parcels, extracted data, validated addresses, and flagged master deed discrepancies before they became billing errors.

The shift eliminated redundant data entry, freed up two staff to work on more complex condo development projects, and reduced taxpayer complaints.

Forms: Automating I&E and MVEA processes

The Cambridge team also digitized two of their highest-volume forms: Income & Expense (I&E) and Motor Vehicle Excise Abatement (MVEA).

Before: I&E processing took months. Staff manually transcribed hundreds of spreadsheets, while MVEA was plagued with incomplete paper applications and daily “What’s my status?” calls.

After: Alltus online portals did the heavy lifting:

• I&E forms now auto-collate rent rolls by bedroom type, producing clean, uniform data sets.
• MVEA forms require all documentation upfront, cutting the constant back-and-forth.
• Both portals provide real-time status updates, reducing taxpayer calls almost entirely.

What used to take months now takes weeks, and accuracy has never been higher.

BPP: Real-time tracking and transparency

Cambridge’s Business Personal Property (BPP) process was another manual one. Paper forms were stored offsite with consultants, which made collaboration and real-time tracking difficult.

With Alltus digital forms, consultants and staff now work from the same dashboard, seeing submissions and progress instantly.

The change is expected to accelerate processing by about a month, giving assessors extra time for quality review. And for the first time, staff can offer on-the-spot taxpayer support because data is instantly accessible.

Front Desk: Streamlining communication in a hybrid office

In a hybrid department, managing inbound emails and taxpayer questions is very challenging.

Cambridge adopted Alltus Front Desk, a platform that captures constituent emails, calls, chats, and walk-ins in one place, routes them to the right staff member, and uses AI trained on the agency’s own tone, topics, and terminology to pre-draft or fully automate responses.

Now, any staff member can see what’s open, who’s handling it, and when it was last touched. Front Desk also connects to other Alltus modules, so questions that come in by chat or email can be answered with real-time access to any forms the constituent has submitted. Front Desk dramatically cuts down on repetitive tasks for staff and shortens response times for constituents.

This has also positioned the Assessor’s Office as a test case for a potential citywide rollout of Front Desk, which applies to most city departments that receive a high volume of inquiries from constituents.

Results

Across all four product lines, Cambridge’s gains are clear:

• Deeds: from a one-month manual process to two weeks with AI automation
• Forms (I&E and MVEA): from months of manual data entry to automated portals with real-time updates
• BPP: from no visibility with consultants to real-time tracking, about a month faster
• Front Desk: from manual inbox chaos to a centralized queue with AI responses

Key outcomes

• 50% faster processing times across core workflows
• Hundreds of hours reclaimed from manual data entry
• Higher accuracy and fewer taxpayer complaints
• Improved morale across a hybrid team
• Strategic visibility for leadership

Cambridge as a model for modernization

For Cambridge, this wasn’t just about efficiency. It was about creating a digital foundation that supports how government work is done today.

By adopting four modules on the Alltus platform (Deeds, Forms, BPP, and Front Desk), the Assessor’s Office became one of the most forward-thinking local government teams in the region.

And it’s not stopping here. With data feeds and citywide integrations on the horizon, Cambridge is setting the standard for what modern local government can look like: connected, transparent, and constituent-friendly.