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Platform Overview
The CIPAce Platform

A Configurable Enterprise Platform for Capital Programs

CIPAce™ is a cloud-based, metadata-driven, low-code, enterprise-grade platform, organically developed and exclusively deployed by CIPPlanner Corporation. It manages the full capital infrastructure lifecycle and adapts to your processes without source-code changes.

Also Known As
CIPAce Platform · Low-Code Capital Program Management · Metadata-Driven Architecture · Enterprise Configurability
CIPAce platform architecture and module ecosystem
$250B+
in capital programs across all CIPAce customers
20,000+
users across all CIPAce customers
25 years
of CIPPlanner capital infrastructure delivery
The Challenge

Why Enterprise Software Ages Badly in Government

General-purpose enterprise software assumes it will be customized by code and integrated point to point. In a capital program that is exactly what makes it fragile over time.

Customizations That Become Unmaintainable

Enterprise software adapted by custom code turns into a fork that has to be rebuilt and retested at every release, so the system gets more fragile the more it is tailored.

Vendor Lock-In

When only the vendor can change the system, every adjustment is a project, and the agency loses the ability to evolve its own processes.

Integrations That Break at Upgrade

Point-to-point integrations built as custom code fail at the next upgrade, so data exchange with the financial system or GIS is never quite dependable.

Data Trapped in Silos

Planning, delivery, and asset data live in separate systems, so there is no single source of truth for executive oversight or long-term asset health.

Platform Capabilities

Seven Capabilities on Every CIPAce Solution

These capabilities are present on every CIPAce™ solution, not added per module, so a dashboard, an audit trail, or a workflow works the same way across the whole platform.

Dashboards and Portals

Configurable dashboards consolidate tasks, data, and drill-down insights, including health check style visual indicators for performance measures.

Reporting and Analytics

Access virtually any data element for standard, custom, and analytic reporting, with outputs including PDF, Word, and Excel.

Workflow and Notifications

Automate multi-party review and approval with routing, validation rules, workflow logs, and email or dashboard notifications.

Document Management

Centralize records with version control, routing for review and approval, full-text search, and online mark-up for common file types including CAD.

Audit Trail and Access Control

Track changes to business records, who made them, and when, supporting accountability, compliance, and audit readiness.

Integration Framework and APIs

Two-way integrations with third-party software through the CIPAce Web API, supporting enterprise integration across financial systems, GIS, and other tools.

Mobile Enablement

A mobile application supports field and on-the-go productivity, with offline capture in the field that syncs when a connection returns.

What You Can Achieve

Configure to Your Reality, Keep One Source of Truth

Evolve Without Custom Development

  • Modify system interfaces and create new data entities with Smart Text, Metadata, and Dynamic Forms
  • Build and modify automated workflows to mirror your governance, approval cycles, and compliance requirements
  • Generate analytics with native support for Power BI, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Excel
  • Evolve without expensive custom development or long lead times

One Source of Truth Across the Lifecycle

  • Centralize all capital infrastructure lifecycle data into a unified hub
  • Visualize project impact and asset location with native GIS integration
  • Connect financial and ERP systems through two-way integration to maintain fiscal alignment
  • Track every change with role-based security and audit-ready records
The Architecture

Metadata-Driven, Low-Code, and Yours to Configure

The architecture is what makes the configurability real. Four properties define it.

Metadata-Driven and Low-Code

CIPAce is built on a metadata-driven, low-code architecture, so interfaces and new data entities are created through configuration with Smart Text, Metadata, and Dynamic Forms rather than custom development.

Organically Developed and Exclusively Deployed

The platform is organically developed and exclusively deployed by CIPPlanner Corporation, a single codebase refined over more than a quarter century of capital infrastructure work.

Configured, Not Custom-Coded

The platform is designed to adapt without requiring source-code changes for many common enhancements, so tailoring the system does not create a fork to maintain.

On Premises or SaaS

CIPAce supports both traditional On Premises deployments and Software-as-a-Service models, depending on your IT strategy and governance requirements.

24 U.S. states

with city, county, state, utility, and transportation agencies running CIPAce™

More than 90%

of CIPPlanner customers are public sector organizations

100% dedicated

to capital infrastructure enterprise software development and system deployment

Deployment Options

CIPAce™ supports both traditional On Premises deployments and Software-as-a-Service deployment models, depending on your organization’s IT strategy and governance requirements.

Ideal For

  • IT and enterprise architecture teams
  • Capital program management offices
  • Agencies replacing brittle custom-coded systems
  • Organizations standardizing on one platform
Questions Buyers Ask

The CIPAce Platform, Answered

The questions below are the ones IT and evaluation teams ask about the platform itself. Each answer gives the criteria first, then what CIPAce™ does about them.

The distinction decides how maintainable the system stays. Customized software is changed by writing code against it, which creates a version that must be rebuilt at every upgrade. Configurable software is changed through settings the platform is designed to accept.

CIPAce™ is metadata-driven and low-code, and it is designed to adapt without source-code changes for many common enhancements, so agencies configure rather than custom-code.

A low-code platform lets you build interfaces, data entities, and workflows through configuration rather than programming. For capital program management that means an agency can mirror its own processes without a development project for each change.

CIPAce™ uses Smart Text, Metadata, and Dynamic Forms to modify interfaces and create data entities, and a workflow engine to build approval and compliance flows.

CIPAce™ is designed to adapt without requiring source-code changes for many common enhancements. That is a property of the metadata-driven architecture, not a promise about a single feature.

Because tailoring happens through configuration, the system does not fork, and enhancements do not have to be rebuilt at the next release.

Custom code written against a product creates a separate version. Every vendor upgrade then has to be reconciled with that custom layer, which grows more fragile and expensive as the customizations pile up.

CIPAce™ avoids this by handling many common enhancements through configuration rather than source-code changes, so the platform can be upgraded without unwinding a fork.

Lock-in eases when the agency can change the system itself and get its data out cleanly. CIPAce™ is configured through low-code settings rather than vendor-only code changes, and it provides robust native import and export so data is not trapped in proprietary formats.

Two-way integration through the CIPAce Web API keeps the platform connected to the systems the agency already runs.

In a metadata-driven platform, the structure of the application, its forms, fields, and workflows, is defined as configurable metadata rather than hard-coded. Changing the metadata changes the application without rewriting it.

CIPAce™ is a cloud-based, metadata-driven, low-code, enterprise-grade platform organically developed and exclusively deployed by CIPPlanner Corporation.

CIPAce™ supports both traditional On Premises deployments and Software-as-a-Service models, depending on your organization's IT strategy and governance requirements.

That lets an agency match the deployment to its own security posture rather than accept a single model.

Configurability is the axis on which these evaluations usually turn, because a capital program is a fit problem more than a feature problem. The useful test is whether the platform is configured or custom-coded.

CIPAce™ is metadata-driven and low-code, tailored to each customer's business processes through configurations, workflows, and automation, without source-code changes for many common enhancements.

The choice comes down to your IT strategy and governance. SaaS reduces the operational burden and keeps you current automatically. On premises keeps the deployment inside your own environment.

CIPAce™ supports both, so the decision is yours rather than the vendor's. Security hosting details are on the Security and Compliance page.

CIPAce™ provides role-based access control across the platform and an audit trail that records what changed, who changed it, and when, supporting accountability, compliance, and audit readiness.

Both are platform capabilities, present on every CIPAce solution rather than added per module.

Related

Schedule a Platform Walkthrough

We will show the configuration tools against your own process, not a generic sandbox. Thirty minutes on how CIPAce is tailored without source-code changes.

Schedule a Demo

Tell us the systems you run today and we will tailor the session to it.