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45 Years of Tech Services & Advancement

In a U.S. Mayor article titled Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson, LLP at 35 Years of Age published on June 13, 2011, that the author wrote “Having started in the era when some agencies hadn’t even graduated to electric typewriters, Linebarger Goggan proved to be a technological innovator and computerization made all the difference.” The article goes on to say that, “The firm developed proprietary software that is the backbone of its operation.”

Technology has been a critical factor in Linebarger’s growth from the beginning. When the Firm first began collecting property taxes 45 years ago, Linebarger initially developed proprietary software for its delinquent tax operations. Later the firm’s in-house IT personnel customized a commercial product, Columbia Ultimate Business Solutions (CUBS) software under an agreement with the Licensee to adapt it to the Firm’s fees and fines services. On a parallel track, the Firm’s subsidiary, Appraisal & Collection Technologies, LLC (ACT) began developing a comprehensive tax office collection software.

“Back when we started collecting property taxes, our clients didn’t have the most efficient tax office management system, so it was hard to collect,” Rich Pachecano, Linebarger’s previous Fees & Fines Collection System and Operations Director told Austin Business Journal in 2004. He continued, “We offered to develop a software as a value-added service, all in the name of efficiency. The next thing you know, we’re developing and selling software to clients and non-clients.” Today ACT provides and supports this software solution in the largest tax offices in Texas, including Harris, Bexar, Dallas, and Hidalgo Counties, as well as the City of El Paso, which is the tax collector for all entities in that county.

Listening to our clients and their need for technology solutions has continued to be a prominent part of our business model.

Currently, Linebarger has more than 170 information technology professionals who design, implement, and maintain systems and software that support the collection programs for our clients. We are constantly working to make each client’s experiences with us better. We recently rolled out the Dashboard reporting system to give our fees and fines clients another easy, online option to see how our collection program is working for them.

Along with our collection’s software Linebarger also had to put our expertise to work internally during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. With 48 offices across the country and over 1,000 employees, Linebarger relied on its ITG department to ensure a smooth transition from working in the office to working from home. Within a week, ITG increased VPN-capable users from 300 to 900. The average number of daily VPN users went from 25 to 700. ITG also expanded virtual infrastructure to support remote work locations, video conferencing, collaboration tools, training, and more. This increased infrastructure was also used to ease communication with our clients when in-person meetings were not possible.