On a recent episode of Beyond Data Management, Christine Brakefield, Avolve’s Director of Partner Management and Enablement, joined HS GovTech’s Executive Director of Operations, Cameron Garrison, to talk about how the new Avolve–HS GovTech partnership is transforming electronic plan review for Environmental Health (EH) agencies.
Their conversation, which kicked off celebrating the new partnership between Avolve and HS GovTech, underscored how intentional design is reshaping the way government teams work, highlighted the duo’s forward-thinking approaches to GovTech, and touched on Brakefield’s public service roots. Read more for the highlights below.
Bringing Better Tech to EH
The collaboration brings together two trusted, long-time GovTech leaders: Avolve, the company behind DigEplan, one of the most widely adopted electronic plan review solutions, and HS GovTech, the provider of leading environmental health and permitting software.
Together, they're bringing electronic plan review to the EH community to support their crucial public health missions more efficiently than ever before.
“Plan review is something that gets kind of treated at times as an afterthought in the broader environmental health community, and you end up though paying for it in other ways,” said Garrison. “EH has never been served with good tech.”
That is changing thanks to the newly launched partnership. Brakefield explained that the HS GovTech partnership allows Avolve to meet agencies where they already work. Now, when users open a record in HS Cloud Suite, they can launch directly into DigEplan—no downloading, no toggling between systems, she said. “The tech is handling all of that for you.”
From automated file validation to real-time collaboration and customizable digital stamps, DigEplan helps agencies eliminate repetitive tasks and reduce review cycles. “You can buy the best tech out there,” Brakefield explained, “but if it’s not implemented well, it won’t get you from A to B. We focus on process analysis and making sure the technology makes your life easier, not harder.”
From the Field to the Forefront of Innovation
Before joining Avolve, Brakefield spent a decade in local government, including seven years as a chief building official in the Oklahoma City area. That experience gives her a tangible understanding of daily challenges faced by reviewers, inspectors, and administrators who manage complex projects under tight timelines.
“My agency was fairly small… so I was also the full-time plan reviewer,” she said. “It was by far my favorite job I’ve ever had. It was challenging, it was rewarding,” she added. “I’ve always had a heart for public service.”
Both her commitment to public service and the ever-present realities of cumbersome plan review workflows eventually set Brakefield on a new path. After overseeing a permitting technology upgrade at her agency, she saw firsthand the need for electronic plan review software built specifically for government.
When the opportunity came to join Avolve, Brakefield “got really excited after my first conversation with [them],” she said, “You’re making a difference at scale, not just to the [employees in] the public sector” she reflected, but “every one of the constituents they serve.”
Intentional AI that Keeps Humans in the Loop
The conversation inevitably pivoted to artificial intelligence, and Brakefield was clear about Avolve’s philosophy: AI should augment, not replace, human expertise.
“There's a lot of nuance in code and public safety,” Brakefield said, noting how important human judgment is when it comes to interpretation, code intent, and public safety decisions. Avolve’s approach is what we call intentional AI, or “human in the loop,” Brakefield said.
When it comes to the AI tools flooding the market, Brakefield said: “You don't want to be just first, but you want to actually have something that makes sense.”
Avolve’s AI roadmap centers on practical, explainable features like detecting missing sheet references, identifying file errors, or automatically flagging scale discrepancies. The aim is to start with cleaner plans to eliminate the frustration before it even starts, said Brakefield.
Building Trust Through Partnership
Brakefield and Garrison’s discussion also highlighted how Avolve’s partnership-driven approach ensures success for agencies. By expanding its delivery and implementation teams, Avolve emphasizes long-term collaboration over one-time deployment.
The same spirit of collaboration defines Avolve’s work with HS GovTech. Together, the companies are delivering purpose-built innovation to agencies across environmental health, planning, and building.
As Brakefield put it, the goal isn’t just digital transformation for its own sake but helping government staff better build the thriving communities citizens deserve.
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