InPrint Summer 2014

Summer 2014

Empowering GIS® for Public Asset Management

In This Issue: The GIS-centric Platform – 6 Cityworks Helps Communities with Extreme Winter Season – 12 Partners—An Essential Component – 15 Cityworks Builds Community – 28

InPrint Empowering GIS ® Public Asset Management

Advisory Board: Brian Haslam, President & CEO Carl Horton, Chief Technology Officer George Mastakas, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions Wayne Hill, Vice President of Client Relations Tom Palizzi, Vice President, Executive Producer Brent Wilson, Vice President of Sales Steve Thomas, Executive Manager, Customer Support

InPrint Staff: Editor in Chief: Tom Palizzi Managing Editor: Kaye Ryser Associate Editor: Lindsay Ferguson Copy Editor: Reece Hanzon, Audrey Blake Graphic Design: Kent Hepworth Graphic Design: Rachel Haslam

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Contact Us: Tel: 801-523-2751 Email: info@cityworks.com Archives available at: www.cityworks.com Azteca Systems Inc. 11075 South State Street, Suite 24 Sandy, UT 84070 801-523-2751 www.cityworks.com

Editor’s Page

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ommunity is defined as a social unit that shares common values. It’s not by coincidence that we perceive and refer to the people with whom we share our vision as a community.

Twenty years ago, we recognized the innovative and compelling benefits of a Geographic Information System (GIS)—the intrinsic power of the geodatabase. Considering it an authoritative, spatially-enabled asset inventory and a system of record suddenly made it a game changer. A truly innovative approach, Cityworks was built to support critical business processes such as asset management, permitting, licensing, and more. It became evident it was no longer just about the map, and a community has emerged around that belief.

At the core of the Cityworks community is a software solution used by thousands of people in hundreds of organizations to ensure the public infrastructure and property we depend on, yet often take for granted, is there when needed—all day, every day. Sharing the vision of Cityworks, this community puts their confidence in a group of insightful and dedicated people in a small office in suburban Salt Lake City. Integrity, honesty, and mutual respect allowed the company to grow and be there to support, educate, and innovate.

This mutually beneficial relationship took a simple, great idea and made it better and better. With the belief that responsible commerce is built on trust, the community of users and developers pursued a focused, best-of-class path. Filling the need to extend and complement Cityworks is a larger, diverse, and well-established community that shared our GIS-centric values.

The community gathers every year at the Cityworks User Conference to share knowledge, experiences, ideas, and direction. For the rest of the year, we share a virtual geography that extends from the communities in which we live. Today, the Cityworks community reaches around the world and includes a much larger group, of which all of us are part—the constituents, subscribers, and citizens, the benefactors of the very work we do.

This issue of InPrint tells the stories of our community, of how people just like you use Cityworks to manage the network of public assets and property in their communities; how our partners extend and deploy Cityworks to meet new and unusual needs; and how the work we do ensures the Cityworks platform can help us continue our missions.

Thanks for reading this issue of Cityworks InPrint!

Tom Palizzi InPrint Editor in Chief

Copyright © Azteca Systems Inc. 2014 All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

The information contained in this document is the exclusive property of Azteca Systems Inc. The work is protected under United States copyright law and other international copyright treaties and conventions. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as expressly permitted in writing by Azteca Systems Inc. All requests should be sent to Attention: Cityworks InPrint, Azteca Systems Inc., 11075 South State Street, #24, Sandy, UT 84070. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

Azteca Systems, Cityworks, Cityworks SAM, and Powered by Esri are registered trademarks; Cityworks Desktop, Cityworks Anywhere, Cityworks Server, GIS Empowered

by Cityworks, and Empowering GIS are trademarks of Azteca Systems Inc.; and www. mycityworks.com, www.gocityworks.com, www.cityworks.com, and @cityworks.com are service marks of Azteca Systems Inc. The names of other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

Contents Partner Community 15 Cityworks Partner Community: An Essential Component

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16 Freeance Mobile gives Highland Village Upper Hand 17 Baxter & Woodman Help Wood Dale Build with Cityworks 18 White House Utility District Think GIS-centric: Act Globally 20 Philadelphia Water Department, Water Security Initiative 22 Esri Canada Accessing Automated Vehicle Location Data

President’s Corner 6

26 Esri EPC and Developer Summit

The GIS-centric Platform—ArcGIS and Cityworks, and …

27 We are Cityworks – Partners

User Community 9

Together Forever – Colonie Loves Using Both AMS and PLL

10 Omaha City and Douglas County Get It Together

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11 We are Cityworks – Users 12 Cityworks helps Communities with Extreme Winter Season 14 2014 Cityworks Exemplary User Award Recipients

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2015 SummerQ12014 2015 Preview 2 Q3 2014

• iOS Inspection Ap • Android Inspectio • Misc Enhancemen

2014 Corporate Release

Corporate Community 28 Small Company, Big Reputation!

29 Working to Serve You! 30 Cityworks Teams Behind the Scenes 31 Regional User Group Meetings Connect Cityworks Communities

A Corporate Release is designed to be as problem-free as possible through heavy testing and quality control. The release will be maintained for at least two years, any significant problems found in the release will be resolved through service packs.

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Corporate Release Testing • • • • •

Iterations of automated and manual testing Documentation testing Client-site specific script testing Release candidates Project specific testing

32 Serving Our Communities With a Purpose

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34 Welcome New Employees 35 Cityworks Opens Regional Offices in Texas and Wisconsin

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• Iterations o and manua • Document

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2014 Service Packs

20 Te c h n o l o g y

Service Packs will be released as needed. No additional enhancements or functional changes will be added.

36 Cityworks Mobile 38 Cityworks 2014–2015 Release Model 40 Deploying Cityworks PLL with AMS 42 Test Blitz 43 Tools & Tips: The Differences Between Condition and Maintenance Scores

Cityworks User Conference 24 2014 User Conference Recap

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President’s Cor ner

The GIS-centric Platform— ArcGIS and Cityworks, and …

By Brian L. Haslam, President & CEO

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oday, we are seeing explosive growth in computing platform(s). The goal of a platform is to allow developers to design and build software applications to support unique workflows out of ready-made components, functions, and content available from a platform. Any discussion about trends in computing will include mention of a platform. But, this is not really new for GIS. The basic characteristics of a platform have existed in Esri® GIS for many years and are leveraged by Cityworks.

In 1987, I was tasked with researching GIS software and choosing the GIS that should be adopted by the University of Utah Department of Geography’s DIGIT Lab to support instruction and research. At that time, there were many GIS choices. It was not yet clear that Esri would become the dominant GIS platform. I spent nine months learning about various GIS. I gravitated towards Arc/Info® because it contained a highlevel macro language called AML (ARC Macro Language) that end users could use to create applications.

AML provided the ability to create on-screen menus, use and assign variables, control statement execution, and get and use maps. I believed the ability to extend Arc/Info to meet specific end-user workflow needs was a critical characteristic necessary for an organization to realize maximum benefits from their investment in GIS. In the late 80s and during the 90s, federal, state, and local government agencies

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used AML extensively to create applications that supported workflows for their unique needs.

At the most basic level, what set Arc/Info apart from other GIS was what we now call platform qualities. “A computing platform is, in the most general sense, whatever pre-existing environment a piece of software is designed to run within, obeying its constraints, and making use of its facilities.”1 Using AML, software developers designed applications that ran within the pre-existing Arc/Info environment to call command line routines that obeyed constraints and extended its capabilities for specific enduser workflow needs—a platform.

From 1991–1992 we used AML at the University of Utah DIGIT Lab to create one of the first interfaces between a work order system and Arc/Info for Salt Lake City Public Utilities. Soon, we were asked to do the same for other organizations. In late 1995 and early 1996, ArcView 2.1 was released as a beta software. It contained an extensible framework using Avenue scripts. We realized that a basic framework existed for creating a maintenance management system as an extension of ArcView®, with the geodatabase as the asset inventory; that is, Esri 1 “Computing platform.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 26 March 2014. Web. 26 March 2014.

GIS as a platform could be extended to become an integral tool to help local governments manage their assets. Cityworks and the GIS-centric approach was born.

The Cityworks GIS-centric approach for local government asset management has always been the union of two software systems, Cityworks and Esri GIS. Cityworks is designed to extend the Esri GIS platform.

Over time, the tools we used grew and changed as Esri GIS changed from Arc/Info to ArcView to ArcGIS. Beginning with AML, we later moved to Avenue which was followed by MapObjects, VBA, ArcObjects, ArcEngine, Silverlight SDK, Javascript SDK, and mobile SDKs. The Cityworks GIS-centric approach uses ArcGIS for more than just application development. The GIS-centric approach utilizes the ArcGIS geodatabase as the authoritative data and system of record for local government assets without redundancies, constraints, or proprietary claims. In other words, Cityworks is configured to use the geodatabase as the asset inventory. ArcGIS provides tools necessary to maintain an inventory of local government assets and to use geography for analysis. Cityworks provides tools for managing and tracking the work that regulates local government assets. This approach delivers immediate and tangible benefits, including simplifying the process to maintain an asset inventory and eliminating the need for data-syncing interfaces and associated data normalization challenges.

Just as ArcGIS has grown, Cityworks has grown to become a platform.

The Cityworks platform works in tandem with the ArcGIS platform to manage local government assets—a platform-on-platform design.

Application developers can access ArcGIS and Cityworks to design and build applications that support unique end-user workflows. Access to the Cityworks platform happens with APIs (Application Program Interface),

often referred to as Web APIs because accessibility to the APIs is through web communication protocols. Most commonly, Web APIs are accessed

by URL (Universal Resource Locator) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request-response. The client, a browser or mobile device, submits a URL-HTTP request to an API residing on the platform server located on-premises or in the cloud. The platform server provides resources such as data content and functions, returning a response.

Today, we are seeing explosive growth in computing platforms and parallel rapid growth in the GIS-centric platform. Application development using the GIS-centric platform approach can send requests for resources and receive responses from ArcGIS, Cityworks, and any other system. To be part of the GIS-centric platform, the asset data used by the organization and by the application must reside in the Esri geodatabase.

The geodatabase is the authoritative data and system of record for local government assets without redundancy, constraints, or proprietary claims. This assures that all of the systems have equal and unfettered access to the same asset data.

Developers are designing and building software applications to support unique workflows out of ready-made components, functions, and content available from ArcGIS, Cityworks, and other systems. Trimble, Esri Canada, Freeance, Innovyze, GeoCortex, CompassCom, Sedarū, and CitySourced are some of the Cityworks and Esri partners using the GIScentric platform. There is no limitation to how the GIS-centric platform can be enhanced with content, functions, or ready-made components, including using Esri’s ArcGIS Online content and applications to add even more value to any on-premises implementation. The GIS-centric platform is real and providing platform-on-platform unique application solutions for particular workflow needs.

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User Community

Together Forever

Colonie Loves Using Both AMS and PLL

By Rob Mateja, GIS Coordinator, Town of Colonie, New York

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he Town of Colonie, New York, has found great success using Cityworks Server PLL and Server AMS together for a complete work management solution. The programs provide the town with a central database for managing asset and permitting data, and make it possible to link the two systems when needed. For Colonie, the GIS-centric platform capabilities are key to the advantageous nature of the solution.

“The Town of Colonie has found a large benefit from our joint use of Cityworks Server PLL and AMS,” says Rob Mateja, GIS coordinator at Colonie, “particularly in our capital planning process. Everything our public operations do is associated with either a fixed asset or a parcel of land. Being able to see this work on a map is incredibly helpful to both frontline staff and higher-up decision makers.”

Cityworks is used throughout Colonie in the Water, Sewer, Highway, Building, Planning, and Fire Services Departments. It is also being used to track service requests and work performed on water and sanitary sewer infrastructure systems, and to track complaints made to the Building Department such as buildings without a permit, property maintenance issues, and vehicle complaints.

Before implementing Server PLL in 2010, it was difficult to track the work being done in residential and commercial building permitting, including when the work was happening and who was completing it.

“We were very excited when Cityworks introduced Server PLL,” explains Mateja. “Not only were we able to move away from a paper system, but having permitting data in the same database as our asset management data provided opportunities to link the systems together when appropriate.”

For example, when a new home is built, a water and sewer permit is associated with the construction site. In addition, there are water line and sewer lateral installations and inspections that are completed as work orders on the home. Now the entire process is being captured in Cityworks, which gives the town a complete picture of what is going on at the construction site.

Colonie first started implementing Server PLL in the Public Works Department to track complaints and field work performed on water and sewer systems. The town is now issuing all permits through Cityworks, including building, water, sewer, highway work, grading, and operating permits. Cityworks tracks the entire planning approval process for new subdivisions and major commercial projects.

“Having the ability to see the workflow in its entirety in Server PLL has been invaluable,” says Mateja. “Currently, the building department is starting to track complaints in Cityworks, which allows us to tie complaints with a permit when appropriate.

Cityworks has made it possible for a project to be captured in its entirety, from a developer’s initial concept all the way through certificate of occupation.”

Using Server PLL has given staff the ability to see the status of all permits. Fees are now calculated within the system, which has eliminated errors, and permits now have a payment history associated with them.

Cityworks manages all money collected throughout the permitting process. The town can then generate reports to accompany money to the comptroller’s office, providing an internal control system.

Using Cityworks Server PLL and AMS together has been very beneficial for Colonie. The town looks forward to continued benefits moving forward with the complete Cityworks solution.

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Omaha City and Douglas County

Get It Together

By Michael Schonlau, Douglas County GIS Coordinator and Steve Cacioppo, Douglas County GIS Analyst

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hrough a joint venture, Douglas County and the city of Omaha, Nebraska, share IT and GIS resources that make it possible to come together in their use of Cityworks. This collaboration allows both city and county to benefit from Cityworks, which is hosted in the cloud, while also maximizing resources. The widespread use of Cityworks at both Omaha City and Douglas County has united the two agencies to elevate work management for both communities.

As with many collaborations, the road that led to the two entities joining forces happened over time. In most communities, resources, planning, and decisions at city and county seldom intersect. But Omaha City and Douglas County recognize they are stronger and more effective when working together.

Cityworks was first implemented in Douglas County in the spring of 2005 to help adhere to GASB (Government Accounting Standards Board) standards. Soon the county began tracking assets, equipment, labor, and materials using Cityworks. Having this data in a centralized location made information easy to retrieve and simple to analyze using Cityworks reporting capabilities.

As Douglas County continued to benefit from Cityworks, the City of Omaha Public Works Department (OPW) was impressed with what they saw happening at the county and intrigued by what Cityworks could offer them. At the time, departments throughout Omaha were using different work order management systems—none of which used GIS. “The integration of GIS into the work management process appealed to the Omaha Public Works Department,” says Michael Schonlau, Douglas County GIS coordinator. The city recognized that their decision to choose Cityworks as their GIS-centric software “was based on leveraging what the county had learned from their Cityworks implementation,” Schonlau states. “Douglas County had a permanent GIS staff to administer the system, assist with the implementation, and integrate their existing GIS data into a more comprehensive work management system.”

In the spring of 2007, OPW began using Cityworks for street and sewer maintenance and tracking work orders on city-owned assets. Immediately, the department was pleased with the results. Since then, Cityworks has become an enterprise solution for both the city and the county.

At Omaha City, Cityworks is currently used in the following areas at OPW: construction, streets, sewers, traffic, and environmental quality.

It is also used by the Police Department, Law Department, and Parks Department for code enforcement. The City’s barricade contractor and the Mayor’s office also use Cityworks.

At Douglas County, Cityworks is currently used in several departments, including the GIS, Engineering, Environmental Services (weed control and stormwater management), and Health (environmental and sanitary inspections) Departments, as well as the Land Reutilization Committee.

Between city and county, the use of Cityworks crosses over when the agencies have similar operations on both sides, some of which include issues from roads, snow, or weeds. Having a shared enterprise environment “benefits both the city and county because we have built up a lot of user and administrative expertise, saved on infrastructure costs, and centralized management of the various systems,” says Schonlau. “The centralization of those components has enabled technical staff to focus

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User Community

on their GIS data, workflows and reports, and focus on making Cityworks a more integrated part of their day-to-day operations.”

The cloud deployment of Cityworks, which began in 2011, was also a joint venture between city and county. The Douglas County GIS Department manages most of its enterprise software and databases in the

We are

cloud. All components tied to Cityworks (SQL Server, ArcSDE, ArcGIS Server, Cityworks Server AMS) are hosted in the cloud. Schonlau comments, “This environment is beneficial because we are more scalable, more flexible, and can more quickly and efficiently deploy new versions of software without impacting our production environment.”

Over the years, both city and county have realized many advantages due to their use of Cityworks. Steve Cacioppo, Douglas County GIS analyst, explains, “Cityworks has benefited both agencies in numerous ways. The obvious benefit is with work order and asset management. Having multiple departments on a single work order management system makes

communication easier and more effective.” As both agencies work together, Cacioppo says, “Field inspectors can access work order and GIS data on mobile devices in the field, making them more productive and more efficient at resolving issues. We have seen increased productivity, better use of resources, improved communication, and enhanced reporting capabilities, to name a few improvements.” And most importantly, Cacioppo adds, “Cityworks provides management a big picture of what is going on in the city.”

Omaha City and Douglas County have been pleased with their decision to come together in their use of Cityworks, and feel the joint venture has been, and will continue to be, very beneficial to both organizations.

Oakland County, MI

Staff at Oakland County, Michigan, wearing their Cityworks SAM shirts. cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

hile millions across North America rang in the 2014 New Year, an arctic cold front was brewing. During the first week of January, polar weather conditions tracked across the continent, resulting in heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. The 2014 North American Cold Wave/Polar Vortex affected parts of Canada and the US from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, extending south to northeastern Mexico and north to Canada. On January 7, all 50 states saw freezing temperatures at some point during the day, and some northern US states and parts of Canada experienced daylong temperatures colder than summer temperatures on Mars.

Thus began an extreme 2014 winter that continued to affect parts of North America well into March. While most of the US experienced below-average temperatures and higher precipitation than usual, the northern Midwest took the brunt of the winter weather, experiencing snowstorm after snowstorm and unusually cold temperatures.

With extreme weather comes extreme challenges. Record-breaking temperatures canceled flights and closed schools, businesses, and roads across the country. Local government agencies dealt with water main breaks, power outages, increased snow plowing needs, and much more.

Fortunately, organizations equipped with Cityworks were a step ahead in managing these issues.

At Cityworks–Azteca Systems, we kept in close contact with our clients during the Polar Vortex and throughout the winter, and asked them to give us updates along the way. We asked a handful of users to share how winter weather conditions affected their communities, and how Cityworks helped sustain their communities throughout the crisis.

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Grand Rapids, Michigan Comments by Alexandria Baszler, Cityworks System Administrator

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Cityworks Helps Communities with Extreme Winter Season

In mid-January the Grand Rapids Public Services Department started to run out of space downtown to store the plowed snow, forcing them to haul the excess to parking lots and parks around the city. As the snow continued to accumulate, on-street parking became more congested, making it difficult to plow streets to their full width and preventing emergency vehicles from accessing certain corridors.

The department used Cityworks public-initiated snowplow requests to determine which streets had been missed by the plows. By comparing the snow plowing requests with other types of requests, like missed refuse or recycling, the department could see that the unplowed streets were preventing city service vehicles from accessing customers in those areas.

Based on the service requests and additional information provided by the police and fire departments, the city’s 311 Call Center was able to prepare various messages to alert residents of what actions to take in those areas. The city utilized the heat maps and clustered event layers in Cityworks to visually identify high priority areas that needed to be addressed in order to provide adequate street access for service and emergency vehicles.

During the two-week period of the Polar Vortex, we had 517 total ice and snow requests compared to 69 total requests in 2013—a

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750% increase. The utilization of Cityworks provided an enhanced understanding of the compounded issues that arose as a result of the extreme weather.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Comments by Marion Storey, Information Services Director

Philadelphia experienced significantly more snowfall this winter than usual. We experienced 17 different events, whereas in a typical winter season we normally see 10, with a previous maximum of 12. There were over 4,400 requests for follow-up salting and plowing during the season. Over 20,000 pothole repairs were completed during the first quarter of 2014.

Cityworks managed the requests coming in from 311, Streets Department call takers, the Philadelphia 311 mobile app, the department’s website, and Twitter. We also used Cityworks to route pothole requests and track repairs. Cityworks allowed us to keep track of requests, close them out in a timely matter, and provide status updates to 311 and citizens about their requests.

The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks has been beneficial because it allows the requests to be routed to the correct unit based on the geographic responsibility and road classification. This was done using a map layer in

User Community Cityworks that indicated the snow route for each street and whether a street was maintained by the city or the state.

St. Johns County, Florida Comments by Rocky Agbunag, Information Systems Coordinator

The 2014 winter season was the wettest St. Johns County has seen in 20 years.

In previous years we would primarily work on preventive maintenance during the winter, but this year’s substantial wet weather caused a lot of storm drainage work activities we typically do not see. Our roadways showed more deterioration than usual due to the wet weather, including many more pothole repairs than in previous years. The higher number of drainage work orders increased the demand for equipment use, which led to increased maintenance and costs.

Using Cityworks to track service requests resulting from the rainfall assisted in identifying where the problem areas were and reallocating work activities accordingly.

Cityworks helped us track the trends on work orders and the asset inventory definitely assisted in identifying what needed to be fixed.

Additionally, the Cityworks budget tool has been very useful in analyzing our planned expenses versus actual expenditures.

Waterford Township, Michigan Comments by Frank Fisher, DPW Engineering Superintendent

Immediately before the Polar Vortex, southeastern Michigan endured a heavy snowstorm that dropped more than a foot of snow. The subsequent onset of the Polar Vortex complicated the situation severely. Not only did Waterford have to deal with the extreme colds of the Polar Vortex, but the record-breaking cold was setting in just as the cleanup of the snowfall event was under way.

While accustomed to dealing with winter weather conditions, the combination of unusually heavy snow and severe cold took an increased toll on both equipment and infrastructure. The increased depth of the frost caused a spike in the number of broken water mains and services. Subzero conditions caused increased fatigue for staff and they had to take extra measures to limit their exposure to the

Old Man Winter’s Impact — 2013–14 • On January 7, all 50 states saw freezing temperatures • Grand Rapids, Michigan: Within two weeks, there were 517 total ice and snow requests compared to 69 requests in 2013—a 750% increase.

• Philadelphia: Over 20,000 pothole repairs within first three months of 2014 • St. John’s County: The wettest St. Johns County has seen in 20 years.

• Waterford Township: Subzero conditions caused increased fatigue for staff, and they had to take extra measures to limit their exposure to the elements.

• Coon Rapids: In mid-March 2014 the frost in the ground remained six to nine feet deep • Holland Board of Public Works, Michigan: Wind gusts between 30 and 60 mph produced wind chills reaching -30° F during daylight hours.

elements. Waterford Township Department of Public Works staff did an exceptional job working through the adverse conditions to provide continued services to citizens.

Cityworks was critical in the organization and recording of work activities during the Polar Vortex and the period afterward.

Cityworks was the key engine providing data for analysis of total costs of the events. This data was used to determine how much this event impacted our operational budget.

The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks was key for us in handling the storm. We developed data models to track work order costs against not only water and sewer assets, but also facilities and grounds. The flexibility to leverage Cityworks against varied GIS datasets is one of the characteristics that make Cityworks a powerful tool for scheduling, tracking, and analyzing the cost of our operations.

Coon Rapids, Minnesota Comments by Cindy Hintze, GIS Specialist

Because of the Polar Vortex, we had a number of calls for frozen water pipes. We had instances where home furnaces went out, causing citizen’s water meters to freeze and forcing the residents to evacuate. We had several water main breaks as well, which are always difficult in cold weather because the roads become iced very quickly and salt does not work in extreme cold. cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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The Polar Vortex was just the beginning of a long and extreme winter at Coon Rapids and we will continue to feel its effects for quite some time. In mid-March the frost in the ground remained six to nine feet deep, and unusually cold temperatures persisted. We anticipated increased water main breaks—when the frost finally started to come out of the ground—as well as a higher number of water service lines that would leak.

In 2008 we started turning water off at vacant properties because gas and electric utilities were disconnected, which resulted in severe damage due to burst water pipes. Tracking this vacant property information in Cityworks is vital because it allows both code enforcement and public works to see and share the information in a timely manner. Our vacant property work orders are attached to address points, and public works uses water layers to attach their work orders. We track tasks within the vacant property work order, including the water situation (whether it’s on or off) and issues with curb stops. Our situation throughout the winter was challenging, but without the help of Cityworks we literally would not have been able to keep up with our work.

Holland Board of Public Works, Michigan Comments by Peter Schneider, GIS/CAD Specialist

During the Polar Vortex, we experienced below-average temperatures, with daily highs in the single digits and overnight lows in the negative teens. We also received a considerable amount of freezing rain, which

coated everything in ice. Wind gusts between 30 and 60 mph produced wind chills reaching -30° F during daylight hours.

Winter storms during the Polar Vortex caused considerable power outages for residential, commercial, and industrial customers, as well as sanitary sewer lift stations. This led to bypass pumping to avoid sanitary sewer overflows. We also ran into broken water mains and customer water services freezing, both indoors and outdoors.

We used Cityworks to manage water main breaks and investigations into frozen water service pipes. Cityworks allowed us to easily determine the total costs that the extreme weather caused. The GIS-centric capabilities are a plus because oftentimes we remember main breaks geographically rather than by individual address. Keeping work order information tied to GIS data is paramount for efficient maintenance practices.

Congratulations to the

2014 Cityworks Exemplary User Award Recipients

General Mitchell International Airport – Tim Pearson, GIS Coordinator

City of Troy, Michigan – Alex Bellak, GIS Administrator, and Kurt Bovensiep, Superintendent

St. Johns County, Florida – Karen Fullerton, Utilities Dept., James Boergers, Public Works Dept., and Rocky Agbunag, Public Works Dept.

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City of Highland Village, Texas – Sunny Lindsey, GIS Administrator

City of Hesperia, California – Jeremy McDonald, Public Works, Mark Blair, Water Distribution Supervisor, and Eric Greene, GIS Manager

Partner Community

Cityworks Partner Community:

An Essential Component

By Kaye Ryser, Managing Editor

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ityworks business partners are a critical part of our Cityworks community. Within the partner program, three distinct groups, Implementation Business Partners, Strategic Development Business Partners, and International Business Partners help us extend, deliver, and deploy Cityworks. We believe partnering is good business, and we actively seek to align with firms that have earned strong reputations for their knowledge, capability, experience, and trustworthiness. Combining the Cityworks GIS-centric platform for public asset management with their capabilities produces an unparalleled and cost-effective solution.

Our multi-faceted partner program is aimed at achieving successful implementations, leveraging the benefits of related products, and meeting customer needs around the world. This requires strong commitment, trusting relationships, great software, and unsurpassed services.

Implementation Partners have an established professional services practice, or center of excellence, and utilize Cityworks software, data, or services on a project basis. These partners use industry and domain expertise to implement Cityworks software and services, optimize business processes, and provide strategic business consultation to support the user community.

A growing number of offerings from our Strategic Development Partners further enhance Cityworks and Esri’s ArcGIS to deliver focused capabilities. Highly customized, case-specific applications to integrated data retrieval, analysis, and modeling systems help ensure organizations meet their asset management goals. And with a common commitment to excellence, customer service is enhanced as we work together for the benefit of our clients.

Cityworks supports a network of International Distribution Partners to promote, deliver, and support the Cityworks GIS-centric platform to customers around the world. Our international distributors are fully enabled and empowered to market and sell Cityworks, provide implementation services and technical support, and provide extended products and services. Many have localized the software to meet users’ needs, adhere to regulatory requirements, or simply embrace the predominant language.

Together with our business partners, we are committed to serve our user community as we strive to provide high-quality solutions and services to our common clients. We will work determinedly to improve the implementation process, offer best-in-class customer service for all our clients, and continually improve our product. We will continue to provide new and innovative solutions, enhanced by the GIS-centric platform, by continued corroboration with Cityworks partners everywhere.

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Freeance Mobile Gives Highland Village Upper Hand

By Patrick Foose, Marketing Producer, Freeance

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unning Highland Village’s Parks and Recreation Department used to include a lot of guesswork and anecdotes. However, now decisions start with solid data since the town implemented Freeance Mobile for Cityworks, says Sunny Lindsey, GIS applications and development administrator. In December, Parks Department managers and crew leaders started using Freeance Mobile on Samsung 10–inch tablets for everything from scheduling restroom cleanings to recording the locations of ball fields.

Lindsey says the goal of the project was to make operations more efficient by helping managers better understand how financial and labor resources were being used. “It started out just for documentation, and now we’re trying to segue it into more of a management tool,” Lindsay says. “Instead of just capturing what we’ve already done, we’re looking to use Cityworks and Freeance together to . . . actually project how much work they will be doing throughout the week.” Lindsey says it is too early in the process to see concrete cost savings, which she believes “will come in time.” As for now, Lindsey thinks it was “a documenting issue. If the Parks Department wanted to come back to the city council and say, ‘We need another person; we’re slammed all the time,’ there wasn’t adequate documentation saying where the labor costs were being spent. For example, there’s a water line in the Corps Park. And the Parks Department has been complaining for years that the water line needs to be replaced because they are constantly repairing it. Now

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we can actually say if we’ve spent more money fixing it than we would have replacing it.”

Assistant city manager Ken Heerman said the use of Freeance Mobile for Cityworks has brought a new level of professionalism to the way the Parks Department is run. “I see this project as a turning point for parks management,” Heerman says. “They are beginning to see their tasks and jobs in terms of priorities and preplanning instead of the more common reactionary mode.”

Lindsey said the city’s resource management efforts endured some false starts before finding Freeance Mobile. Attempts to use Excel spreadsheets and, later, Cityworks on Netbook computers both failed. “With the Netbooks, you’re looking at your Cityworks Server and there’s a lot to scroll through,” she states. “The Netbooks have a very small screen. . . . [Users] were spending more time writing up the work orders than actually doing the work. It was only through [Freeance Mobile] that I was able to call this project a success.”

For Lindsey, it is easy to create and modify Freeance Mobile work order templates using Windows Form Designer; and it was just as easy to train the managers and crew leaders on how to use Freeance Mobile. “You had some that were younger that were used to smartphones and tablet devices and they took to learning it very quickly,” Lindsey said. “You had others who weren’t as familiar with computers or that type of technology. And they took a little bit longer.”

To help new users get used to the new tablets, Lindsey said each user was assigned

their own tablet a week before Freeance Mobile was loaded. Finally, there was a day of training dedicated to Freeance Mobile using an easyto-set-up test database. “We had the training on a Thursday or a Friday, and then we went live with it the following Wednesday. I pulled a report 24 hours later, and there were four or five work orders available,’’ she says.

In the field, crew leader Joey Hardin says the new technology has changed the way his team looks at their work. “This has forced me to think about our projects in terms of labor and cost, and I am now thinking of ways to find savings,” he adds.

Lindsey says the Public Works Department is looking forward to trading their Netbooks for tablets that will include Freeance Mobile this summer. “Finance and city management have been really pleased in knowing that we rely heavily on the equipment, labor, and materials components of Freeance. Having to actually document the hours, labor, and equipment has really put hard numbers into it.”

About Freeance Freeance® Mobile is the complete solution for smartphones and tablets. Easily open, close and edit Cityworks® work orders, service requests and inspections in the field.

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Baxter & Woodman Help Wood Dale Build with Cityworks

By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

W

ork management and GIS have made a powerful collaboration at the city of Wood Dale, Illinois. From an enhanced geodatabase to boosted interdepartmental communication, the city is experiencing numerous benefits from implementing Cityworks.

Since 2010, Baxter & Woodman, Inc. has been an implementation business partner with Cityworks–Azteca Systems, and they continue to assist local government agencies in implementing and configuring Cityworks software.

A city with a population of about 13,900, Wood Dale went live with Cityworks in mid2013 after a successful implementation carried out by Baxter & Woodman. Wood Dale currently uses Cityworks Server AMS for streets, water, wastewater, and storm sewer.

GIS Focus The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks ties in with the workflow of Wood Dale’s GIS. The city uses server-based GIS and focuses on a geo-centric approach, meaning all GIS data is stored in a centralized repository for use in multiple systems, including desktop, web, and mobile solutions. Cityworks ties directly into this geo-centric system, taking advantage of the city’s single data source. The benefit of this design is that, when centralized data is updated, all applications have instant access to that change. Therefore, referenced data is never out-of-date or needlessly duplicated, eliminating redundancy and confusion.

“Implementing Cityworks has helped bring focus to Wood Dale’s investment in GIS,” says Peter Ferretti, GIS coordinator/developer at Baxter & Woodman. “The ability to utilize existing GIS data as a basis for generating work orders creates a powerful relationship between

the two. This connection brings a wealth of information to the fingertips of supervisors and field crew.”

Planning and Analysis Utilizing Cityworks has decreased paperwork and helped create an ongoing record of the work activities documented in the system. The ability to retrieve information down the road for planning and analysis is a major driving force behind using the program. The historical data will help the city make more informed decisions and future plans, as well as help with budgeting purposes.

About Baxter & Woodman Baxter & Woodman specializes in municipal engineering, transportation services, water and wastewater management, construction services, storm water management and GIS.

Enhanced Communication As a cloud-based system, Server AMS has unified departments, providing a means for otherwise separate departments to be more closely integrated. This has increased interdepartmental communication and made departments more aware of what is going on throughout the city. Due to satisfaction with the solution, Wood Dale plans to implement Cityworks for tree maintenance in the near future.

cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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White House Utility District Think GIS-centric: Act Globally

By Peter Godfrey, RLA and AICP, POWER Engineers, Senior Consultant and Project Manager; Regina Gaddis, White House Utility District Special Project Manager; Bill Thompson, General Manager, White House Utility District; David Wachal, Solutions Manager, Esri Global Water Utility Practice

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n 2011, the White House Utility District (WHUD) reached out to Esri’s top executives in Redlands, California, to explore the possibility of forming a partnership with the goal of creating a true GIS-centric environment for all of the district’s operations-it was time to take GIS “global.”

David Wachal, solutions manager of Esri’s Global Water Utility Practice, made an initial on-site visit over three days to gather information and assess the merit of such a partnership. One thing was very clear to Wachal during his visit: “WHUD was totally committed to their vision of creating a true GIS-centric environment because of the importance they place on spatial information,” Wachal stated. “Their vision was straightforward: WHUD wanted all their systems and business practices to center around GIS. They were adamant that, where possible, every system should leverage GIS.” For WHUD the meaning of all systems was truly that—all systems, including CIS, financial, asset management, work orders, inventory, vehicle tracking, SCADA, real-time hydraulic modeling, meter reading, leak detection, security, IVR, and document management.

This approach required a complete evaluation of current processes and business practices as well as a reengineering plan that blended industrystandard best practices with the district’s core business methodology.

For this effort, WHUD and Esri turned to POWER Engineers. WHUD wanted a well-established, long-term partner—much like Esri—who had the resources and expertise to work with WHUD over the next five years to ensure continuity of the vision.

POWER conducted a series of on-site workshops over a fourteenmonth period, each workshop lasting four days out of each month. The purpose of these workshops was to document the existing processes, refine the vision, and define a direction forward.

Working together through this process, POWER and WHUD identified Cityworks as the key system with the potential to serve the organization as it progresses. WHUD has used Cityworks since 2004 and feels the product has served them well. Because Cityworks is directly built on the Esri platform, WHUD continues to move forward with migrating their entire organization to Cityworks Server AMS. Peter Godfrey, senior consultant at POWER Engineers, says, “The commitment by WHUD management and operational staff and our collaborative approach together with the strong support and efforts of Esri is resulting in a truly integrated Cityworks system for best practices in asset management. Involvement with all levels of the organization—from the general manager to field crews—has made the current deployment a

Field crews and meter readers work together to demonstrate service request and work order processing during POWER-led training sessions.

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“EVERY SYSTEM

SHOULD LEVERAGE GIS.” Cityworks Field and ArcGIS Online Imagery

success. We look forward to working closely with both WHUD and Esri on the multiple efforts ahead.”

POWER and WHUD chose to take a two-tiered approach to implementing Server AMS. The first phase included moving the entire organization from Cityworks Desktop to Server AMS using the district’s current business practices with some minor configuration modifications.

Concurrently, Esri is supporting WHUD in modernizing their data model and workflows, configuring the integration of their GIS with AVL using Geoevent Processor, and deploying ArcGIS Online maps and applications to the entire organization. During this phase, the entire field operations group moved to using iPads. The second phase—scheduled to begin in March 2014—will include the implementation of new reengineered business practices and procedures as well as the initial phase of integrating GIS, Cityworks, and WHUD’s new CIS, NorthStar.

WHUD’s adoption of a GIS-centric approach has spelled success by taking small steps towards meeting a larger vision. Bill Thompson, general manager at WHUD, states, “We consider Esri and POWER Engineers part of our family. They have been as committed and as excited as we are in making our vision of a totally GIS-centric environment come to life.” With WHUD’s commitment, POWER’s technical and management teams, and Esri’s foundational GIS, these first efforts clearly show the benefits of people and systems working together in making a shared vision a reality.

– David Wachal, solutions manager Esri’s Global Water Utility Practice

About Whitehouse Utility District (WHUD) One of the largest water and sewer utilities in Tennessee, White House Utility District serves a population of 90,000 with over 30,000 water and sewer connections in a 600-square-mile area.

About POWER Engineers POWER Engineers is a global consulting engineering firm that offers complete multidiscipline engineering and program management services. POWER’s Geospatial and Asset Management Solutions group specializes in industry-leading technologies and a wide range of solutions for electric, gas, and water utilities and local governments, including ArcGIS and Cityworks. For more information, please visit www.powereng.com.

About Esri Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

WHUD field crew train on iPad devices.

cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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Philadelphia Water Department

Water Security Initiative

By Rami Raad, Principal Project Manager, CH2M HILL, and Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager

I

n 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed the Contamination Warning System (CWS) Demonstration Pilot Program under the Water Security Initiative in response to Homeland Security Presidential Directive 9. The objective of the CWS is to promote early and rapid detection of water contamination events in the distribution system to minimize public health and economic consequences.

Integration of data from multiple surveillance systems is a fundamental and essential task to meeting this objective. The initiative was divided into three phases with the second phase consisting of evaluating water quality surveillance and response systems through pilots at drinking water utilities and municipalities. Pilots were deployed at five metropolitan utilities across the United States, including the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD). The CWS project had seven major components: • Online Water Quality Monitoring (OWQM) • Sampling and Analysis (S&A) • Enhanced Security Monitoring (ESM) • Customer Complaint Surveillance (CCS) • Public Health Surveillance (PHS) • System Engineering (SE) • Consequence Management (CM) The PWD team partnered with CH2M HILL to design and implement the CWS project, which was completed in 2013. PWD had previously selected Cityworks as its field operations call center, work order, and asset management system and used it as the basis for the Customer Complaint Surveillance (CCS) component of the CWS. CCS provides a critical source of timely information about the drinking water distribution system for rapid indication of potential water quality contamination. Monitoring call frequency, categorizing and analyzing complaints, applying GIS tools for analysis, and responding to calls

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effectively can expedite the detection of and response to contamination events.

In conjunction with CH2M HILL, PWD developed an extensive CWS by integrating various applications and data streams, including Cityworks as the core CCS application. Per EPA, CWS had six design objectives: • Contaminant coverage to detect a broad spectrum of contaminant classes • Spatial coverage of the entire distribution system • Timeliness of detection to identify contamination in sufficient time for effective response • Operational reliability to maintain a functional system that generates complete and accurate data • Alert occurrence to indicate a contamination incident with minimum number of false positives • A sustainable architecture to monitor distribution system water quality Several of the CWS tracking features are core Cityworks components, such as the GIS-centric platform, customer complaint tracking, work order tracking, open architecture, and mapping for spatial analysis.

These functions built the groundwork needed for the additional analysis of the data to support the event detection process. Figures 1 & 2 show the complaint-tracking fields and process implemented by PWD. The next step involved the development of Event Detection Algorithms (EDA). In order to develop the EDAs, PWD established complaint rate thresholds to generate CCS system alerts on a CWS dashboard (which was also built as a component of CWS implementation). The final EDAs covered a variety of metrics, including spatial buffers, complaint types, and frequency. For example, two cloudy-water complaints in a two-day window in the same pressure district will generate an alert.

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Figure 1 Figures 1 & 2 show the complaint-tracking fields and process implemented by PWD.

Figure 2

Figure 3 Figures 3 & 4 show the final dashboard solution.

With the establishment of the EDAs, PWD and CH2M HILL built a dashboard to combine the various components of the CWS program.

The CWS dashboard integrates the CCS alerts, work activities, online water quality monitoring information, and other data streams onto a single web-based platform. This serves as a single interface for users to investigate and determine the status of the overall water quality, and identify any potential threats throughout the distribution system. Figures 3 & 4 show the final dashboard solution.

Having completed the pilot stage in 2013, PWD provided several recommendations for further development of the CWS: • Early in the CCS implementation, involvement of all potential organizations within a utility is crucial to understand workflows and identify roles and responsibilities (i.e. call takers, field maintenance, executives, etc.).

• Historical trends should be analyzed to establish initial CCS alert thresholds.

This analysis will provide a baseline to assist organizations with development of the alert thresholds.

• Review and evaluation metrics should be developed to refine complaint response procedures.

• Periodic data quality reviews should be conducted to reduce the number of alerts generated on the CWS Dashboard.

• Data integrity analysis should be performed and quality control reports should be developed to promote close attention to the quality of data logged to reduce the number of false alerts.

With the completion of the Phase II pilots, the EPA has entered Phase III of the program.

Phase III involves the development of guidance materials and tools to assist with national acceptance of water quality surveillance systems.

One specific tool currently under development is a software application based on the information gathered from the pilot utilities.

About CH2M HILL CH2M HILL is a full-service engineering, program and construction management, consulting and operations firm with specialized expertise in GIS, asset management and CMMS services.

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Esri Canada Accessing Automated Vehicle Location Data

By Barry Kelly, Public Works Industry Manager, Esri Canada, and Rob Santos, Infrastructure Solutions Practice Manager, Esri Canada

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anaging field operations is a big challenge for many municipalities.

During the winter, a municipality needs to track snow removal activities and ensure that their snow plows clear roads based on the municipality’s minimum maintenance standards or service level. They must also ensure that only the right amount of salt or sand is spread on the roads to minimize the impact on lakes, streams, and the environment. In the summer, municipalities must have an efficient way of tracking field activities including side-road mowing, tree pruning, and road repairs.

The Esri Canada Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) solution improves the productivity and safety of field operations. It allows organizations to track fleet vehicles in real time and easily create route status reports.

It also provides historical playback tools that are particularly useful for investigating incidents and damage claims.

Built on the ArcGIS platform, the Esri Canada AVL solution integrates seamlessly with existing geographic information systems (GIS) so municipalities can centrally manage their operational processes. It integrates real-time data from numerous sources and in different formats with their GIS, and makes the data accessible via browser-based, mobile, and desktop applications. This allows municipalities to share valuable information quickly and efficiently throughout their organization for making better decisions.

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The playback tools pull location information from data archives, allowing them to identify where a vehicle was located at a specific point in time. To enhance analysis and planning, the AVL generates a number of standard reports with details on key metrics including spreading rate and volume, vehicle speed and direction, stops made, and distance covered. Not only does the AVL solution assist winter and summer maintenance vehicles but the solution can also be configured to track other types of vehicles, including utility trucks, transit buses, police cars, and fire trucks.

Esri Canada understands how important access to real-time data in an asset management system is to municipalities, so an AVL map plug-in was specifically created for Cityworks. A web service provides access to all vehicle location and related data from the Esri Canada AVL solution.

Deploying the plug-in is easy. To start, a municipality should place a Microsoft Silverlight application file in their Cityworks ClientBin folder and make an entry in the ClientMap.xml to make the AVL application accessible in their Cityworks map Tools drop-down menu.

From the map in Cityworks Server, users can access vehicle and maintenance activity locations by configuring the event layers. Vehicle status and types can also be symbolized when configuring the event layers.

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Using the AVL plug-in, a user can also assign a vehicle to an existing work order in the Cityworks database. This capability uses the Cityworks Server AMS web service to create equipment usage records (actual or estimated).

The Esri Canada AVL is a hosted and managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution available to Canadian organizations on an annual subscription basis. It runs on hardware provided by Ontario-based Tach West Technologies, a leading supplier of in-vehicle data collection equipment and customized integration solutions. To receive the AVL plug-in for Cityworks, contact your local Esri Canada office.

About Esri Canada Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments, and educational institutions to make timely, informed, and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography. The company distributes the world’s leading GIS software from Esri, along with a comprehensive portfolio of complementary GIS products and services. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Esri Canada is a 2012 winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies program and has also been named to the Branham Group’s Top 250 Canadian IT Companies and Top 25 IT Professional Services Providers in Canada, as well as Computer Dealer News’ Top 100 IT Solution Providers in Canada lists. Information about Esri Canada can be found at esri.ca. Follow Esri Canada on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

A pop-up box can be configured in Cityworks to provide information from the Esri Canada AVL solution. Data such as vehicle ID, speed, heading, and timestamp can be displayed when the user points their mouse cursor to a vehicle on the Cityworks map.

cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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Cityworks 2014 User Conference Marked with Success

By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

O

n May 20–22, more than 750 people from around the world attended the Cityworks 2014 User Conference at the Salt Palace Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Attendees shared a wealth of experience and exchanged useful information and knowledge while networking with Cityworks users, business partners, and staff.

Mike Dagle, GIS business analyst for Oakland County, Michigan, enjoyed his time at the conference, saying, “I felt the conference was a very informative and beneficial event to attend. I was quite impressed to hear Cityworks company-wide testing strategy detailed at the conference.” The new Cityworks software testing implementation not only involves each member of the company, but as Dagle stated, “The dedication Cityworks has to their clients shows, and the conference was no exception. I’ve found that no matter which Cityworks staff member I’m talking to, there is an easily recognizable familiarity with the functionality of the software.”

The conference began Tuesday morning with the plenary session, in which president and CEO Brian Haslam shared details regarding the company’s significant growth in 2013 and continuing trend for 2014. Haslam spoke about the commitment Cityworks has to superior customer support as well as the company’s strong partner program and solid relationship with Esri. He went on to share insights about sustainable communities, public asset management, and the Cityworks GIS-centric platform as an authoritative data and system of record for assets. Presentations from the Cityworks development team followed, showcasing exciting

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enhancements in Cityworks Server AMS and PLL and new functionality in Cityworks mobile technology.

Informative breakout sessions hosted by Cityworks users, business partners, and staff commenced Tuesday afternoon, continued all day on Wednesday, and convened on Thursday morning. On Wednesday evening, conference attendees were treated to the Cityworks User Appreciation Social for an evening of food and entertainment featuring Rock With You live karaoke band and the 5050 BMX freestyle and action sports cyclist stunt team.

The conference concluded on Thursday with an exciting wrap up session, where Haslam announced the Cityworks 2014 Exemplary User Award winners. Attendees heard a closing presentation given by distinguished guest David Totman, public works, AEC, and survey industry manager at Esri, who spoke about ArcGIS as a platform for local government and the strong relationship between Esri and Cityworks.

The Cityworks Expo Hall was the town center for the event where Cityworks users, business partners, exhibitors, and staff gathered daily to share knowledge, ideas, and conversations. Business partners showcased their services and solutions in the exhibit hall within the Cityworks Expo and were readily available to answer questions and discuss solutions. More than 90 members of Cityworks staff were present at the conference, hosting and attending sessions, answering questions in the Cityworks Showcase solutions center and demo stations, and meeting with clients and partners.

cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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Cityworks at the

Esri EPC and Developer Summit

I

n March of this year, sixteen Cityworks executives, sales and marketing representatives, and developers traveled to Palm Springs, California, to attend the Esri Partner Conference and the Esri International Developer Summit. Cityworks is an Esri Platinumlevel partner, and these events provide valuable opportunities to liaise with Esri, learn about future developments in Esri products, and ensure Cityworks products continue to provide seamless GIS-centric solutions.

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We are

Freeance_PLL_ad.pdf

reeance Mobile for Cityworks Ad for next issue of InPrint Magazine. .5 inches by 5.5 inches Created by Patrick Foose pfoose@freeance.com

What goes up must come down.

On March 8, 2014, Lars Backhans, managing director of Esri Sweden, poses with a sign before making the long descent back into Palm Springs, California, by way of Highway 74.

Vice President for Marketing Chuck Bridgman cbrigman@freeance.com (937) 260-3494

Showing their support, Freeance staff sport Cityworks hats.

PLL MOBILE with Freeance for Cityworks 2014 R

Request information by scanning this code or by emailing information@freeance.com

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cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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Corporate Community

SMALL COMPANY

BIG REPUTATI N!

By Tom Palizzi, VP of Marketing

A

little less than thirty years ago in Salt Lake City, a small company with just a few people was updating federal government maps. At first the end result was a paper map, but it was not very long before the end result was a computer map or geographic data that could be viewed, manipulated, and analyzed on a computer screen. Geographic Information Systems quickly captivated the attention of public organizations with their ability to model the complex relationships of various infrastructure on a map view. What separated this small company from the rest was how they understood the application of GIS to infrastructure management.

Recognizing the GIS as an authoritative data and system of record for assets, the company believed that by combining the ArcGIS Platform (Esri) with the patterns of infrastructure and land management, organizations could leverage the investment in their GIS across common business applications. In 1996, that small company, Azteca Systems Inc., introduced Cityworks®, the GIS-centric asset management system. A community of users grew, and a network of partners developed as the GIS-centric asset management approach was quickly adopted, making Cityworks a recognized name. The small company became better known as Cityworks.

Philosophy It is not surprising that an innovative idea like Cityworks would come from this small company. Rather than a mission statement and rules, the company was founded on the principles of honesty, integrity, and respect, and stands firm on three fundamental pillars: a software company committed to developing GIS-centric solutions with the belief that its customers deserve the best possible care and attention.

From a business perspective, maintaining a solid financial posture is important. Carefully managing growth with zero debt provides tremendous stability in today’s uncertain economy. Having no private equity

or venture capital allows the freedom to choose the best path to remain viable, achieve goals, and carefully manage risk.

Providing dependable and reliable solutions to a broad community of users and partners requires dedicated focus and the sincere intention to listen and understand the community’s needs. The ArcGIS platform produces and maintains a powerful database, and though maps offer an intuitive perspective, the geodatabase can be used to support key business applications that go well beyond the map.

Ensuring customers receive the best possible care and attention demands the same kind of commitment and not just a toll-free number.

Like any community, Cityworks customers, partners, and staff share common intent, preferences, resources, needs, and other conditions that draw the group together—both virtually at MyCityworks.com and annually at the Cityworks User Conference.

Community The Cityworks community includes an ever-growing array of organizations and agencies that care for the public infrastructure we take for granted—local government, public works, transportation, water and wastewater utilities, electric, natural gas, and more. Unique among asset management systems, Cityworks is a GIS-centric platform that can be used to manage whatever assets the user might care for. In essence, anything that can be modeled in the GIS can be managed with Cityworks. As a result, transportation specialists, emergency responders and facilities managers in airports, public safety officials, and building maintenance personnel around the world are also using Cityworks.

A network of diverse business partners makes up a significant part of the Cityworks community, providing implementation and integration services and products that extend the platform. Representing the most capable engineering and technology, our partner network provides products that extend our GIS-centric platform. Internationally, Esri Canada, Esri Sweden, Esri Jordan, and others represent Cityworks in their part of the world.

Big Reputation From the very beginning, our small company has shared a strong, dedicated relationship with Esri, the leading GIS platform supplier.

Extending the ArcGIS platform to empower GIS for asset management has proven to be a reliable, dependable for User hundreds of organiCityworks booth atsolution Esri 2014 Conference zations. Cityworks is an award-winning Platinum Business Partner and continues to work closely with Esri to create responsible and sustainable GIS-centric solutions.

Enduring the test of time, Cityworks is Empowering GIS® for a community of customers, partners, and staff around the world. With thousands of users at hundreds of organizations, this small company has earned a big reputation as Cityworks—the genuine GIS-centric innovator and recognized leader in asset management.

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Working to Serve You!

By Audrey E. Blake, Technical Writer

W

hile Cityworks works efficiently to maintain assets in your communities and organizations, the team behind Cityworks diligently works to serve you from the start of your purchase to each step thereafter. We truly believe that our customers deserve the best in customer service, which is why customer service has been one of the pillars of our business model for over 18 years. Members from our Sales, Client Relations, Customer Support, and Educational Services Departments enjoy and are devoted to helping you succeed with Cityworks.

Your first encounter with Cityworks may have started with the Sales Department. While their primary focus is to sell our software, Brent Wilson, vice president of sales, sees it as more than just selling software: “We educate people on how Cityworks works. We are educating them on what the software can do and how it can benefit their organization. We don’t want them to feel forced or pressured to buy our software. We want to make sure they are getting the tools they need to effectively run their organizations.” Serving as an education group, the Sales Department values creating professional relationships with organizations. Wilson’s first client, Gulfport, Mississippi, implemented Cityworks thirteen years ago, and he has maintained contact with them through the years. He recalls the devastation that Gulfport experienced when Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005. “I had become close to the public works director and assistant director over the years. I got to know them pretty well. I was on the phone with them within a week of the hurricane hitting. They still didn’t have power, so we were on cell phones.”

Wilson says that what he really enjoys about his job is that “you have your clients and then they also become friends over the years. You get to know people at a more personal level.” That level of commitment really sets the Sales team apart. You can count on them to see you through the sales process and beyond.

Once your organization has purchased Cityworks, the Client Relations Department steps in to ensure a quality experience with Cityworks. Wayne Hill, vice president

of client relations, says that they are more than just account managers: “We are focused as a team; the customers are our main focus.” When clients want to externalize their systems, they receive help in achieving their goals with the Client Relations team, which works closely with the IT Department to assist with technical needs. The Client Relations’ Department helps clients succeed with Cityworks and holds a 99% retention rate—an excellent testament to how well they support our clients.

Another important group that serves our clients is the Customer Support Department. Steve Thomas, executive director of customer support, says, “We are here to answer any technical questions about Cityworks.” Sometimes those technical questions might lead to the client needing help from another department, such as the Educational Services Department or the Project Management Department. Thomas likens our Customer Support Department to a compass—they are there to help the clients and, if needed, point them in the right direction for more assistance. The Cityworks Help Desk provides another avenue for clients to contact the Customer Support Department. Thomas says, “We’ve always had a goal of getting back to clients within four hours of the initial contact. Our biggest challenge now is the time it takes to close out those cases. Help Desk allows us to close them out quickly.” The Customer Support Department works hard to shorten the amount of time that cases are open. Open cases are regularly reviewed and can be escalated if they are not closed within a certain number of days.

If a client needs assistance beyond the Customer Support Department, they may decide to attend training. The Educational Services Department offers several training options, including in-person training at our offices in Sandy, Utah, DeSoto, Texas, and West Bend, Wisconsin, as well as online training and on-site training at client sites. The technical trainers work hard to provide a relaxed and friendly training environment. John Jarnagin, educational services manager, explains, “We want training attendees to feel comfortable enough to ask any question that comes up during training.” The technical trainers also work very hard to present the technical content in such a way that attendees, whether they are new to Cityworks or have been using our products for years, can understand it. Jarnagin adds, “We focus on efficient workflows and best practices to follow and offer training attendees the most efficient steps to take to accomplish their work accurately and efficiently.”

Collectively, departments at Cityworks work together to better serve you no matter what your questions or experience level may be. From the Sales and Client Relations Departments to the Customer Support and Educational Services Departments, we are here to serve you!

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CITYWORKS TEAMS

BEHIND THE SCENES

By Ryan Harris, Project Manager

A

t Cityworks we believe that our success comes from within. From our executives to our interns, each Cityworks team member plays a vital role in our mission of Empowering GIS® for asset management, permitting, licensing, and more. While the developers are the innovators and main source of brainpower behind each of our products, other departments at Cityworks work diligently to ensure our products are the best, leading GIS-centric solution for cities, counties, and organizations around the world.

In your integration with Cityworks, you may have formed a business relationship with sales representatives, project managers, technical support staff, customer support representatives, trainers, or our executives. There are many, however, who work behind the scenes. Take our request for proposal (RFP) technician, Russell Shino, for instance. He is here day after day, working in partnership with sales representatives to produce documents that go out to potential clients who are seeking bids on maintenance management software. RFPs include complex matrices which require a strong skill-set from a good RFP technician, and ours is one of the best. Without his efforts, Cityworks would be hard-pressed to remain successful.

RFPs are important documents as is the detailed documentation for our software, which is written by the Documentation Department. Our team of technical writers and specialists work away each day, constantly updating the documentation in order to keep up with the evolution of Cityworks software. When users and staff have software usage questions, we turn to documentation to show us the way. They work diligently with software developers to incorporate the most important information and details into each software manual. Other company departments turn to documentation when they need to know what is new in each release and what issues were addressed so our clients can make informed decisions

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about upgrading to the latest service pack. Our writers keep up with new functionality and update or write Knowledge Base articles and installation guides. With a wealth of knowledge, our unsung heroes from the Documentation Department make sure we as a company stay updated on the ins and outs of Cityworks.

As the developers and the Documentation Department know about the complexities and significant details of Cityworks, our IT Department ensures that the company works smoothly as they maintain our servers and computers. The IT group works to setup and maintain the Cityworks demo VMs and AMIs. With all of this technology and our dependence on it working properly, a top-shelf IT Department is critical; and the one at Cityworks is as good as it gets. They are behind our successful training sessions, our successful phone conferences, and our successful user conferences and trade shows. Without our IT Department, the Cityworks machine would come to a screeching halt.

And we can’t overlook the gallant testers from the Testing Department. Software testing is absolutely critical in software development, and our testing team has raised the quality of software testing almost to an art form. They ensure that our users have a great Cityworks experience. When a supervisor needs to add labor to a work order and then close it out and get a report to the department head, Cityworks has to perform as expected. Enter the Testing Department—these intrepid sleuths ensure that supervisor looks good to the department head, and that Cityworks is doing what it is designed to do.

So the next time you are working with Cityworks, successfully maintaining your infrastructure and making the citizens in your city, district, or county happy, don’t forget the people who work backstage to guarantee that happens. Cityworks is a big team, and all of its members contribute to a great product and to the success of our users. They are irreplaceable cogs in the smooth-running, successful Cityworks machine.

Corporate Community

Regional User Group Meetings Connect Cityworks Communities

By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

W

ith a higher turnout than ever before, the 2013 Cityworks Regional User Group (RUG) meetings connected the Cityworks user, partner, and corporate communities, strengthening the GIS-centric community across North America. Cityworks staff, business partners, and users were in attendance, sharing ideas, experience, and knowledge for a successful series of events. A total of seventeen meetings were held across the United States from September through December. Overall, close to 850 individuals attended.

The theme of the 2013 Cityworks RUG meetings, Elevate, focused on how users can elevate Cityworks within their organizations.

Presentations addressed four areas of Elevate: engagement, mobility, extensibility, and accountability. Discussions and demos showed Cityworks users how to achieve these four focus areas through Cityworks and with the help of Cityworks business partners. For example, when examining mobility, Cityworks staff demonstrated the Field, Mobile, iOS, and Android Cityworks solutions, as well as shared how Cityworks business partners have developed mobile solutions that incorporate Cityworks.

“Taking our user group meetings on the road provides us with the unique opportunity of connecting the three Cityworks communities we value so highly—our users, our partners, and our staff,” stated Wayne Hill, vice president of client relations. “Connecting these communities and learning from each other strengthens our relationships and knowledge in the use of Cityworks and GIS. New and exciting usages of Cityworks were discussed as well as ways to strengthen and maximize the solution.” Hill also thanks all those who were involved in successful 2013 RUG meetings, “from our valued clients to our RUG meeting sponsors to our Cityworks staff, for joining together to make these meetings a success.”

2014 REGIONAL USER GROUP MEETINGS Sept. 4: Utah/Idaho

Oct. 9: Georgia/Tennessee

Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities, 1530 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah

Fulton Environmental Education Center, Johns Creek Environmental Campus, 8100 Holcomb Bridge Road, Alpharetta, Georgia

Sept. 10: Missouri

Oct. 21: Michigan

Truman Memorial Building, Presidential Hall C, 416 W. Maple Ave., Independence, Missouri

City of Troy Community Center, 3179 Livernois, Troy, Michigan

Sept. 11: Ohio/Indiana

Oct. 22: Illinois/Wisconsin

Montgomery County Environmental Services, 1850 Spaulding Rd., Kettering, Ohio

Sept. 17: Washington/Oregon Burien City Hall, Multipurpose Room 1st Floor, 400 SW 152nd St., Burien, Washington

Sept. 24: Virginia/Maryland City of Alexandria, Transportation & Environmental Services, Operations Center, 2900-B Business Center Dr., Alexandria, Virginia

Azteca Systems Inc., 2021 South 18th Ave., Suite #102, West Bend, Wisconsin

Nov. 5: Northern California Orange Memorial Park, Jim Fernekes Building, 781 Tennis Drive, South San Francisco, California

Nov. 6: Southern California City Hall, Mitchell Room, 201 N. Broadway, Escondido, California

Nov. 6: Vancouver, Canada

Sept. 25: North Carolina/South Carolina

TBA

Neuse River WWTP Training Facility, 8717 Battle Bridge Road, Raleigh, North Carolina

Nov. 13: Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas

Oct. 8: Florida

Valley View Municipal Complex, 333 Valley View Lane, Irving, Texas

4747 N. Main St., Gainesville, Florida

Nov. 20: Colorado

Oct. 8: Toronto, Canada

Loveland Police & Courts Building, 810 E. 10th St., Loveland, Colorado

TBA

Register & Learn More Register at mycityworks.com. Find more information about 2014 RUG meetings on the Cityworks Event app at cityworksevents.com.

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Corporate Community

Serving Our Communities With a Purpose

By Audrey E. Blake, Technical Writer

A

t Cityworks, giving back to our communities is an essential principle that we hold with great pride. We believe that by contributing our time and our resources to organizations, events, and universities we help our communities and our hearts grow. Our employees around the United States stay very involved in their communities, and as a company we look for ways we can extend our hands in service to the needs of our communities and our employees.

has helped us, and others, with the opportunity to take advantage of a life-changing opportunity for Sarah that traditional therapy could not do. It’s a blessing.”

Providing Lifechanging Opportunities One organization we reach out to is The Jackson Center for Conductive Education in Mooresville, Indiana. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, the Jackson Center provides a system of learning that improves motor skills for children with motor disorders resulting from damage to the nervous system. Sarah, a student at the Jackson Center, is the daughter of Cityworks employee Steven Sushka, a senior technical support representative. She has a rare brain disorder that limits her motor skills. Sarah attends the Jackson Center twice a week where she learns basic things like “life skills, eating, and going to the bathroom,” says Sushka. “She also works with a one-on-one aide and a conductor in a three-hour block of a therapy session opposed to the traditional one-hour therapy session.” The Jackson Center receives funding through fundraising, personal pay, and insurance. “The Walking for Dreams fund raiser, which Azteca Systems has helped with, is one of three main fundraising events the center does each year. The donation

Sarah Sushka

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Trichotillomania Learning Center An organization at the forefront of Cityworks is the Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC) which provides education, outreach, and research support into the causes and treatments of Body-focused Repetitive Behaviors (BRFBs). Brian Haslam, president and CEO of Cityworks, serves on the TLC Board of Directors in support of his daughter who successfully manages her condition.

Caring for Kids We also support events that encourage children to have fun and be active. In the last two years, we have joined forces with CH2M HILL, one of our business partners, to sponsor the Bikes for Kids Charitable Fundraiser, which seeks to purchase bikes and helmets for underprivileged children around Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Camden, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware. We are also a proud sponsor of the FitKids Triathlon held in Herriman, Utah, and our West Bend, Wisconsin, office is sponsoring a Dirty Ninja Mud Run for kids ages 4–14 in August.

Despite being a new location, the staff at our DeSoto, Texas, office have already jumpstarted their service by participating in a bowling fundraiser last December that donated money to provide gifts for children in the Dallas area for the holidays. During the same time, Cityworks staff at the headquarters in Sandy, Utah, organized a fundraiser for the Utah Food Bank to help with the holiday demands for those in need.

Huntsman 140 benefiting cancer research at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

Organizations supported • University of Utah, Department of Geography • Brigham Young University, Amanda J. Hardin Endowment Scholarship Fund • Tour of Utah • Parkinson’s Unity Walk • Salt Lake Valley Firefighters Association Children’s Burn Camp • J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School • Veterans of Foreign Wars of Utah • Girl Scouts of Utah • Porcupine Cycling Club • Herriman High School a capella group • City of Huntsville, Texas, charity bowling event • Salt Lake Police Annual “Shop with a Cop” program • Judge Memorial Catholic High School • LoToJa Classic • The Gary Ludlow Memorial Ride, supporting National Alliance on Mental Illness • The Huntsman 140 Cycling Event, supporting research at the Huntsman Cancer Institue in Salt Lake City, Utah

Jeannette and Tom Palizzi

Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and Parkinson’s Unity Walk Cityworks has been a major contributor to the Parkinson’s Unity Walk through their support of the PDF Pacers, a team comprised of people living with Parkinson’s, their families, care partners, friends and associates with the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF). The PDF Pacers, lead by Cityworks’ Executive Vice President, Tom Palizzi has raised more than $100,000 since joining the effort, funding critical research towards finding a cure for Parkinson’s. Tom has served on the People with Parkinson’s Advisory Council (PPAC) since 2011 as a member and chairman, and a member of the foundations Board of Directors.

While there are many other organizations or causes that Cityworks staff are involved with, these are just a few examples. Our surrounding communities and organizations share common purposes in promoting wellness, education, support, and progression, and we are grateful for the opportunities we have to continue to give back.

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Ryan Curletti Ryan is a software analyst in our Client Relations Department.

He is currently a student at Salt Lake Community College and plans to transfer to Utah Valley University this fall to study business management. Ryan likes to ski and wakeboard, and he is the lead singer and violinist for La Barba, a Latino band.

Danielle Edwards Danielle is a technical writer in our Documentation Department.

She graduated with a BA in organizational communication and an institutional certificate in professional and technical writing from Weber State University. She was previously contracted with L-3 Communications as an instructional designer, and has done freelance work for ITPlus. She volunteers as a merit badge counselor and a Wood Badge trainer for the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts of America. When she has free time, she loves to read, write, work on beadwork, and go four-wheeling.

Jessica Lindsey Jessica joined the Documentation Department as a technical writer. She is in her senior year at Utah Valley University pursuing a BS degree in English and creative writing. Before joining our team, Jessica worked as a technical writer at JP Morgan Chase and Spillman Technologies. She has been married for eight years and has two children. She enjoys backpacking, reading, writing, and soccer.

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Derek Nelson Derek is a software analyst in our Client Relations Department.

He attends Utah Valley University and has previously worked in cleaning, maintenance, landscaping, disaster relief, and as a factory worker and warehouse worker. He has read Pride and Prejudice and says he “actually enjoyed it.�

Dan Puerling Dan is an intern in our Customer Support Department and works at our West Bend, Wisconsin, office. He graduated from University of Wisconsin in December with a double major in geography and history. He enjoys reading, hiking, camping, and fishing, and he is a huge fan of the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers.

Ryen Tarbet Ryen is an asset management specialist in our Client Relations Department. He has a BS degree in biology and an MS degree in geography from University of California, Davis. Ryen has previously worked in the permitting software business and has also worked in the public sector implementing and directing an extensive asset management and capital planning program. Ryen says he loves to nerd out on GIS and asset management, but also enjoys skiing, mountain biking, camping, and spending time with his wife and six-year-old daughter.

Corporate Community

Cityworks Opens Regional Offices in Texas and Wisconsin

C

ityworks customers in the United States are benefiting from the expansion of Cityworks regional office locations. In the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, a new Cityworks regional office recently opened in DeSoto, Texas. Additionally, the existing West Bend, Wisconsin, Cityworks regional office is expanding soon.

DeSoto, Texas Strategically placed within a high concentration of customers and remote staff, the DeSoto location opened in January 2014, providing a common location for customer support, sales, services, and training. The office provides services to Cityworks clients located not only in the greater Dallas metropolitan area of Texas, but also along the southern region of the US. Cityworks expects operational efficiencies as a result of the expansion among the many other benefits of having a location close to its strong user base in Texas.

West Bend, Wisconsin The West Bend office was recently expanded to more than double its original space. The expansion, completed in June 2014, will accommodate future staff growth and a new regional Cityworks training center to support high concentration of customers in this region.

DeSoto, Texas, Office

Training is Bigger in Texas!

We held the first Server AMS Administration training at our new DeSoto, Texas, office, located in the Dallas area, February 24–28, 2014, with attendees from different areas of the country participating.

The Texas training facility is awesome! The large room—which can hold up to 40 attendees—has a projector, large screen monitors, and even an Apple TV. It’s true that everything is bigger in Texas! The room can also be expanded to hold more computers based on training demands at this location. We use the same cloud server environments and training documents that are used at our training headquarters in Sandy, Utah.

With clients’ limited travel budgets, we recognize the need to bring Cityworks training options closer to home. We have planned several training courses at the Texas office throughout the coming year and well into the future. Please feel free to check the Cityworks Campus website to see what other courses are scheduled at our Texas location: www.mycityworks. com/cityworkscampus. We hope to see y’all soon in the Lonestar State!

West Bend, Wisconsin, Office

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Technology

Cityworks Mobile

By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

C

ityworks Mobile, one of the latest developments by Cityworks, gives users the ability to leverage the full power and capabilities of Cityworks via mobile devices. With solutions available on a variety of devices for both connected and disconnected use, Cityworks provides a variety of options to fit an organization’s needs.

In the area of disconnected use, Cityworks Mobile offers apps for iOS, Android, and HTML5 (in version 2014). Built using Esri’s mobile Software Development Kits (SDKs), Cityworks Mobile apps are optimized for processing specialized workflows even when a persistent connection is not available, giving

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field users the ability to complete their work quickly without sacrificing valuable information used for analysis. In the area of connected use, there is Cityworks Field Mode. Optimized for browsers on tablet devices and leveraging Esri’s Javascript API, field users have access to the full power of Cityworks while in the field.

Cityworks Mobile apps do not require the setup and maintenance of a secondary database, and the variety of app options ensures that organizations can deploy the right solution for their unique needs.

“Mobile access to information and technology is no longer the way of the future—it’s the way of today,” says Brian Haslam, president

and CEO of Cityworks–Azteca Systems. “We recognize the need for our users to have full access to Cityworks on their mobile devices on the go, anytime, anywhere, in connected or disconnected modes. That is why we have put such a huge focus on the development of Cityworks Mobile, which offers our users a variety of options to satisfy the mobile needs of their agencies. We are excited to see our users take the full capabilities of Cityworks on handheld devices and run with it, enabling even greater connectivity and flexibly using this remarkable GIS-centric solution for public asset management on the go.”

2015 User Conference | Salt Palace Convention Center | Salt Lake City, Utah cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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Cityworks 2014–2015 Release Model

By Carl Horton, Chief Technology Officer

T

he Cityworks user base is very diverse.

Some users desire new functionality, some desire support for the latest technology.

Some users want frequent software updates, others prefer infrequent updates. For most users, stability is a very high priority, but at times even this is trumped by the need for a particular enhancement. On top of our users’ concerns, potential customers often mandate the latest technology in their RFP. It is easy to see how releasing software can become a tedious process.

While there is no perfect solution to release management, we are improving on the release model presented at the 2013 Cityworks User Conference. Cityworks 2013 was a heavily tested and stable version, referred to as a corporate release. Corporate releases are intended to have a maintained lifespan of at least two years. If critical bugs or other issues need to be addressed in the corporate release, a service pack addressing those issues will be made.

To date, three service packs were released for Cityworks 2013. We have no plans of ending support of 2013 for at least two more years, and will continue support beyond that date if it is needed.

At the 2013 Cityworks User Conference, we presented a new release plan in which we would have one annual corporate release followed by revisions. We followed the release of Cityworks 2013 with three revisions. The term 2013 “Revision” was confusing to a number of users, so we’ve changed the naming for the 2014 release. The 2014 Corporate Release will be followed by 2015 Previews.

Previews are preliminary versions of the 2015 Corporate Release. Each preview will have targeted enhancements and testing focused on those bugs and enhancements, along with the existing library of automated tests covering a broad range of functionality. If a particular enhancement cannot be made or stabilized in time, it is furloughed until the next preview. Cityworks 2015 will represent all the new software released in the 2015 Previews, with more substantial levels of automated and manual testing, client-site-specific script testing, release candidates, and so forth, for the 2015 Corporate Release.

Cityworks 2014 was highlighted at the Cityworks 2014 User Conference and will be a long-term supported product

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with service packs released as needed, likely on a bimonthly schedule at first. The largest enhancement in Cityworks 2014 is the ability to perform all functions within the browser environment, specifically Designer and Storeroom. These applications will no longer run as separate standalone desktop applications. At the 2014 User Conference, we presented some of the software expected to be

in Cityworks 2015, and the expected preview release schedule.

This release model supports a wide range of user preferences. User sites that prefer less frequent upgrades and very stable software can remain on the corporate release cycle. Any updates to the corporate release will only contain critical fixes. For sites with large numbers of users, where training is a significant issue,

Q1 2015 2015 Preview 2 Q3 2014 2014 Corporate Release

• iOS Inspection App • Android Inspection App • Misc Enhancements

A Corporate Release is designed to be as problem-free as possible through heavy testing and quality control. The release will be maintained for at least two years, any significant problems found in the release will be resolved through service packs.

P

Corporate Release Testing • • • • •

Iterations of automated and manual testing Documentation testing Client-site specific script testing Release candidates Project specific testing

2014 2014 SP 2014 Service Packs Service Packs will be released as needed. No additional enhancements or functional changes will be added.

Preview Testing • Iterations of automated and manual testing • Documentation testing

this approach will reduce user training to an annual frequency. User sites that prefer frequent updates, or need specific new enhancements, can update to any or all previews.

While normal testing procedures will be in place for each revision, normal bug fixes will be addressed in the next preview—which will also include new enhancements.

For us at Azteca Systems, the release schedule and product reliability become the main development drivers, allowing features that can’t make the scheduled release cycle to be

P2

Technology

deferred to the next cycle. These features will generally support incremental innovation and incremental development. Incremental development requires us to carefully code enhancements, since the development code set cannot remain in an unbuildable state for more than very short time periods. Since releases are short time frames, usually bi-monthly, larger initiatives will cross release boundaries, requiring us to structure these large initiatives into smaller, more manageable pieces.

UC 2015 2015 Corporate Release

2015

P1

A heavily tested and quality controlled version of Cityworks 2015 Previews.

Q4 2014 2015 Preview 1 • • • •

Esri Collector App Other Esri App Integration FEMA Reporting Misc Enhancements

P3

Q2 2015 2015 Preview 3 • • • • •

Cityworks Analytics Asset Analytics Misc Enhancements ELM Equipment Manager

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Deploying Cityworks

PLL with AMS

By Matt Harman, Regional Sales Manager

AMS

C

ityworks Server AMS and Server PLL provide an enterprise solution designed to manage the business processes and workflows that span across local government departments. This enterprise deployment of Cityworks is referred to as GIS-centric Public Asset Management. Organizations that deploy the Cityworks Public Asset Management system see tremendous benefits compared to using multiple systems.

Advantages of one system versus multiple systems can be divided into three categories representing the perspective of the Cityworks user: • End user processes and workflow • Reporting and other higher level benefits • IT departments

Processes and Workflow Core end user processes are the day-to-day activities Cityworks manages. For asset management, these include service requests,

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work orders, and inspections; for permitting and licensing, they include permits, inspections, license renewals, planning and zoning activities, and more. All of these activities can be stored, managed, and tracked in the Cityworks application.

For example, utilizing Server AMS, end users at an agency might: • Create work orders to manage the preventive and reactive maintenance of their assets.

• Track labor, material, and equipment costs on work activities.

• Log calls and complaints with service requests.

• Inspect assets and calculate a condition score.

Using Server PLL, users may: • Manage development applications, projects, and permits.

• Manage building permits and inspections.

PLL • Track city-sponsored or privatelyfunded construction projects.

• Manage code enforcement cases and violations.

• Track business licenses and renewals.

Cityworks Server AMS and PLL manage all of these items, and if needed, any of these activities could also be linked together. In other words, the workflow of a given process can span both Server AMS and PLL. Potential users sometimes ask, “Why would a user need to create a work order from a permit or vice versa?” While the majority of core end-user processes may not require both a work order and a permit, there are certain events on a permit or case that may require a work order, or certain work orders may need a permit.

For example, code enforcement cases often require public works crews to abate past-due violations such as weed overgrowth or snow removal. In this case, the workflow for the code

Technology

enforcement case may include creating a work order and establishing a link between the two.

A residential construction permit may use a service request to get a water meter installation associated to the new home. Moreover, the service request would ultimately be associated to a work order performed by the water department. All three of these items would be linked together, and one could be accessed from another.

Service requests can be used to log violation complaints, or even requests for permit applications. The service request can be routed to the appropriate user and a case or permit may be created as a result.

These are just a few simple examples that promote greater communication across departments and increases overall efficiency.

Higher Level Benefits A key advantage of deploying both Cityworks Server AMS and PLL together is the ability to share information. Cityworks makes it is easy to summarize the data across the enterprise using event layers, the inbox, searches, and reports. As such, planners can view open work orders that may affect a project. Public works staff can view new permits or development applications coming down the pipeline. City administrators can export a report that combines expenditures from Server AMS and revenues from Server PLL. Cityworks takes all of this information and empowers its various users with the information each of them needs.

City administrative staff, council members, planning commission members, and others could even log in to the system and access an inbox, dashboard, map, or report that summarizes historic, current, and future activities. Cityworks stores all this information and more, with no need for interfaces. In addition, Cityworks tracks a significant portion of the financial transactions for an organization—all expenditures (labor, material, and equipment costs for work order activities), as well as revenue from permit fees, application fees, and code enforcement invoicing. This can help simplify monthly and yearly reporting because the data is all stored in Cityworks, rather than spread across multiple systems.

At the core of both systems is Cityworks’ GIS-centric approach to asset and community development management. Information from the

GIS can be imported directly into Cityworks via attached work orders and permits or cases. The map allows users to visually track activities occurring throughout the various departments. This eliminates the need to replicate data—in particular parcel and assessor data—across two (or more) systems. This saves significant amounts of time for many staff members.

IT Department Savings Another significant advantage of having a combined system is the savings for the organization’s IT expenses. Two (or more) systems result in two sets of system requirements, which may require unique hardware and software components. As a web-based system, Cityworks is one application requiring one set of system requirements. This results in fewer software updates, fewer applications to support, less user training, less dedicated hardware to purchase, less time managing interfaces between different systems, fewer vendors to contract and work with, and so on. Cityworks eliminates many complications and saves an organization and its IT staff a significant amount of time and money.

Many agencies that run multiple systems often encounter compatibility issues where one application doesn’t yet support a third-party system (e.g., ArcGIS, MS Office, Windows, etc.), but the other system requires it in order to upgrade. Thus, many times an organization gets “stuck” on older software. Using one system like Cityworks doesn’t completely eliminate this, but it does reduce the instances significantly. Reducing these issues streamlines upgrades and allows users to take advantage of new features sooner.

In Conclusion Cityworks is unique in its ability to share information easily and efficiently across multiple departments and disciplines in local governments. While both Server AMS and PLL can stand alone as an efficient solution, organizations that utilize both systems see a greater return on investment and efficiency by improving communication, combining workflows, leveraging GIS and reporting, and maximizing IT savings.

For more information on how incorporating Cityworks Server PLL can enhance your organization’s Cityworks usage, contact Matt Harman at mharman@cityworks.com.

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Technology

By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor

I

n January of this year, Cityworks instigated a new company-wide effort to increase the stability and quality assurance of Cityworks software. Referred to as the Cityworks test blitz and managed by software testing lead Jeff Gerke, the event brings together Cityworks employees from each department to test future software and provide useful feedback about the software formatting, bugs found in the system, or other items that need attention. Through the test blitz, Cityworks software is thoroughly tested by employees each Friday of the month.

Sheldon Bagley, lead manager of software development, remarks that the test blitz is “very beneficial because we leverage the expertise of every group in the company and utilize

Cityworks staff participating in the test blitz.

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many specific client scenarios to thoroughly test future releases of Cityworks.” Before integrating the test blitz, the quality assurance group tested and verified each software release. Bagley says that with the test blitzes, “in addition to the quality assurance group, all employees now help find areas in need of attention and our entire staff becomes more familiar with the intricacies of the software.”

The first week of the test blitz spanned five days, and 290 items were logged for resolution or attention. Out of the 290 items logged, the quality assurance group created about 75 work orders to follow up. Some items were duplicates and were combined into a single work order.

Some items turned out not to be actual bugs, and other items were suggestions for future

releases. Through the process, quality assurance confirmed the bugs detected and made a list of enhancement ideas for future software releases.

As compared to December 2013 when 38 bugs were fixed, 93 bugs were resolved in January.

The January test blitz resulted in more frequent test blitzes implemented into the regular software development cycle. Bagley states, “We feel confident this new effort will elevate our software to a new level of reliability and quality. We also believe this effort sets us apart as a company that cares to provide quality to our users—to the point that we take time out of our individual roles, from the administrative staff to the managerial staff, to dig into the software and uncover issues, ultimately ensuring our users are pleased with our products.”

The Differences Between Condition and Maintenance Scores

Tools & Tips

By Greg Walters, Office Manager | Technical Support Manager

T

wo scores, the condition score and the maintenance score, determine the current condition of an asset and the cumulative amount of work applied to the asset over time. The numbers representing the two scores stem from the configurations set in Designer. The condition score is generated from custom inspections and the maintenance score is generated from work orders. While both scores are valuable to each asset on the map, it is important to understand the distinct differences between the two.

Cond i ti o n Sc o r e Generated from custom inspections, the condition score relates to the actual condition of an asset based on a field inspection. When a custom inspection is configured in Designer, the administrator assigns weights to each observation. The higher the weight number, the more important that observation is. Data gathered during the inspection along with the weight and score are used to calculate the condition score. The condition score allows you to visually display trouble spots on the map and helps determine where to allocate maintenance money most effectively.

In regards to the weight number, while any number can be used when assigning weights, the final calculated condition score is a normalized value between 0 and 100.

Observations tab of a custom inspection template in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014 (bottom). Weights can be easily applied to various questions.

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The administrator also sets up the types of answers for each question and assigns a score in Designer. This number is used to calculate a condition score for the asset. Typically, a lower number indicates a worse condition.

The results of the Custom Inspection Templates in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014 (bottom) allow for various scores to be applied to questions based on which answer is provided.

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Once an inspection is completed and recorded in Server AMS, the scores are calculated using an algorithm. The maximum total score is calculated by multiplying the sum of the weight by the maximum score of each question. A total score is calculated by multiplying the sum of the weight by the score of each question. The condition score is calculated by dividing the total score by the maximum total score, multiplied by 100. As an example, let’s say the following weights and scores were assigned.

Weight

Question 1

Score

Question 2

Score

Question 1

20

Answer 1

2

Answer 1

10

Question 2

10

Answer 2

1

Answer 2

5

Answer 3

0

Answer 3

0

The weights and scores are used to calculate the condition score.

The inspection shows Answer 3 was selected for Question 1, and Answer 2 selected for Question 2. The following calculations take place to determine the condition score: • Maximum total score: (20 × 2) + (10 × 10) = 140 • Total score: (20 × 0) + (10 × 5) = 50 • Condition score: (50 ÷ 140) × 100 = 36 The condition score is accessed in Server AMS by opening the Condition tool on the map. The user selects the layer, determines the desired area on the map, and clicks the Condition Score option.

The user selects the layer, the desired area on the map, and the Condition Score option.

After clicking Load, the map provides a detailed view of the scores and the locations of the assets. You can adjust the selections on the Condition tool to view various condition scores. Note that the inspection date must be populated on the inspection and the inspection must be closed for it to display on the map.

(Figure 5)

The map displays a detailed view of the scores and locations of the assets.

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Main te n a n c e S c o r e Like the condition score, the maintenance score provides valuable information about assets to workers and administrators. The maintenance score represents the amount of work performed on an asset through its lifecycle.

Every time a work order is completed for an asset, the maintenance score accumulates.

This creates a historical maintenance record for the asset.

When work order templates are created in Designer, the administrator assigns a maintenance score to each template. A lower score may suggest that the work is less urgent than work with a higher score, which is more urgent.

For example, inspecting a sewer manhole might have a maintenance score of 50 while an emergency repair might have a score of 80.

The maintenance score assigned to the work order template in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014 (bottom).

In Server AMS, the Condition tool on the map has an option to view the maintenance scores for assets. The user selects the layer, determines the desired area on the map, and clicks the Maintenance Score option.

The user selects the layer, the desired area on the map, and the Maintenance Score option.

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After clicking Load, the map provides a detailed view of the maintenance scores and the locations of the assets. You can adjust the selections on the Condition tool to view various maintenance scores. Note that the maintenance score for the asset is calculated when the actual finish date is populated on the work order.

Condition scores and maintenance scores are powerful tools—but it is important to understand the differences between them. The condition score represents the actual condition of the asset based on inspections. The maintenance score represents the amount of work done on an asset throughout its lifecycle and is based on work orders. Both are used to visually create an assessment of your infrastructure which can then be used to make maintenance decisions and long-term plans.

The map displays a detailed view of the scores and locations of the assets.

cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint

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