SPRING2016
System of Engagement Convergence Pg. 4 Managing Inventory for Large ROI pg. 6 Empowering GIS for Stormwater pg. 8 ELM Gets a Makeover pg. 28
2 InPrint | Spring 2016
FROM OUR EDITOR
ADVISORY BOARD Brian Haslam | President & CEO 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 Sheldon Bagley | Executive Development Director Carl Horton | Executive Director of Messaging Steve Thomas | Executive Manager, Customer Support INPRINT STAFF Editor in Chief | Tom Palizzi Managing Editor | Kaye Ryser Marketing Communication Specialist | Camille Olsen Copy Editor | Christine Christensen, Reece Hanzon, Danielle Edwards Graphic Design | Kent Hepworth Graphic Design | Aubrey Hicks SUBSCRIPTIONS To subscribe, change your address, or cancel your subscription: inprint@cityworks.com
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well-known anecdote suggests the only constant is change. Though that may be, it’s the rate at which things change that draws our attention. The rate varies specific to every individual thing and thus varies with respect to each other. For example, the rate of change of end user expectations does not always coincide with the rate of change for software. This disparity creates an environment where software systems often oscillate from chaos to convergence. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in technology. Software developers must choose to chase the disparities or innovate. A good example would be in the evolution of Cityworks. Recognizing the value and potential of the GIS database, Cityworks introduced the GIScentric approach, combining the day-to-day business process of asset and work management with the unique and powerful capabilities of a GIS. Though legacy systems shared some interest in GIS, they simply accentuated the chaos of linking or somehow connecting to the GIS. Cityworks firmly established a public organization’s geodatabase as an authoritative data system of record, supporting critical business activities. On the forefront of consumer expectations for Internet
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deployment and mobile accessibility, Cityworks continues to innovate
AZTECA SYSTEMS INC. 11075 South State Street, Suite 24 Sandy, UT 84070 801-523-2751 www.cityworks.com
Convergence is defined as the coming together from different
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to become a system of engagement, pointed out in Brian Haslam’s President’s Corner.
directions. Cityworks has come a long way, constantly combining new technologies and customer expectations together to provide a solution that end users and decision makers can depend on. Several features in this issue of InPrint illustrate Cityworks as a system of engagement, Empowering GIS for public asset management. Thanks for reading this issue of Cityworks InPrint!
Tom Palizzi Executive Vice President
The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. TRADEMARKS: Cityworks®, Cityworks Logo, Empowering GIS, GIS Empowered, the Three Layer Map Logo, @cityworks.com, www.cityworks.com, www.mycityworks.com, Azteca Systems, the Azteca Systems logo, and Azteca Systems products referenced herein are either trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Azteca Systems in the United States, Canada, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO THIS INFORMATION. AZTECA SYSTEMS MAY MAKE IMPROVEMENTS AND/OR CHANGES IN THE PRODUCT(S) AND/OR THE PROGRAM(S) DESCRIBED HEREIN AT ANY TIME. IN NO EVENT SHALL AZTECA SYSTEMS AND/OR ITS RESPECTIVE SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF SOFTWARE, DOCUMENTS, OR FAILURE TO PROVIDE SERVICES. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form.
InPrint | Spring 2016 1
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18
CONTENTS
4
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
4
GIS-centric System of Record and System of Engagement
6
Managing Inventory for Large ROI at Grand Rapids, Michigan
USER COMMUNITY
8 Empowering GIS for Stormwater Management 12 City of Woodland Makes Cityworks Their Own PARTNER COMMUNITY
14
Greenwood Metropolitan District, SC: CCTV Data is Easily Accessible With Cityworks and ITPipes
16
Cityworks and TruePoint Utility Billing Integrate to Streamline Processes
17 18
U.S. Software Integrator Fuels Australian Utility Automation
20
Burning Questions? Call 3-1-1 in Akron, Ohio — Get Answers and Great Service
23 24
Implementing Cityworks for SAW Grant Program
33
Calm, Collected, and I/I Compliant With a Little Help from Digital Technology
Cityworks and CitySourced Launch Citizen Web Portal
USER COMMUNITY
20
Empowering
GIS
for Stormwater Management
28 33
By Camille Olsen, Marketing Assistant, Cityworks
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ocal governments have used Geographic I n fo r m ation Systems (GIS) to produce and analyze maps for decades. A widelyaccepted, standard technology in public agencies around the globe, GIS is at the forefront and often among the core applications of asset maintenance and management solutions. Today, utilities, public works, and stormwater management professionals consider not only the benefits of the technology investment, but the authoritative value of the GIS data as a system of record. These factors combine to make the GIS an ideal platform for local governments to develop an intuitive public asset management strategy. A significant number of stormwater management professionals have discovered the benefits of GIS-centric solutions to manage, coordinate, and analyze their assets and work activities to maintain reliable and sustainable infrastructure. We asked some stormwater experts from the Cityworks community to share their experiences using the GIS-centric approach to manage their world.
8 InPrint | Spring 2016
CORPORATE COMMUNITY 26 Congratulations Esri 2015 SAG Award Winners! 27 Cityworks SAMTM Salutes New Employees TECHNOLOGY Tools & Tips: ELM Gets a Makeover Tools & Tips: Redesigned GIS Services Provide New and Improved GIS-centric Capabilities
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4 InPrint | Spring 2016
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
GIS-centric System of Record and System of Engagement For Local Government Public Asset Management By Brian L. Haslam, President & CEO, Cityworks
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ecently published in ArcNews, Esri outlined how A rc G IS is a system of engagement.1 Geoffrey A. Moore, the author of the best seller Crossing the Chasm, is attributed with first articulating the concept of system of engagement. 2 A core premise of system of engagement is that ubiquitous Internet access, mobile computing, and consumerization of IT (innovation arising in the consumer market sets the expectations for end users of business and governmental enterprise systems) are the drivers for change. The “digital generation” desires easy and intuitive access anytime, anywhere. This is easily seen with the demand for iOS and Android apps. The traditional enterprise system is a repository of authoritative data, or system of record, that supports an organization’s critical business processes. Moore makes an important distinction that system of engagement does not replace or make obsolete a system of record. Rather, his emphasis is that system of engagement “overlays and complements” an organization’s investment in a system of record driven by web-based access, usability (ease of use), and collaboration (openness). Esri makes the same important distinction. “The ArcGIS platform is in a unique position: it is both a system of record and a system of engagement.” 1 With ArcGIS, Cityworks becomes both a system of record and a system of engagement for public asset management. A core premise of the Cityworks GIS-centric approach is that the ArcGIS geodatabase is the organization’s best and most up-to-date authoritative data repository for local government 1 “ArcGIS Is a System of Engagement…and a System of Record.” ArcNews, Winter 2016. 2 Geoffrey Moore, System of Engagement and the Future of Enterprise IT: A
assets. When responding to a request from a citizen, knowing what and where matters. Cityworks builds on this foundation to track the request to resolution, including resource use, and maintains a historical record of the responses. The historical information provides a data lens for magnitude and frequency. Cityworks and ArcGIS together form a foundational, core system of record for local government public asset management. Data can be visualized in a map for making better-informed decisions, now and for the future. Maps are a particularly good medium for making the system of engagement come alive. “Nearly anyone can look at a map and quickly grasp complex information. . . . trends and spatial relationships.” 1 But not just any map. The essence of the Cityworks GIS-centric approach has always been to leverage and broaden the use of ArcGIS for public asset management. A local government organization’s response to a request by a citizen always means first correctly identifying what and where. With ArcGIS as the authoritative asset repository, there is no need to maintain a redundant asset repository. We understand the drivers for change in enterprise systems. End user expectations influenced by ubiquitous Internet access, mobile computing, consumerization of IT, and collaboration and openness are propelling enterprise systems beyond a system of record, to a system of engagement. With ArcGIS, Cityworks is committed to being a part of the system of engagement for local government. We have always seen maps as a better way, but not just any map. The essence of GIS-centric has always been to leverage and broaden the use of ArcGIS. We are the original and first GIS-centric system designed to leverage ArcGIS as the authoritative asset data repository. Together, ArcGIS and Cityworks are the system of record for local government public asset management. Overlaying and complementing this core is the ArcGIS system of engagement that Cityworks is a part of because of its GIS-centric design and approach.
Sea Change in Enterprise IT, accessed April 19, 2016, http://www.aiim.org/ futurehistory#sthash.SFCpWnNh.dpuf.
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USER COMMUNITY
Managing Inventory for Large ROI at Grand Rapids, Michigan By Brad Johnson, Industry Practices Manager, Cityworks
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ocated about 30 miles east of Lake Michigan and 160 miles north west of Detroit, Grand Rapids is the second largest city in Michigan and has approximately 190,000 residents.
The City of Grand Rapids has a passion for improving—both in their business practices and the results they deliver. Grand Rapids is one of the most prolific users of Cityworks Storeroom, employing it not only to manage inventory, but also to analyze inventory usage, practices, and procedures, and to reduce costs in all areas of operation. Alen Ganic, inventory and asset manager, started implementing Storeroom for the Traffic & Safety Department and Sign Shop Division in 2012 after evaluating Cityworks and other inventory programs. When deciding whether to stay with Cityworks or look for a different inventory system, Ganic said the difference was that Cityworks listened. He talked with Steve Thomas and Jiajun Liu at Cityworks, and together they worked through the City’s workflow issues While he admitted that no system is perfect, Ganic felt the difference with Cityworks was the company listened and was willing to help.
After determining Storeroom was the way to proceed, Ganic continued to make adjustments to the configuration and process flows, and became very familiar with the software and its capabilities. Following this rollout, he was able to implement Storeroom for other divisions, including the signal line crew and the Signal Tech and Street Lighting Divisions. As the number of facilities utilizing Storeroom increased, upper management responded to the increased access to information, which improved both communication and accountability—which in turn eased purchasing policies. As a result, Grand Rapids utilizes Storeroom to handle all of the City’s requisitions, receivables, issuances, transfers, and audits of all materials. In addition, all materials are barcoded so that key information can be quickly filled in and Bluetooth barcode scanners can be used with tablets in the storerooms. Through their implementation of Storeroom, Ganic has been able to review many areas not previously examined, including the accuracy of inventory levels both in excess and short. By tracking suppliers, for example, Ganic has been able to reduce the number of suppliers used and consolidate material purchasing and eliminate redundancies. This has also allowed Ganic to target suppliers who supply the majority of the City’s materials and partner to negotiate pricing and better delivery services.
As part of the ongoing implementation, Ganic applied three key functions: ROP (Reorder Point), EOQ (Economic Order Quantity), and an ABC classification, allowing for greater inventory and material management. Prior to utilizing ROP and EOQ, an Excel spreadsheet was used to manage reorder points. ROP is a tool that helps determine when material needs to be reordered based on economic criteria, including lead times, safety stock, and daily demand, rather than just the minimum quantity level. The ABC classification allowed the facilities to focus efforts on high-value material and establishing a cycle count program based on material value and use. Class A items are about 20% of the inventory but 80% of the cost and are cycle counted monthly. Class B items are cycle counted quarterly, and class C items are cycle counted annually. Ganic uses the category option on materials in Designer to classify inventory. Categories include critical inventory, non-inventory, and regular inventory. Doing this allows Storeroom users to run searches and reports on these or other types of inventory to manage them. ROP, EOQ, and ABC rankings are all part of the Storeroom search criteria. Ordering at these specific points, using these modifications, provided significant cost savings. These efforts, initiated throughout the implementation and utilization of Storeroom, have identified which materials constitute the City’s active inventory and which do not, allowing city staff to reduce the amount of material on-site that is slow or not moving. These improvements also allowed staff to keep inventory levels at a point where they are realizing monetary savings by lowering previous levels and still maintaining levels for necessary work. With these changes, there was some concern that crews would run out of material too often, but Ganic proved this method to be more accurate while significantly reducing inventory cost. By using ROP, EOQ, ABC ranking, and other inventory management tools found in Storeroom, the City realized significant savings and ROI in the amount of $1.5 million in the first year. These steps have allowed the City to pass along the savings to customers as rate reductions.
utilizes the Cityworks inbox to display SharePoint reports that show KPIs, dashboards, and gauges, allowing both users and management to quickly view statuses. By implementing these measures, reports, and analytics, Ganic has developed a new model for the City.
Future Plans for the City Grand Rapids is in the process of moving from several storerooms to a centralized distribution center to increase organization and further reduce costs. Creating a central distribution center with satellite storerooms will reduce redundancy in ordering and stocking materials in multiple locations. This allows the City to leverage the cost savings afforded to them through bulk ordering and consolidation. The goal is also to improve employee work efficiency with on-site product deliveries. Storeroom has been a big reason why they are moving toward a true distribution center. The application will continue to support their efforts and grow along with them as they come online over the next couple of years. Asset management has been a big issue for the City, as well as an area that has been targeted for improvement. In the future, the City plans to expand the use of Cityworks with implementation of the core asset management analysis tools.
City Reports • spending by suppliers • inventory transactions, audit transactions • inventory accuracy and inventory turns
• items below minimum quantity • zero turns in the last 365 days • items never used
• unused material
• items by storeroom
• storeroom values
• issue amounts
• stock out items by storeroom
• receiving amounts
The City has established a great number of reports, charts, and graphs to regularly analyze metrics such as inventory value, inventory levels by year, inventory levels by storeroom, and more. These reports are then shared with specific people throughout the organization based on their needs and responsibilities. Everything is quantifiable, including the levels of staffing required to run their storerooms. The City
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USER COMMUNITY
Empowering
GIS
for Stormwater Management
By Camille Olsen, Marketing Communication Specialist
L
ocal governments have used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to produce and analyze maps for decades. A widely-accepted, standard
technology in public agencies around the globe, GIS is at the forefront and often among the core applications of asset maintenance and management solutions. Today, utilities, public works, and stormwater management professionals consider not only the benefits of the technology investment, but the authoritative value of the GIS data as a system of record. These factors combine to make the GIS an ideal platform for local governments to develop an intuitive public asset management strategy. A significant number of stormwater management professionals have discovered the benefits of GIS-centric solutions to manage, coordinate, and analyze their assets and work activities to maintain reliable
structures, detention ponds, and manholes all require regular
and sustainable infrastructure.
inspection, condition assessment, and maintenance. GIS and
Environmental concerns are challenging agencies to develop and deploy the best management practices for the day-to-day operations and maintenance as well as the proper conveyance
the GIS-centric platform offer the most intuitive solution, giving users the ability to display and visualize the world we live in.
and treatment of stormwater and reclaimed water. As a result,
We asked some stormwater experts from the Cityworks
utilities are caring for an increasing variety of assets, tracking
community to share their experiences using the GIS-centric
more than just location and condition. Inlets, drains, flow
approach to manage their world.
8 InPrint | Spring 2016
City of Newport News, Virginia
Comments by Kirstin Platt, Asset Management Administrator
The Stormwater Division of the Department of Public Works in Newport News, Virginia, is responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing the City’s stormwater system and vector control operations.
O
peration and maintenance includes day-today operation of AIMS (Analysis, Inspection, Maintenance, Suppor t), back- and side -ditch maintenance, major outfall and lake maintenance, storm sewer cleaning, storm sewer construction, and roadside ditch maintenance throughout the city. The Vector Control section utilizes the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which includes surveillance for larvae and adult mosquitoes, establishment of action thresholds, selection of appropriate control strategies, and use of current technology. In June 2004, the Asset Management Division implemented Cityworks, a GIS-centric asset management solution, for the Department of Public Works. The stormwater assets are in the GIS and therefore available in Cityworks. Over the past eleven years, Asset Management has worked closely with Stormwater to ensure their needs have been met by the GIS and Cityworks. Over time, stormwater assets have continually been captured and updated in the GIS. Updates to the GIS generally come from three sources: 1.
Stormwater employees working collaboratively with GIS staff in the Asset Management Division to add assets and keep them up-to-date.
2.
Completing projects to capture stormwater assets not already included in the GIS.
3.
Surveyors from the Department of Engineering collecting data for integration into the GIS
assets are added or updated in the GIS, allowing Cityworks users to view the assets and their characteristics. Information such as install date, material, condition, and condition date are critical. Service requests and work orders are used to capture operations and maintenance and vector control activities, as well as special project work. A complete work history is attached to each asset and can be used to determine its current and expected future performance. Additional GIS layers such as stormwater work management sub-areas and vector control areas are useful resources for Cityworks users. Layers such as these are used to help plan operations, maintenance activities, and projects. GIS and Cityworks are also important tools for meeting regulatory standards. Depending on the type of service request or work order, the appropriate information required for regulatory compliance is captured. Using the collected data, stormwater management is able to report the division’s activities, thus ensuring compliance. This includes anything from the frequency of cleaning assets to the volume of debris removed. Currently, the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permit requirements are being finalized between the regulatory agency and the City. Asset management staff will then work with stormwater staff to review the requirements and determine if any changes are needed to the data captured in Cityworks. Changes could be anything from creating new custom fields to designing a new work order template. This open collaboration and commitment are vital to the success of the City’s stormwater program.
To support asset management, attributes are populated as InPrint | Spring 2016 9
City of Vista, California
Comments by Jon Nottage, Senior Environmental Specialist, Engineering
The City of Vista uses Cityworks and GIS to support multiple stormwater functions, including asset management, municipal code enforcement, facility inspections, and regulatory reporting.
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he City maintains its storm drain asset data, such as open channels, pipes, structures (inlets, manholes, outlets, cleanouts, etc.), and structural Best Management Practices (BMPs), such as detention basins, bioretention basins, or treatment manholes, in the GIS. A wide range of attribute data is associated with these assets and is routinely updated as projects are completed or field corrections are identified.
The Public Works Streets and Stormwater Division uses Cityworks as a core function in its workflow through the use of service requests, inspections, and work orders. By tracking incoming work through service requests, field staff can assess and document conditions on wireless devices by using inspection forms in Cityworks. Based on inspection results, work orders can be created automatically, thereby tying the service requests, inspections, and work orders together. Doing so allows work to be tracked and reported, particularly for regulatory reports associated with the City’s NPDES MS4 Permit. City staff can also generate reports summarizing asset work history such as the number of inlets or length of pipe
inspected and cleaned, as well as inspection and maintenance frequency for structural BMPs. The Engineering/Stormwater Division uses both the AMS and PLL components of Cityworks. A primary function is to manage citizen complaints, ensure compliance, and track enforcement actions. When staff investigates potential violations of the City’s municipal code, case information is retained in Cityworks. Photographs, contact information, enforcement actions, and case details are all stored within a uniquely identified case. Data stored with the case allows staff to readily query the case history based on geographic location, case type, nature of discharge, and many other characteristics. Cityworks is also used as a foundation for conducting stormwater compliance inspections of local businesses. Forms in Cityworks provide a template for inspectors to use, facilitating consistent inspection procedures and data collection. As with enforcement cases, staff are able to readily query historic inspection data. Tablets allow data collection to be entered into Cityworks while in the field. Similar to tracking publicly-owned structural BMPs, Cityworks is used to track inspections, maintenance, and annual certification for privately-owned structural BMPs. Ultimately, the collection and management of data in Cityworks allows the City to more readily report on activities that support NPDES MS4 Permit compliance. Multiple reports in Cityworks provide both “snapshot” and end-of-year summaries for data that must be reported to regulatory agencies to demonstrate compliance with the permit.
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City of Burien, Washington Comments by Fernando Llamas Jr, Systems & GIS Administrator
Faced with the challenge of implementing state-mandated stormwater permit regulations, the City of Burien, Washington, sought help in an automated solution to meet the looming National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requirements.
B
urien implemented Cityworks in 2008 and deployed it in the Public Works Department to manage stormwater assets and maintenance. The new program was initially targeted at meeting the permit requirements. Drawing on their GIS asset inventory, specific inspections, and work order templates, Cityworks quickly helped Burien attain more accurate and efficient stormwater management practices well within the mandated time constraints. In early 2011, the City upgraded to the browser-based Cityworks AMS solution, enabling more staff in the office and in the field. More recently, the City has implemented Freeance technologies to allow field crews to use Cityworks in the field with iPads and Android tablets.
Burien uses a combination of GIS web services, Cityworks AMS, and Freeance to conduct field operations for public works crews. The City has two separate crew divisions, Street and Stormwater, using AMS. Stormwater crews began using Cityworks Desktop 4.5 with DataPump to manage their work orders and service requests. When Stormwater migrated to AMS, they brought the Street crews online to access and
maintain their work in the field. With Cityworks, Burien’s stormwater maintenance crews interact in real time with work orders in both the field and the office. As assets are replaced or installed, they are flagged for edit in the GIS. While field maintenance crews view the asset data over reference maps on handheld devices, inspections and work performed are updated. This provides city staff with constant access to the most current information. More accurate data produces more reliable reports, allowing the City to easily justify the system. Improved activity-based management helps mitigate liability because work can be easily tracked and substantiated. The crews can now see all the assets they have to manage in one system. In addition, they can easily find and map assets and give updates to the GIS Department if any discrepancies exist. When crews find an issue with an asset in the field, they create a work order, perform the work, track associated costs, and (if the GIS needs updating) submit the work order to the GIS Department.
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USER COMMUNITY
City of Woodland
Makes Cityworks Their Own By Scott Grasso, Application Analyst, City of Woodland, CA
T
he City of Woodland, California, has been a Cityworks user since 2002 and has continued to expand their Cityworks usage throughout the city ever since. Woodland received the Cityworks Exemplary User Award at the Cityworks User Conference in May 2015. Like most organizations, the City of Woodland manages limited IT/GIS resources. Since the Anywhere/Desktop days, IT and Public Works staff have embraced Cityworks as a way to free up the limited IT/GIS resources by allowing users to take ownership of the data and assets. Using Esri ArcGIS and Cityworks tools, users were empowered to update attributes, easily add/edit assets with a simple redline workflow, and manage their activities. This same level of empowerment and ownership of the GIS data needed to be maintained when Woodland transitioned to Office for AMS, and the platform approach embraced by Cityworks made it possible. To that end, IT and GIS staff collaborated to develop new custom tools and map plug-ins, as well as extend the
Figure 1: The Print Map custom tool includes print template options and print preview.
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existing tools available in Office for AMS These tools included an Edit Pencil tool, a measure tool, a LatLong tool, an enhanced search, a custom email tool, and a print tool. (Figure 1) The time saved by empowering their end users also enabled the IT and GIS teams to improve upon the existing water shutoff and preventive maintenance processes. Scott Grasso, an application analyst in the Information Technology Department, said, “Many of our users are editing asset attributes on a daily basis, or even hourly in some cases.” Prior to Office for AMS, they had to use the native tools in ArcView to perform their edits and measurements. Understanding Office for AMS wasn’t designed the same way ArcView was, Grasso set out to build what he called the Edit Pencil. The Edit Pencil is a map plug-in that was built with the efficiency of the Cityworks Anywhere ArcView attribute editing experience in mind. Grasso said that customization ideas like the Edit Pencil tool come to his attention in different ways. For instance, a user may specifically ask for a customization during one of their monthly Cityworks meetings or a support call. Users also ask
Figure 4: Custom form allowing users to add labor, material, or equipment to the work order associated to the active task.
Figure 2: City of Woodland Preventative Infrastructure Evaluator Dashboard.
Figure 3: The Asset/Task form is the primary CoWPIE form.
for customizations indirectly, through actions or lack of action. For example, while observing end users during their normal routine, Grasso noticed some users were overwhelmed by the new work order search page. The solution was to customize the page to look like the Standalone/Anywhere search screen they were accustomed to using. The customizations for Woodland users didn’t stop there. On the last Tuesday of each month, the Public Works Department is responsible for performing water shutoffs. For field staff to successfully complete their work, first a list of accounts needs to be generated, a work route plotted, and a service request created and assigned. This complex, time-consuming process required a lot of back-and-forth communication between the Public Works and Finance Departments. By leveraging PHP, Esri tools, and the Cityworks web service APIs, Grasso and the IT/GIS team were able to automate much of the old process. New Crystal Reports were designed to generate the list of accounts, Esri’s geoprocessing tools were leveraged to geocode and route each account, and a custom webpage was developed to handle the creation and dispatching of the service requests. Grasso said, “This used to be a long, stressful day for Public Works, and now they consider it [to be] just like any other day.” Next the team decided to focus on the existing preventive maintenance program. The solution they came up with leverages the Cityworks web service APIs, PHP, Cityworks tasks, and a new object table in the GIS. They call it CoWPIE, the City of Woodland
Preventative Infrastructure Evaluator. (Figure 2) With CoWPIE, Cityworks tasks are used to track preventive maintenance activities. A dashboard has been added to the inbox so users can track the status of their tasks. Users can also easily view preventative maintenance information on any asset selected in the map. (Figure 3) CoWPIE also allows users to close tasks without touching the Cityworks pages. (Figure 4) Recently the form has been expanded to allow for the addition of labor, material, and equipment costs. Not only does Woodland make customizations based on their users’ needs, but they are also quite active on the Cityworks forums. They help answer other Cityworks users’ questions as best as they can, or provide help with XML and JavaScript customizations. Grasso said that he enjoys helping on the forums, but he also looks at it as a way to expand his skills and learn new things at the same time. The City of Woodland has a lot more in store for 2016 and beyond. Their immediate plan is to expand on the functionality of CoWPIE. Also on their radar are a handful of customizations to Cityworks PLL, which the City uses for code enforcement. With this in mind Cityworks clients should keep a close eye on the Cityworks forums!
InPrint | Spring 2016 13
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Greenwood Metropolitan District, SC: CCTV Data is Easily Accessible With
Cityworks and ITPipes By Ken Davis, IT Director, Greenwood Metropolitan District
G
reenwood Metropolitan District (GMD) is a special purpose district formed in Greenwood County, South Carolina, to provide sewer services to the properties within the district boundary. Several years ago, we decided Cityworks would become our core system because of its tight integration with GIS. Once that decision was made, we wanted to incorporate our existing satellite systems into Cityworks to eliminate redundant information and the communication problems among several other systems. The integration of ITpipes and Cityworks was a natural step in that direction. For the first time, we had two open systems that shared information easily and allowed users a seamless way to plan, collect, and utilize that information. We knew the benefits of making this work would be tremendous and it has proven us correct. Prior to the ITpipes and Cityworks integration, all our CCTV work was created, performed, and processed manually. The operators would make a new inspection on the truck using ITpipes and manually type in all the related information. They used printed maps to determine their location and to look up necessary asset inspection information. This required a lot of manual involvement from the CCTV field crews to get the inspections data and verify the information before the actual inspection could be performed. Every Friday, the information from the CCTV vehicles was uploaded and transferred to the ITpipes server, where the information could then be reviewed and used. This created a significant delay from when the data was collected to when it was made available to users. Since integrating ITpipes with Cityworks, we can set up the work to be done before
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sending it to the CCTV operators. Through Cityworks, we can select the assets to be inspected and build work orders. This allows us to improve our scheduling of the CCTV crews and ensures we are working in the desired areas of our system. Scheduling now involves using Cityworks to create CCTV work orders and assign them to the CCTV crews with a user ID we set up for them. The CCTV vehicles are connected to our wireless network so the work orders are synced automatically and show up in an ITpipes SmartTab©. The crews go out, view the SmartTab called “New Work Orders” that lists all work orders assigned to their user ID, and use ITpipes to perform the necessary inspections. When they are back on premise, the work orders are automatically synced with Cityworks and all the inspection information, including the videos, is uploaded. Now inspection data is available the same day, and everything is stored in one location.
Time Savings One of the major benefits of the ITpipes integration to Cityworks is the time savings for the overall CCTV program, including planning, creating work orders, completing work, and uploading inspections. The ITpipes Sync module and Integration module have eased employee workload by eliminating the need to transfer hard drives, download/upload inspections, and check the data for errors. Before implementing Cityworks, the two CCTV trucks averaged 150 inspections per day that had to be downloaded and checked for errors. With the integration, work orders are set up in the office and synced to the vehicles. When inspectors are ready to do the work in the field, all the required information is already there and ready to go. Furthermore, they know they have the right asset with the correct information.
Cost Savings It’s important to know where our crews are working, what costs are associated with the work being done, and how much work is being performed. This includes our video footage and crews. With Cityworks Analytics, we can see the work that was done on the lines and what the costs were over time. From there, we can go to the work orders and view the videos and inspection information in Cityworks without having to use a viewer to do so. In the past we had trouble viewing the videos remotely, but now we can stream the videos effortlessly, even while in the field. If a crew is about to do work on a line and wants to look over the line video, they can do so utilizing the ITpipes-Cityworks integration. This integration has been a tremendous help in GMD’s workflows. There is less effort and manual interaction involved with scheduling work, sending schedules to field crews, completing work in the field, returning scheduled work information to the office, and storing the information. The timeliness of inspection availability and having direct, instant access to thorough inspection information with ITpipes, via GIS or Cityworks, for all field or mobile users has increased users accessing the information. This will be even more critical as we begin to implement additional mobile solutions. Integrating the systems and automating the syncing of information reduces costs and saves time for GMD.
actionable intelligence from the data collected. Integrating the CCTV system allows us to see the work and all the relevant information in one place. Whether we’re looking at the videos and inspection information, viewing cost and asset history, performing analysis, or planning work, integrating the systems has helped us to be more efficient in our responsibilities to our ratepayers. You can’t maintain a sewer system without good, reliable geographical and visual information. This is what bringing ITpipes and Cityworks together does for us.
About ITPipes by Infrastructure Technologies ITpipes enables clients to collect, analyze, and manage CCTV and underground inspection information. ITpipes is commonly used for manhole, culvert, lateral, sewer line, storm line, tunnel, and other underground asset inspections. With tight integration to Cityworks, ITpipes takes work order and inspection management to a new level.
Historical Data The next step for GMD is Cityworks’ mobile solutions, along with the ITPipes Sync module. This will allow our team leaders to enter unscheduled, follow-up work orders in the field. These could address issues they find while on the job or while responding to customer complaints. Once the work orders are created for an inspection, the sync does the rest! The elimination of human involvement has cut both time and cost. There is no need to insert systems simply to have a place to store data. This integration helps GMD acquire
Crew member, Vernon Griffin, performing a CCTV Inspection in the field using ITpipes.
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Cityworks and TruePoint Utility Billing Integrate to Streamline Processes at Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission, SC By Glenn Mathes, Business Development Manager, TruePoint Solutions
Flexible Deployment Options
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arly in 2015, the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission, a long-time Cityworks customer, selected TruePoint Solutions’ TrueBill product as its new CIS/Utility Billing solution to manage their water and sewer customer billing needs. A major part of that decision was TruePoint’s long-standing relationship as a Cityworks partner, as well as their unique ability to natively integrate with Cityworks without the need for custom third-party middleware.
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The result has been an overwhelming success in terms of cost reduction, increased efficiency, and improved customer satisfaction.
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Angie Nelson, Director of Administration and Customer Service
A More Efficient Operation The integration of Cityworks and TrueBill significantly improved efficiency in customer move in/move out, overall billing time, meter reading, and shutoffs. The customer move in/move out process has gone from 20–25 minutes down to 4–5 minutes. This represents a 400% increase in performance, or an overall time savings of 80%. Now, the system automatically creates a work order in Cityworks, logs notes, disconnects service, creates a new account, and connects the new account. The overall billing time (which includes taking meter readings, checking bills, entering final bills, and sending them to the printer) is down from 8–10 hours to 1.5–2 hours. The improvements to the meter-reading process include automatic creation of work orders in Cityworks for meters that did not read, which saved an hour of work time compared to the old system. Additionally, completing work orders in Cityworks and the subsequent entry into TrueBill saves two hours of processing time. The detailed customer usage comparison reports and trend analysis tools lowered costs and improved customer service and satisfaction across the board. CIS customer information is also now available to system users directly from their Esri map, which is invaluable.
16 InPrint | Spring 2016
Another attractive element to the combination of TrueBill and Cityworks was the flexible deployment options available. Both applications are available as a local implementation or in the cloud. In this case, Cityworks is installed locally at the District, while the TruePoint Solutions TrueBill CIS/Utility Billing application is hosted on an Amazon cloud server.
Complementary Technology Cityworks and TrueBill are complementary applications. Because TrueBill is a native browser-based application, the architecture lends itself to taking full advantage of web services technology. Through the use of web services and APIs, links to TrueBill can be embedded within the Cityworks application (and vice versa) to launch CIS system processes from within Cityworks without the need to log in to the CIS system separately. Security is controlled and managed via Microsoft Active Directory. This means no third-party custom middleware, no staging tables, no synchronization, and no compromises in supportability or performance. There has been much discussion recently on the use of APIs in reshaping government technology (see “ReshAPIng Cities—Using APIs to Build Smarter Cities” on the Cityworks website http:// www.cityworks.com/2015/11/reshaping-cities/). This approach also supports the growing trend toward “best in class” applications as well as Gartner’s “postmodern ERP” approach. As opposed to the older, monolithic, single-vendor ERP approach of the past, where accepting substandard modular applications as part of the whole was common, smart agencies are recognizing that they can select the best application available for the job, but also have functional, supportable, and reliable integrations without the functional compromise that a single-vendor ERP solution represents.
Bottom Line In terms of gains in efficiency and improved customer service, since going live in November 2015, “we’ve just begun to scratch the surface!” Nelson said.
PARTNER COMMUNITY
U.S. Software Integrator Fuels Australian Utility Automation By Jill Kelley, Writer | Marketing Communications, Woolpert
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oolpert, with support from gViz (Killarney Valve, NSW, Australia), has implemented Cityworks® for ActewAGL Distribution (AAD). AAD, based in Canberra, is one the largest joint-utility companies in Australia and provides power to more than 195,000 electric customers and another 134,000 gas customers in the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales.
Cityworks is a work management solution developed by Azteca Systems Inc., and is the only GIS-centric asset management software available. Woolpert, Cityworks’ first Diamond-level Implementation Partner and a Strategic Development Partner, has been delivering enterprise asset management solutions built on Cityworks for more than 20 years. gViz is the provider of Esri-based GIS solutions, enterprise consulting, and professional services headquartered in New South Wales, Australia, just north of Sydney. The implementation of this solution went live with the core Cityworks software in July 2014. Since then, Woolpert has steadily supplied the AAD team with product enhancements and integrations to the existing software, such as Oracle Financials and Gentrack’s Velocity billing solution. These have improved AAD operational management and efficiency within the utility’s electrical division. This project enables AAD to route and track work assignments more easily by automatically converting customer calls into actionable work for the maintenance and operations staff.
Feuer, Woolpert’s director of information technology and management consulting. “We were essentially working in shifts, each group furthering the project while another group slept.” Feuer said the pace of the project was equal to working 16 to 20 hours per day. “For about nine months, it was all hands on deck,” he said. “We took the system live as we were still developing some interfaces and continuing to roll out integrations and other system enhancements.” Woolpert, a national architecture, engineering, and geospatial firm, is among the domestic leaders in Institute of Asset Management (IAM) certification, with 13 certified professionals. “In Australia, as in Europe, the IAM standards are very highly regarded, but most U.S. companies have been late to that party,” said Feuer, who is IAM certified. “We were pleased that AAD came to America to get support with its overall asset management program, knowing we adhere to these elevated international standards.” The bulk of the work on this project is complete, but Woolpert continues to support AAD by evaluating ideas on their issue log, scoping and developing system enhancements, and delivering the advanced functionality the AAD-user community needs to meet its operating requirements.
Woolpert assembled a team of six full-time employees dedicated to delivering this business-critical solution. For nearly nine months, working in both Australia and Denver, Colorado, this team met challenging deadlines that enabled AAD to conduct improved customer service at a lower cost. “With the client 30 hours away by plane, we worked both onsite during Australian business hours and domestically on opposite schedules,” said Dave
InPrint | Spring 2016 17
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Calm, Collected, and I/I Compliant With a Little Help from Digital Technology Taylors Fire and Sewer District, South Carolina By Mary Shafer, Staff Writer for Creative Raven, Marketing Consultant
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ayl or s Fi re a n d S e we r D i s tr i c t i n Tay lo r s, South Carolina, is party to an agreement with R e ne wa bl e Wate r Resources (ReWa), which ow ns a nd op e rate s s e ve ra l wa s te wate r treat m ent facilities in their five-county service area. Ten years ago, Taylors learned this agreement required them to eliminate inflow and infiltration (I/I) into their wastewater col l e c t i on syste m w i th i n 1 5 ye a rs, gi vi n g t hem a completion deadline of 2021.
This municipal sub district serves about 10,000 parcels in central Greenville County, and is responsible for a wastewater collection system that includes nearly 130 miles of gravity line and 3,602 manholes. Taylors’ service territory is divided into 10 mini-districts. One of those, Mill Hill, “was our main problem area,” says Samantha Bartow, director of sewer services. Her department knew its circa-1920s infrastructure was seriously past its design life and a likely culprit in tremendous flow rises during heavy rain.
18 InPrint | Spring 2016
“Everything at that point was just guessing,” she recalled. Taylors had nine required in-line flow monitors and some spotty legacy analog inspection records. Otherwise, Bartow’s staff realized, they had no substantial empirical data about their system’s problem spots. “Until we did post-work monitoring, we didn’t know the actual I/I Mill Hill was responsible for, but we knew it was substantial.”
Gearing Up Bartow’s team knew “just guessing” wouldn’t get them compliant; they’d need to inspect their entire system, identify problem areas, then plan, schedule, and budget for rehabilitation. They began monitoring with flow meters in 2006, when the I/I reduction order came down. They quickly estimated how long initial CCT V inspections would take, and started them immediately. However, ReWa wouldn’t pay for the extensive project. Instead, Taylors got a $2 million state revolving fund loan to subcontract CIPP repairs and pipe replacement, but all inhouse cleaning, inspection, and preparatory work was going to be labor-intensive and costly. They realized one way to keep costs as low as possible would be to switch to alldigital CCTV inspection systems.
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Pipelogix and Cityworks combined to help us locate areas of inflow and infiltration, where we would need [to] place a flow monitor, or have our construction crew make repairs. This has been a tremendous help.
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Samantha Bartow, Director of Sewer Services This would allow them to: •
realize economies of scale when all units could connect and share data
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decrease the significant man hours required by clunky analog systems
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eliminate errors introduced into analog data through less accurate analysis and reporting processes
Operations coordinator William “Red” Ables said of the predigital era, “Every time we’d find something [during a CCTV inspection], we’d have all the issues written on separate sheets of paper. [To find something], we’d hunt through folders by line and segment numbers for still photos, then lay them all out and try to figure out which was which.” Going alldigital was a no-brainer, but it meant significant changes to existing equipment.
Integrated Technology In 2008, Taylors made their first move toward digital, replacing an old Pearpoint rig with a Ford F450, outfitted with a Cues K2 Base Station, TV reels, and software from the old truck: Pipelogix Inc.’s Flexidata, its Digital Video Survey (DVS) module, the existing GIS package, and the Windows 7 OS. In 2010, Flexidata was re-branded as Pipelogix, and Taylors bought their ESRI GIS software module.
analyzing completed work. “It also allows us to have all the information about our CCTV Inspections in one place,” Bartow said. Despite a hiccup requiring workarounds to integrate Pipelogix and Cityworks properly until Taylors can upgrade to the latest Cityworks version, Bartow’s team has found both packages to be indispensable. “Pipelogix and Cityworks combined to help us locate areas of inflow and infiltration, where we would need [to] place a flow monitor, or have our construction crew make repairs. This has been a tremendous help.” Pipelogix software also enables compliance with their new 811 Safety Hotline program, which requires property owners to call in before they dig, to avoid striking underground utilities. The sub district processes more than 200 of these work tickets monthly. Bartow said Pipelogix allows crews to make quick work of showing property owners where to avoid digging. “Without Pipelogix, we’d have to do everything from the surface. We’d have to have a crew dedicated just to that, which would be tremendously expensive. One sub district quoted a minimum of $100,000 to do this.” Along with upgraded equipment, the new software allows Taylors to focus CCTV inspection and reporting efforts where they are most effective for I/I reduction. The efficiency has paid off, allowing them to exceed their annual goal of inspecting at least eight miles of line annually. The project is ahead of schedule and on track to be completed by 2020, a year earlier than anticipated. The investment in digital, integrated technology has proven itself a greater boon than expected.
Onboard inspection software now includes Pipelogix with Lateral Module, and the Cityworks/ArcGIS CMMS integrated digital utilities management package has replaced the old MS Access database-generated hardcopy orders. “Our crew uses Cityworks to locate assets, manage workflow, and prioritize repairs,” Bartow said. Taylors quickly realized it would be beneficial to port the Pipelogix information directly to Cityworks, allowing upper management to review work orders and work-to-date, while
InPrint | Spring 2016 19
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Burning Questions?
Call 3-1-1 in Akron, Ohio — Get Answers and Great Service Darren Rozenek, City of Akron, OH, and Lee Halbrook, PMP, POWER Engineers, Inc.
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pened in 2004, the City of Akron’s 311 Call Center serves as the initial point of contact for nonemergency issues and citizen concerns. If you have a burning building, dial 911! If you have a burning question, just dial 311. Because providing great service is such a high priority for city administration, two shifts of call takers are available to answer the phone until 7:00 p.m. every weekday and half a day on Saturday. These 311 call takers continue Akron’s long tradition of customer-focused government by handling any and all requests, from stray dogs to potholes, averaging 60–70,000 calls per year. The 311 call center is used in the day-to-day operations of the Nuisance Compliance Division in the Department of Neighborhood Assistance (DNA)—a busy hub for citizen contact. Akron provides many services at no cost to its citizens. They will plow driveways if a customer is on a medical waiver. Those who report lost or broken trash carts will get a replacement. The City takes pride in giving better customer service, even taking care of stray dogs for free. John Valle, the director of neighborhood assistance, noted that “Cityworks has given the department the ability to streamline and automate their procedures for handling customer service issues and nuisance complaints on high grass and weeds, trash, or housing issues and continue our customer-focused tradition.” Given the volume of calls received and the high priority given to the call center operations, it was with apprehension and nervousness that the City embarked on a project to replace the aging call center software. The existing system had begun failing, and any replacement would have to be made quickly, with no downtime.
When Darren Rozenek, GIS coordinator, discussed a replacement for the 311 call center with city administration, the servers running 311 were no longer under maintenance; the system had crashed and was down for three days. If they did not make a decision and implement quickly, they may not have recovered the next time the system failed. The City turned to Cityworks for a software package that could not only handle their 311 call center needs, but give them a platform to build into a true enterprise-wide asset management system. According to Rozenek, “our overall goal was to replace the existing system with a CMMS (Cityworks) that could support the future needs for the entire service department.” The implementation partner, POWER Engineers, was chosen for their proven track record in their team-driven, interactive approach to project deployments. Implementation would include migration, integration for customer data, and a full configuration with service requests for all departments, along with work orders and PLL cases for handling of nuisance compliance violations.
Discovery Phase Overcomes “Change-itis” The City and POWER kicked off the project in October 2014 with an initial six-week discovery phase, documenting business processes, collecting migration and integration requirements, and developing an overall project implementation plan.
Designed to overcome a “bit of change-itis,” the interactive discovery process involved call takers, the call center manager, and public works representatives from each business area affected by the replacement system. POWER’s project manager, Lee Halbrook, took the stance to get everyone involved at the start—resulting in better buy-in. The objective was “to translate their needs into the software” so it functioned as desired, rather than as it did before. “Everybody felt a little leery about changing the application they had used for 10 years. Although it didn’t function perfectly, they had become accustomed to it and learned to deal with the quirks,” recalled Rozenek. “The City of Akron has one of the most active call centers we’ve been involved with, tracking an average of 5,000 calls per month. With this type of active participation, the City required an easy-to-use solution that could handle the high volume and give them the flexibility and capacity to expand their Cityworks solution across the entire enterprise,” Halbrook said. The implementation team approached the change with an understanding that work would get done in a new way—they were not just replacing a system, but learning a new way to work. For example, rather than taking 25 minutes to run a query in the old system, Cityworks would provide each user an inbox that could automatically provide the needed information. The result of this discovery phase was an implementation plan that clearly identified the goals, objectives, timeline, and breadth of the initial implementation.
Interactive Configuration and Testing Builds Buy-in A key requirement of the implementation plan was that the system replacement needed to occur quickly and with little or no system interruption. In order to accomplish this, the POWER team utilized interactive configuration sessions with small groups of users from each work area. During these sessions, the configuration team would present the configured Cityworks
system to end users and modify the system on-the-fly to meet their needs. This approach provided immediate visual feedback to the core team on how Cityworks would be used to get the same results as the existing system. It also greatly reduced the configuration time that would have normally been needed to prepare and approve configuration documentation. Leaning on the implementation team early in the design phase and throughout the testing and deployment phases built greater buy-in and accountability for getting good data into the system. The implementation team conducted several rounds of iterative acceptance testing to refine the configuration and help staff become familiar with the software. While they went into the implementation phase with the knowledge that some things may still have needed to be refined, they had seen the flexibility of the software and the ease with which changes could be made. Users had eagerly bought in to the new software due to their ability to design, test, and then refine the application.
Go-live with No Downtime The timing for the project kickoff in November overlapped with staff downtime during the holidays in December, and then the busiest snow and ice season for public works in January. Despite these scheduling interruptions, the City deployed the solution in a six-month time frame, going live in April 2015 with no system downtime. The final solution deployed city-wide service request functionality to cover the needs of streets, sanitation, parks, engineering, water, sewer, zoning, building maintenance, and neighborhood assistance departments. Work order and PLL functionality was also deployed to support the nuisance compliance officers’ end-to-end business processes. Deployment began with a system shutdown on Friday, followed by a migration of seven years’ worth of back log data (700,000 service requests) over the weekend. All records were validated, and each address was geocoded prior to migration. Staff began using the system on Monday morning with 48 service Continued on pg 22 InPrint | Spring 2016 21
request templates—from broken trash carts to high weeds and grass—in the system when it was turned on. By the end of the first week, the system was running smoothly and users had collected 1,200 service requests. The total number of service requests entered between April and October of the first year was 34,585, with an average of 5,764 service requests entered per month. The total number of cases entered during this same period was 6,031, with an average of 1,005 cases entered per month.
application is built on top of Akron’s existing geodatabase and has helped call takers automatically assign aldermanic districts, trash cycles, and neighborhood codes to each activity. Not only is that information directly linked to an address, it also allows users to see the location on the map. This direct link to the GIS also provides extra protection against work duplication—allowing call takers to validate calls that are fulfilled or still active.
Expanding across the City Savings in Cost, Time, and Effort There is now a single system for tracking and managing the City’s call center service requests and tracking nuisance compliance cases. The configuration of the services requests, work orders, and Cityworks PLL cases was specifically designed to support code enforcement officers dealing with complaints of high grass and weeds, trash, right-of-way obstructions, graffiti, and junk vehicles. The seamless integration between these different work activities allows Akron to use a single system to track the entire violation from the initial investigation to resolution. The new system also gives the City a single location to view service requests, work orders, and cases in GIS. The previous system had no tie to the GIS, making it difficult to view incident and work activity locations. The geo-centric Cityworks
A trash routes map helps identify areas for garbage pickup.
As the implementation expands across the city, the Public Works Department is migrating from their existing work order management system to Cityworks. Later this summer, DNA will deploy a mobile solution for its nuisance compliance inspectors to track all work directly in the field. Integration between Cityworks and PeopleSoft will also support employee data maintenance, along with the deployment of POWER’s service request website for citizen-reported issues. A smooth running Cityworks system is giving citizens and customers a first-hand connection to the City’s services. By taking Cityworks to the streets and to the web, it enables the City to follow through on its customer-focused commitments, saving the citizens’ time and money. Keep up on the next steps at http://www.akronohio.gov/.
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Implementing Cityworks for SAW Grant Program By Doug Ritter, CEO, Ritter GIS
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he City of Westland received a State of Michigan Stormwater, Asset Management, and Wastewater (SAW) Grant. This program included the allocation of $450 million to support Michigan entities to build and develop an asset management plan for their critical stormwater and wastewater infrastructure. In total, 673 applications were received. The City deployed a completely externalized solution that includes Cityworks Online (CWOL) and ESRI ArcGIS Online (AGOL). This deployment method was selected because it provides an efficient design that can be leveraged to serve the entire organization. The initial deployment, in January 2015, outlined 10 users to accommodate Department of Public Services (DPS) administrative staff. Over the course of eight months, the licensing level has increased to more than 45 users. A key aspect of Cityworks’ success in the City is the versatility to adapt to the needs of specific initiatives and goals within multiple departments. For example, the City used Cityworks to manage and track the SAW grant program work activities. Project management and budgeting through Cityworks has provided an easy method to track the overall budget and work activities that are reimbursable through the SAW grant. Just by selecting the project name, the City can view and report on the initiatives taken to track costs and resources. Qualified activities such as pipe jetting/cleaning, meetings, trainings, and inspections can instantly be retrieved and submitted for reimbursement through the grant. Included in the City of Westland SAW grant was the contracted effort to obtain PACP inspections and CCTV videos on key areas of infrastructure throughout the city. To track progress, the vendor was assigned its own Cityworks login to access a portion of the Westland Cityworks data. This login allows the vendor to view the assigned CCTV inspections along with a customized map of the GIS stormwater data. The map view and inspections provide the CCTV crew with essential GIS information for completing the inspections, including facility ID, connected structure IDs, diameter, and material.
A custom inspection template was created to track the progress of the CCTV crew. As pipes are inspected, crews note whether the pipe was cleaned, inaccessible, or needs cleaning. Depending on the observations, the DPS administrators have an inbox built to effectively manage and monitor the status of all inspections in real-time. If a pipe needed to be cleaned before the CCTV crew is reassigned, the appropriate work order can be created with the click of a button. Upon completing the project, the City will be able to utilize the Cityworks PACP module to import the inspection data in a standard format for historical tracking. A second custom inspection and Cityworks user were recently created to track the manhole inspection portion of the grant. This will be similar to the PACP project layout, with a completely different vendor and collection process. Finally, the Contracts module is being utilized to track the bid tabs and contracted units approved in the grant. This encompasses all vendor contracts for GIS development, CCTV, Manhole Assessment and Certification Program (MACP), and asset management planning.
About Cityworks Online Cityworks Online grows along with an organization, allowing it to adjust quickly to changing needs. The cloud provides unlimited computing power to handle anything an ever-evolving system requires. Other advantages to Cityworks Online: • minimal collaboration for the initial deployment • industry-standard, out-of-the-box Local Government Templates (LGT ) • remote implementation can be done in weeks, not months
• initial cost is easily manageable • software overhead is managed by Cityworks • software management and maintenance is performed by Cityworks employees
InPrint | Spring 2016 23
PARTNER COMMUNITY
Cityworks and CitySourced Launch Citizen Web Portal By Andrew Kirk, VP, Sales & Marketing, CitySourced
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s citizens and customers have become more engaged in reporting service requests, Cityworks customers have sought to automate the process by moving to online, self-service portals. Initially, the only way to accomplish this type of functionality was to build in-house or hire a consulting firm on a build-for-hire basis. In 2013, Cityworks offered a Cityworks-built web portal, but soon realized there was greater efficiency to be gained by partnering with third-party developers like CitySourced. By integrating CitySourced’s product with Cityworks’ impressive array of products, Cityworks leaders realized they could provide a high-quality citizen engagement solution and still maintain their focus on their core product offering of AMS, PLL, and more. “We certainly understand the importance of civic engagement and the value that can be achieved through new trends like crowdsourcing and web technology,” said Brian Haslam, president and CEO of Cityworks.
In Action in Redlands, CA The City of Redlands, known as “A City That Works!” certainly understands the importance of engaging citizens and streamlining back-office processes. Located 75 miles east of Los Angeles in the heart of San Bernardino County, Redlands is the home of Esri’s headquarters and has an estimated population of 70,000. Looking for ways to increase service to its residents, the IT Department sought ways to supplement its digital offering online. Redlands’ chief innovation officer, Danielle Garcia, leads the effort to incorporate technology in meaningful ways, while simultaneously looking to improve her organization’s efficiency. The City’s website serves as one hub of its digital services to citizens. In 2015 alone, the public submitted 1,867 service request reports.
Two-way Interaction with Cityworks API When a citizen submits a request, it follows one of two workflows. Either the request is queued to be reviewed by staff for accuracy and authenticity before the data is pushed into Cityworks, or the request automatically generates a Cityworks service request in real-time. Each workflow is determined by the type of issues submitted and is configurable by the City of Redlands. All workflows harness the Cityworks API so that fields are mapped accordingly. The Cityworks API facilitates two-way information sharing. Once a report is submitted, a notification with the Cityworks service request ID is generated. Additionally, the Citizen Web Portal automatically notifies users of status updates via email as staff completes work in Cityworks, creating an automatic communication feedback loop. The information sharing is not limited to one-to-one updates. The web app offers the option to broadcast realtime information to the public by displaying existing service requests on the City’s authoritative Esri GIS maps within the City’s website. This interactive display allows Redlands to offer 24/7 access to information.
Citizen Web Portal allows anyone to easily create a new service request online, and it is integrated directly into Cityworks.
Cityworks and CitySourced Co-Launching Cityworks and CitySourced reached an agreement to co-launch the Citizen Web Portal product. Haslam explained, “Working
24 InPrint | Spring 2016
with CitySourced, we’re able to deliver user-friendly apps that empower citizens with the ability to interact directly with their local government. Moreover, we’ve combined to deliver this with very little impact on the already strained budgets of local governments.”
Existing requests may be displayed online with the real-time status pulled directly via the Cityworks API.
CitySourced is responsible for providing the configurable code, which a customer embeds in a web page. Cityworks provides the necessary API to customers at no cost, with the understanding that the API can only be used for free in conjunction with the Citizen Web Portal. In addition to Redlands, California, the Citizen Web Portal is also used in Longview, Texas; Mesa, Arizona; Brookhaven, Georgia; Saratoga Springs, Utah; Douglas County, Nebraska; and dozens of other Cityworks customers.
SIMPLIFYING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT InPrint | Spring 2016 25
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sales@citysourced.com
Congratulations Esri 2015 SAG Award Winners!
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NewEdge Services, LLC is focused on implementing GIS, Asset Management Systems, Cloud Hosting and related services. Our Cityworks services include: Customized Cloud Hosting, Implementation of all Cityworks Products, Integrations, Upgrades, Training and Support. InPrintover | Spring30 2016Cityworks 26 With
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CORPORATE COMMUNITY
Cityworks SAM
TM
Salutes New Employees! BRANDON NIELSEN
CAMERON EATON
Brandon is a Help Desk representative in the West Bend, Wisconsin, office. He attended college at the University of Wisconsin—Oshkosh, where he majored in geography with an emphasis in GIS. He enjoys watching the Green Bay Packers, traveling and meeting people, playing Frisbee, and spending time with his fiancé, Ashley, and their dog, Lola.
Cameron is a technical trainer. Before joining Cityworks, he worked as a paramedic in Salt Lake County, Utah, and Boise, Idaho; an experience he calls “eye-opening” and “crazy.” He has a degree in GIS and says he is happy to be back in the geography realm. He and his wife are originally from southern California and they have a fourmonth-old son, Laird.
CAMILLE OLSEN
GREGOR WILKE
Camille started as a marketing intern and is now a permanent employee as Marketing Communication Specialist in the Marketing Department. She graduated from Utah Valley University in April 2016 with a degree in communications and public relations. Camille enjoys traveling, reading, and boating.
BRIDGET SUDA Bridget is a technical sales associate at the West Bend, Wisconsin, office. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin— Madison with a BS in geography in 2010. In 2014, she completed the GIS Graduate Certificate program at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee. She has experience working with electric utilities as both a field technician and a GIS technician. Bridget loves camping, hiking with her dog, wildflowers, and roller skating.
Gregor is an account manager in the West Bend, Wisconsin, office. He received an associate’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Wisconsin—Fond du Lac in December of 2011, and went on to graduate with a degree in forestry from the University of Wisconsin— Madison in December 2013. Since then, Gregor has worked as a contracted utility forester doing GIS vegetation mapping for American Transmission Company all across Wisconsin, the upper peninsula of Michigan, and northern Illinois. In his free time, Gregor enjoys outdoor activities like hiking, kayaking, and biking. He also enjoys working on old cars and filming YouTube videos.
AARON KREAG Aaron is a regional sales manager working in the Dallas, Texas, office. An eight-year Army veteran, Aaron has a degree in applied geography, about 12 years of experience with enterprise Esri software, and a history in GIS product and service sales. He and his wife, Valerie, have two kids, Sophia and Tobin.
LARRY SOLIEN, JR. Larry is a client account manager for the Southeast region. He has degrees in architecture and civil engineering and technology management, and has a GISP certification. He has spent the last 22 years in a technology management position for city and county government, which has given him great insight and experience in local government around the primary infrastructure departments of public works, engineering, and utilities, with a focus on technology management. Larry lives in New Port Richey, Florida, where he and his wife have two daughters.
MAX REEVES Max is a support intern at the Dallas, Texas, office. He attended Texas Christian University, where he majored in environmental science. He enjoys camping and going to concerts.
SAM LOCKETT Sam is a Help Desk representative in the Dallas, Texas, office. He graduated from Arizona State University in May 2013 with a degree in geography and urban planning. This past year, Sam received his graduate certificate in GIS from the University of Texas at Dallas. He has GIS experience working in the oil and gas industry and the electric hub, as well as third-party data lenders in both of those industries. Sam enjoys coaching lacrosse, playing golf, hunting, and Brazilian jiu jitsu in his spare time.
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TECHNOLOGY
Tools & Tips:
ELM Gets a Makeover By John Koenigs, Technical Support Representative, Cityworks
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quipment, labor, material (ELM) is used to quickly add costs to work orders, tasks, or assets. Before ELM can be used, crews must be configured in Designer. The following is a brief synopsis of the new ELM page, available with Cityworks 2015—Platform 4.0, and some helpful tips on how to leverage these new features.
The ELM page opens in a new browser tab. (Figure 1) There are two tabs in ELM: Apply To and Add Costs. The Apply To tab is used to specify which work orders, tasks, and assets the equipment, labor, and material will be applied to. The Add Costs tab is used to add either employee - or contractor-provided equipment, labor, and material. Existing Costs associated to the selected work orders are displayed below the Apply To and Add Costs tabs. (Figure 2) If there are multiple work orders listed, select the desired work orders on the Work Orders panel. If you select more than one work order, the costs will be divided among the work orders automatically. In the Tasks panel, select the tasks the equipment, labor, or material will be assigned to. (Figure 3) In the Assets panel, select the assets the equipment, labor, or material will be attached to. If the work on a particular asset is completed, select the Work Completed check box for that asset.
Figure 1 – ELM can be opened from a work order.
If you would like to add assets from the map, select the assets on the map and click Add From Map. When assets are added using this button, it attaches those assets to whatever work orders are currently selected in the Work Order panel. If you have multiple work orders open in ELM but only one selected, the assets added from the map are only attached to the selected work order. Select a work order from the Work Order drop-down list at the top of the Existing Costs panel to view the labor, equipment, and material associated with that work order. (Figure 4) Continued on pg 30
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Figure 3 – Select the tasks and assets to add the eqiupment, labor, and material to.
Figure 2 – Select the work orders to add the eqiupment, labor, and material to.
Figure 4 – Click the Edit icon next to any entry to edit its details.
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New functionality allows users to edit an existing labor, equipment, or material entry by clicking the Edit icon next to that entry. Previously, users had to remove and re-add records to edit costs. (Figure 5)
Adding Equipment, Labor, and Material The Date field is automatically populated with the current date and time, but can be changed if needed. The date and time entered here are automatically applied to any equipment, labor, or material added, unless the date and time for those entries are changed in the Advanced sections. If desired, select an Account to associate the equipment, labor, or material with. The account selected here is automatically applied to any equipment, labor, or material added, unless the account for those entries is changed or removed in the Advanced sections.
There are two tabs for entering information: Standard and Contractor. Standard is for entering equipment, labor, and material provided by your organization. Contractor is for entering contractor-provided equipment, labor, or material. On the Standard tab, select a crew from the Crew drop-down list to populate the Labor, Equipment, and Material panels with that crew’s information. See the Designer Configuring Crews online help documentation for more information. Once the crew has been selected, enter the appropriate information in the Labor, Equipment, and Material panels. (Figure 6)
Figure 5 – Equipment, labor, and material entries can be edited.
Figure 6 – Enter labor, equipment, and material information on the Add Costs tab.
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The Advanced sections contain additional fields related to the labor, equipment, or material. • Rate: Select the pay rates to be applied to the labor. • Description: Enter a description of the labor performed. • Start Date and Finish Date: If you want to change the Start Date and time and Finish Date and time to a different value than what is specified in the Date field at the top of the page, use the calendar icon or manually enter the date and time.
Splitting Costs In previous versions, users could select the Proportioned check box to evenly split the associated costs across multiple work orders, tasks, or assets. In the example below, 3.33 hours of labor would be added to the three selected assets. If the Proportioned check box was not selected, each asset would have ten hours added to it. (Figure 8) Continued on pg 32
• Account: If you want to associate the labor costs to an Account that is different than the Account selected at the top of the page, select it here. If you want to remove the account, click the X next to it. • Storeroom: Select the storeroom that the material came from. (Figure 7)
Figure 7 – More detailed information can be entered on the Advanced panel.
Figure 8 – In previous versions, users had to select the Proportioned check box to split costs evenly amongst assets.
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In Cityworks 2015—Platform 4.0, there is no longer a Proportioned check box. Costs are automatically proportioned across all selected work orders, tasks, and assets from the Apply To tab. In order to add ten hours of labor to three assets, the user would need to add 30 hours to employees. (Figures 9 & 10) For more information on ELM, view the online help documentation, quick start guides, and tutorial videos on MyCityworks.com.
Figure 9 – Since there are three assets selected, ten hours will be added to each asset.
Figure 10 – Since there are three assets selected, ten hours will be added to each asset.
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TECHNOLOGY
Tools & Tips: Redesigned GIS Services Provide
New and Improved GIS-centric Capabilities By Steven Sushka, GISP, Sr. Technical Support Analyst, Cityworks
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Opening GIS Services for the First Time n Designer for 2015, the GIS Ser vices page has undergone significant changes to further extend the GIS-centric capabilities of Cityworks. These key changes were introduced:
Once your Cityworks site and database have been updated to Cityworks 2015—Platform 4.0, the Migrate GIS Services wizard will automatically appear upon opening GIS Services for the first time. (Figure1)
• A Migrate GIS Services wizard was added to transfer existing GIS services into the new data structure. • Work management and permitting GIS logic has been separated from the map GIS logic (geocoding, secured services, etc.). • JavaScript map secured service logic has been separated from Silverlight map secured service logic (Esri Resource Proxy vs. WebAppSettings.config). • Secured GIS services can be configured from more than one GIS server (except for the Silverlight map). • Administrators may now define a given GIS service URL once and then reference it multiple times as needed. • New Service Types (Resource Proxy and Tile Package) have been added. • New Security Types (OAuth2 App, OAuth2 User, and Token) have been added.
Figure 1 – Transfer existing GIS services into the new data structure.
The migration will move the GIS Service information from the old AGSMAPSERVICE table to the GISSERVICE<name> tables in order for the GIS data to properly function. Once completed, the GIS Services configuration needs to be reviewed and finalized.
Service Resources The Service Resources tab is used to configure GIS service resources, which include a Name, Service Type, URL, and Security Type. (Figure 2)
• Users can now configure unlimited map services. • Users can assign GIS services for use in different applications (Office, Field, mobile apps, public-facing applications, and other third-party applications). • The GIS Model preference (REST vs. SOE) is now defined on a layer-by-layer basis and by specific map or SOE services on the Service Layers tab. • Users can work with map joins if the map layer is only configured to work through the map service.
Figure 2 – Configure GIS service resources.
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Two new service types have been added: Resource Proxy and Tile Package. These two new service types are an addition to the existing types: dynamic map, feature layer, image map, SOE, tiled map, web map, geocode, and geometry. Resource Proxy is used to configure proxy entries for use in the JavaScript map only. (Figure 3)
Service Definitions The Service Definitions tab replaces the Service Group function from 2014 and looks similar to what is in 2014. The main changes are that the GIS service URLs are no longer visible (it shows the name of the service that they reference from the Service Resources tab), as well as options to temporarily disable a service and assign which applications the services are to be used with (Office, Field, Mobile, Public, and Other). (Figure 6)
Service Layers Figure 3 – Configure proxy entries for use in the JavaScript map.
Tile Package is used to add a tile package (.tpk file) for offline use in the Android and iOS apps. (Figure 4)
The Service Layers tab is used to configure services for the asset layers, as well as other GIS layers used throughout the application (Map Page, Tile No, etc.). This tab ultimately replaces the GIS Model preference in Designer (see Knowledge Base article 10667: Server AMS GIS Model Options) and allows each layer to be configured to a specific map service or SOE service instead of sticking to a domain-wide preference that included all of the GIS services a given user was mapped to. (Figure 7)
Summary
Figure 4 – Add a tile package (.tpk file) for use in the Android and iOSapps.
The Designer for 2015 GIS Services page has significantly changed to extend the GIS-centric capabilities of the Cityworks platform and provides organizations with more flexibility to configure, display, and interact with their GIS data.
The following security types are available for secured services: • No Security: Select if your services do not have security. • OAuth2 App: Select if you use ArcGIS Online and want application-based security. This option allows you to use an app ID instead of your ArcGIS Online login or password. • OAuth2 User: Select if you use ArcGIS Online and want user-based security. • Token: Select to use token-based security. (Figure 5)
Figure 5 – Select Token to use token-based security.
Figure 7 – Configure services for asset and GIS layers used throughout the application.
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Figure 6 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Select options for the defined map services.
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