InPrint Fall 2006

InPrint Cityworks

Vol. 5, Issue 3, Fall 2006

Delivering Innovative GIS-Centric Maintenance Management Tools for Your Organization Wirebury Uses Cityworks to Outsource Business

by Lynn Scruton, Manager of Operations Enbridge Electric Connections Inc. (EEC) Note: As this goes to press, Wirebury will be wholly owned by Enbridge Inc. (a North American leader in energy transportation and distribution with over 150 years of experience in the utility sector) and going through re-branding as Enbridge Electric Connections Inc.

In 1995, the Ontario government committed to the deregulation of the electricity market. At the time Enbridge Gas Distribution, having gone through deregulation 10 years earlier, saw an opportunity to move into the electric distribution business.

2

President’s Corner

3

Client Services

4

by David Wilburn, Senior GIS Specialist, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Wirebury Connections Inc. was launched, and a new approach to electrical distribution was introduced to the newly opened marketplace.

Wirebury would throw their hat into the ring and compete with existing Local

In 1999, the City of Ann Arbor completed a conversion of the water distribution system from hard copy to GIS. As we began using the data, we were looking for ways to make the most of our investment. One of the products we looked at was called Pipeworks from Azteca Systems.

Pipeworks worked from within our GIS environment (ArcView).

This type of integration hit a chord with the few staff who were using GIS, and Pipeworks was recommended for purchase.

For Ann Arbor, Pipeworks was initially viewed as a way to maintain information about the water system. We also thought that the tracing tool would be very beneficial for helping with

Cont. page 26

Cont. page 24

Wirebury was created to provide the electrical infrastructure leading up to and including meters in new subdivisions, business developments, and multi-tenant high-rises and condominiums. It would include individual suite metering for both new facilities as well as for retrofitting older buildings using state-of-the-art “SMART” meters. SMART meters would enable the company to track detailed electricity use, helping customers lower their overall cost of energy by better managing consumption.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Cityworks Usage Expands as Ann Arbor, Michigan, Grows

Nashville, TN

8

Allegheny Cty, PA

12 14 16 22

Project Mgmt.

Update

UC06 Recap

Gulfport, MS

Regional News

For more information on Cityworks and Azteca Systems, visit us online at http://www.azteca.com

INPRINT / FALL 2006

PAGE ONE

InPrint Editor in Chief: Tom Palizzi Editor: Kaye Ryser Advertising: Jen Hernandez

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Azteca Systems, Inc. 11075 South State Street, Suite 24 Sandy, UT 84070 801-523-2751 www.azteca.com

Recently, I read a description of “every developer’s release horror story.” The horror story goes something like this: The new code build resolving certain bugs was promised weeks ago. For each new code build, every fix and enhancement (even if the fix has previously been verified in a prior code build as resolved) must be retested which takes hours and hours. Inexplicably, new bugs are showing up that weren’t there before. Making matters worse, the programmer who wrote the code is scheduled to go on a longplanned-for summer vacation.

To receive a subscription or to change your address, please send your contact information to: inprint@azteca.com or call 801-523-2751.

Founded in 1986, Azteca Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of GIS-Centric Enterprise Asset Maintenance Management Systems for Public Works and Utilities. Built exclusively on top of ESRI’s leading GIS technology, Cityworks is powerful, scalable, and affordable.

How to Reach Us: Tel.: 801-523-2751 Email: info@azteca.com InPrint is published by Azteca Systems, Inc. (Azteca), at 11075 South State, #24, Sandy, UT 84070.

InPrint contains material of interest to utility and publics works organizations.

Copyright © Azteca Systems, Inc. 2006 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 and Cityworks are registered trademarks; Cityworks Desktop, Cityworks Anywhere and Cityworks Server are trademarks; of Azteca Systems, Inc.; and www.mycityworks.com, www.gocityworks. com, @azteca.com and www.azteca.com are service marks of Azteca Systems, Inc. The names of other companies and products herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners.

PAGE TWO

by Brian Haslam, President

Providing timely software updates to our clients is no laughing matter. But, reading this did make me chuckle (because we have been there).

For all enhancement requests, the benefits gained are weighed against the potential impact on the software. Even a seemingly simple enhancement can generate many unanticipated problems. A recent example has been the support for ArcGIS Engine. The benefit gained is the ability to right-size the GIS license and functionality for the Cityworks user who is a non-professional GIS user. The adoption of Cityworks Anywhere has been enthusiastic, proving the benefit. Yet, the impact on the existing product has been greater then we anticipated.

Another example has been our commitment to the cross-compatibility of Cityworks Desktop and Anywhere with Cityworks Server. This is not an insignificant thing. To assure cross-compatibility, we had to design Server in such a way that the existing Desktop or Anywhere systems can run side-by-side without major data migration. Server should be able to be dropped in with only minor updates to the existing software system. Developing software in this manner is harder than the non-cross-compatible approach adopted by so many other vendors.

But, we and our clients feel cross-compatibility is essential.

Below is the tentative timeline for the Desktop and Anywhere software release schedule. The information is provisional as there still may be factors out of our control that could impact the timeline.

4.3.1 SP2—Sept. 06 4.4 Dev Rel—Oct. 06 4.4 Beta—Dec. 07 4.4 Pre-release—Feb. 07 4.4 Commercial—April 07 Cityworks Desktop and Anywhere 4.4 will contain many enhancements that you will find useful. Three highlights include a budgeting tool, enhanced func

Welcome New Cityworks Users!         

Billings, MT Biloxi, MS Canton Township, MI Dublin, OH Glendale, CA Herriman, UT Lake County, OH Omaha, NE Town of Queen Creek, AZ

 Raleigh, NC  Sacramento Suburban Water District, CA  Seminole Tribe of Florida  Sumter County, FL  Surrey, BC, Canada  Topeka, KS  Wayne County, MI INPRINT / FALL 2006

Client Services Update

What’s going on in Customer Service?

by Wayne Hill, Director of Client Services

excited to have Bryan Chadwick working in our support group. Bryan has spent the past several years working for our clients. Within this time frame, he has gained a vast knowledge of Cityworks, SQL Server, and SDE. Bryan will be working with Reed to keep everyone in the Southeast region happy.

New Regional Support Areas As many of you already know there has been quite a bit of moving around within the client services group this fall. As you can see from the map the support regions have also changed. We think having three regions with multiple individuals will be a better route for support.

Mentoring Program This past summer we also introduced the “Client Services Mentoring Program.” With this new program, part-time employees are brought in to work with our full-time support staff in a mentoring capacity.

Matt Harman – Matt is in his senior year at the University of Utah, maPresident’s Corner (cont.)

tionality for facility management, and improved labor cost tracking.

In the next few months, ESRI will ship the commercial release of ESRI ArcGIS 9.2. Because of this, many of you are asking how Cityworks Server fits into the release timeline. Between now and the summer of 2007, we plan on implementing Cityworks Server as a Targeted Release. We are calling it a Targeted Release because this more accurately reflects where we are at in the development cycle. The Cityworks Server code has been in development for some time. It is a far more mature code set than the

INPRINT / FALL 2006

joring in engineering. He is learning things here at Azteca rather quickly.

We’re hoping to bring Matt on fulltime this coming spring. Currently Matt is working on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with Kyle Boyd in covering the Northeast region.

Paul Thomas – Paul’s blood runs a little bit more “blue” since he’s attending Brigham Young University (BYU) working on a degree in Geography/GIS. Paul is currently working on Tuesday and Thursday with James Oliphant supporting the Western region.

New Support Rep for the Southeast Region We just keep growing! We’re term beta implies. We have thoroughly tested it with the ESRI’s 9.2 beta. With the commercial release of 9.2, the time is right for Azteca Systems to take our next step with Cityworks Server.

Over the next 9 months, we will deploy Cityworks Server at multiple and diverse client sites. From this experience we will be able to confidently release Cityworks Server as a commercially released and supported product. At the 2007 Cityworks User Conference (May 22-24, 2007), we will report on the experience gained deploying Cityworks Server. At that time, we will announce a timeline for the Com-

A-Training We Will Go! December 4 – 8, 2006: Cityworks Administration March 5 - 9, 2007: Cityworks Administration Remote Interactive Training Courses Available Over the Web: • Cityworks Database Implementation – Oracle or SQL Server • Cityworks Designer Configuration Part I, Part II • Introduction to Cityworks ArcGIS Part I, Part II • Cityworks Reporting with Crystal Reports • Configuring and Running Call Center • Storeroom Visit MyCityworks.com for specific dates of each course. J mercial Release of Cityworks Server that we anticipate will not be far off.

I trust that you are able to see the value of our approach. Rather than rushing to market, we have chosen to go through this Targeted-Release phase for Cityworks Server. Our goal is to provide you with an outstanding product and excellent support. We believe our approach will give you the assurance that Azteca Systems can continue to meet these goals. J

PAGE THREE

Partner News

Metro Nashville, Tennessee, GIS-Centric Work Management is Key

by Clifton Ogden, Civic Engineering & IT, Inc

As with any agency, there are several “right” ways of doing things, even within the same department. Public Works departments are no exception and are typically tasked with providing services of a broader range than many other city/county departments. In many cases, the city/county Public Works department manages all public infrastructure, including water and sewer systems.

This broad scope of services blends several different disciplines in one department and thus, often times, many different ways of doing business.

Roadways, Traffic Appurtenances, Storm/Sewer, Bridges, Sidewalks, Utilities, etc. typically have four phases within their lifecycles: Planning, Design, Construction, and Maintenance. Often, different divisions (and thus different people) within a department are responsible for specific assets and often the same is true with the lifecycle phases of such assets. Typically, divisions within a Public Works department are tasked with a specific scope—e.g. the Engineering division designs a roadway, the Roadway maintenance division maintains the roadway after is it built, the Engineering division determines

when the roadway should be reconstructed, the planning or traffic division decides when the roadway should be widened, and so forth. And, of course, the public is always going to have an opinion on all of it.

Internal coordination has been one of the biggest challenges of Public Works managers. Historically, intradepartmental coordination has been handled by memos, old-fashioned planned project lists, coordination meetings and other time-consuming and borderline-effective techniques. Today, GIS and modern work management technology solutions provide the tools to effectively plan,

Asset Data Collection 3-D Geospatial Visualization Experts GIS/CMMS Planning and Implementation Advanced Integrators/Interface Development GASB34, ADA and NPDES Compliance Specialists

AUTHORIZED BUSINESS PARTNER

CIVIC CORPORATE OFFICES:

806 Third Ave South • Nashville, TN 37210 Phone: (615) 425FAX: (615) 469425-2000 469-2445 info@CivicInc.com • www.CivicInc.com PAGE FOUR

INPRINT /FALL 2006

Partner News - Metro Nashville, Tennessee track, and maintain information of past, current, and future work in a manner incidental to the typical work processes.

The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County Tennessee (Metro) has been handling coordination successfully for many years. Beginning in 2000, the Metro administration increased initiatives to build new, repair, and update Public Works infrastructure countywide. With a paving program funded at over $10M annually, a sidewalk program funded at $20M annually, a $30M roadway program, and a $7.5M bridge fund, Metro found a need to track improvements and maintenance activities on a large scale. The Public Works department found itself in a flurry of projects and saw coordination complexity increasing by leaps and bounds.

One of the biggest initiatives for infrastructure improvements for Metro Nashville was sidewalks. With the inception of a formal sidewalk program in 2002, the Metro Public Works department was tasked with conforming over 4,000 curb ramps to ADA-compliant standards in a 3-year period. In addition, 652 miles of sidewalk were scheduled for repair over a multi-year program. For this initiative, the sidewalk network for the entire county was surveyed on foot and all ADA compliance issues were inventoried and stored in GIS. With the inventory complete and funding available, it was time to start work.

How would budgets and work be tracked? How would work be tied back to the GIS inventory? How would this program be coordinated with ongoing maintenance activities, service requests, paving, roadway improvements…? Whatever the case, it had to be a solution that was centered on the GIS. Yes, GIS is key. Metro Public Works needed a GIScentric work management system. In 2002, the Metro Public Works department chose to implement Cityworks to assist with the management of the comprehensive sidewalk program. However, during the baseline implementation phase of the system, facing the alternative of continuing to utilize an antiquated, mainframe-based service request system, Metro saw great benefit in deploying Cityworks to manage service requests for all Public Works assets. Cityworks Authorized Business Partner, Civic Engineering & Information Technologies, Inc. (Civic) of Nashville, Tennessee was retained to assist Metro with the implementation and deployment of Cityworks. In October, 2002, Cityworks went “live” and production use began on the very first ArcGIS version of Cityworks (4.0). At the time of implementation, Nashville had licensed 25 seats of the Cityworks Desktop software.

Metro Nashville is GIS-centric and citizen-centric.

Nashville’s administration sees public involvement as

INPRINT /FALL 2006

(cont.)

key to large-scale infrastructure programs. Today, the most effective and easiest way to distribute project information is via the web. Thus, Metro Public Works was tasked with building informative websites for the “headliner” programs—the Sidewalk, Paving, and Bikeways Programs. While these programs were in need of coordination and public dissemination of information, each of these programs were in fact, due to scale, managed by different staff. However, many things were common among these programs. The sidewalk asset inventory, the pavement asset inventory, and the proposed bikeways system were all managed in the GIS; all projects were planned and executed based on a logical system of priorities; and as always, project status and funds tracking was critical.

Initially, Metro program websites were stand-alone sites utilizing ArcIMS to display project extents and querying an underlying SQL Server database to provide project detail information. While the GIS was dynamic via an SDE connection, the project information had to be updated via administrative web pages to remain synchronized with the real-world project status. While the websites worked well, there was obvious redundancy and a danger of discrepancy—the same information tracked within current and future Cityworks work orders was also being managed separately on the websites. A natural progression was to marry the two and provide dynamic content from the Cityworks database on the program websites. Today, the program pages are updated dynamically using active server pages and a connection to the Cityworks database. The dynamic presentation of information from the Cityworks database provides practically a zero-administration and most importantly, an up-to-date web presence for each of the major infrastructure programs.



The public has the ability to search by address, street or by a map interface.

PAGE FIVE

Partner News - Metro Nashville, Tennessee

(cont.)

water Division of Public Works to be moved under the Metro Water Services Department. Because of this, Cityworks was not implemented in Stormwater at the same time as the remainder of Public Works. However, after a short implementation period, the Stormwater group went into production with Cityworks in May 2005 and at the same time, a site license was purchased from Azteca to cover the additional users.

“Many people were skeptical when we gave them our implementation schedule,” said Denny Bone, Manager of Stormwater Maintenance. “Our administration was pleasantly surprised when we told them—‘we’re live’.” Implementation of Cityworks within the Stormwater Group took a mere 90 days inclusive of business analysis, system configuration, training, and data conversion of existing Hansen service request data.

ArcIMS is utilized to support map-based searches.

The Metro Stormwater group has a significant workload. Both routine maintenance (inlet cleaning, ditch grading, etc.) and remedial maintenance (pipe and structure replacement, etc.) as well as larger capital projects are performed. Proactive and reactive work is performed and maintaining a good work history is very important for many reasons, perhaps most importantly, NPDES Phase II compliance.

“We schedule and manage our NPDES inspections using Cityworks,” says Michael Hunt, NPDES Program Manager. “Event themes give us a real-time snapshot of what’s going on.”

Although Stormwater is in a different facility many miles away, there is still a great deal of coordination required between the Stormwater group and the Public Works department. Even though there is a division of responsibilities, work for each group is often

The Project Details are pulled from the Cityworks database.

A unique feature of the program website is the ability for the public to view a project and make comments. The comments enter the Cityworks system as they should— as a service request that is associated with the project work order. Because the service request is associated with a specific work order, a Cityworks user can open the work order or project and view all the associated requests that the public has made on the past, current, and/or planned projects/work orders.

“The Metro Public Works Department successfully manages infrastructure improvement programs in a manner that would not be possible without GIS and a work management system that was GIS-centric,” said Mark Macy, Assistant Director of Public Works.

Prior to the completion of the Cityworks implementation, an agency restructuring during 2002 caused the StormPAGE SIX

Preventive maintenance such as inlet cleaning is tracked in Cityworks and reported for Annual NPDES reports.

INPRINT / FALL 2006

Partner News - Metro Nashville, Tennessee

(cont.)

hand-in-hand. Cityworks allows the Public Works and Stormwater departments to share a common data-base, but since the groups operate in separate Cityworks domains, they can utilize and configure the system as if it was their own. This “separate, but coordinated” logic is very important in the reduction of redundancy for work orders and service requests that require more than one department to be involved.

Event Themes provide managers a geographic display of work types and status.

Cityworks Alerter Notification

Both the Stormwater Division of Water Services and the Public Works department keep progressing with their use of Cityworks. As is common, there are often a few dozen, little, disparate systems that exist within an agency. While Metro has come a long way, “Can’t we use Cityworks to do what [X] system/Access Database/spreadsheet/ is doing” is still heard. For instance, Public Works reviews site plans for developers and a spreadsheet was used to track the plans as they were submitted. With a few tweaks to the database, plan reviews are now tracked within the Cityworks database using internal and external email notifications to keep things on track. A custom application, Alerter, is used by those who prefer not to get email notifications.

Alerter is a taskbar application that notifies users they have an action item pending within Cityworks, even if Cityworks is not running on their desktop.

From managing major infrastructure programs to tracking NPDES compliance inspections, Cityworks provides Metro Nashville a broad basis to coordinate activities, foster communication, and integrate with GIS. In addition, tracking work and asset details from the planning stages to maintenance phases provides full-circle asset management as well as a complete history of the agencies’ assets.

The unified Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County serves approximately 600,000 residents over a 526.1 square mile service area and manages a current annual budget exceeding $1.51B (FY 2006-2007).

Cityworks Alerter Task List

INPRINT / FALL 2006

Clifton Ogden is Vice President and Senior Project Manager with Civic Engineering & Information Technologies, Inc. and can be reached by phone at (615) 425-2000 or by email at ogdenco@civicinc.com. J

PAGE SEVEN

Partner News - Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

(cont.)

Implementation of Cityworks in Allegheny County

by Martin G. Demblowski, Uzair (Sam) Shamsi, George M. Brown

This article presents a Cityworks implementation case study. Chester Engineers (formerly ATS-Chester Engineers), a Cityworks Business Partner located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the prime contractor for this project. Motorola and Collective Efforts are the subcontractors.

Allegheny County is a flourishing province located in southwestern Pennsylvania and forms the center of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The county was

founded on January 22, 1800 and soon evolved into one of the key manufacturing areas in the country. Shortly after the county’s foundation, Pittsburgh became the largest inland port in the nation, and still is today. The 2000 census population of the county totaled 1.3 million residents. The area is known for its hospitals, universities, and industrial centers. Allegheny County is home to three professional sports teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the 2006 Super Bowl champions, Pittsburgh Steelers—all of which add to the excitement and solidarity of the community. The land area of the county encompasses 745 square miles with lakes and rivers accounting for 2% of the region.

Over 1600 bridges span the three major rivers in the county, the Ohio, the Allegheny, and the Monongahela. Elevation levels of the region vary from 700 to 1400 feet above sea level.

Within Allegheny County’s internal work-

260 Airside Drive

Moon Township, PA 15108

(412) 809–6600

www.atschester.com

; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Needs assessment

Database / geodatabase design

MIGRATE FROM FRUSTRATION …

Data conversion

Utility / municipal mapping

Water, wastewater, stormwater GIS

Aerial photography & satellite imagery Data maintenance

GPS survey and mobile GIS

Internet / Web / ArcIMS GIS

Asset management / CMMS / GASB34

Hydrologic & hydraulic modeling integration Wet weather overflow management 911 rural addressing

Software development ArcGIS Training

… TO PRODUCTIVITY.

We believe that Cityworks should make your life easier.

It should increase productivity and save you time and money.

PAGE EIGHT

INPRINT / FALL 2006

Partner News - Allegheny County, Pennsylvania ings and many departments and branches resides the Allegheny County Department of Public Works (DPW).

DPW consists of the Administrative; Engineering, and Construction; Facilities and Fleet; and Road, Bridge, and Park Maintenance Divisions of the county. The success of the department as a whole is a result of the partnership created among these divisions, and can be attributed to the talent and qualifications of the staff and their desire to contribute to the betterment of the community.

DPW’s mission statement asserts: “We are committed to providing the residents and visitors of Allegheny County with world-class infrastructure, with maintenance and engineering services delivered in a timely and costeffective manner. We are dedicated to our vision and core values.”

(cont.)

their organization. After many hours of research, investigation, and consideration, DPW made the decision to replace the current system they were using and employ Cityworks, a GIS-centric asset maintenance management software program developed by Azteca Systems, Inc. While researching various software programs, DPW was impressed with Cityworks because it is one of the few CMMS software systems that is GIS-centric, which means seamlessly integrated. DPW recognized that Cityworks was the first GIS-centric application to be certified by the National Association of GIS-Centric Software (NAGCS), and that in 2005 Azteca Systems was awarded the ESRI Foundation Partner of the Year.

“Cityworks is a GIS-centric management system which is much more efficient than the conventional CMMS packages that do not display assets on a map. Streamlining business operations and improving worker productivity saves time and money in asset management,” said Dr. Sam Shamsi, PhD, PE, GISP, Director of GIS and Information Management Technologies of Chester Engineers.

Eric Allen, Marty Demblowski, & George Brown

Allegheny County DWP Director, Thomas Donatelli, states: “Through the use of the Cityworks system, our county is able to utilize our existing GIS data. The system will also allow us to better track the quality of county services and our efficiency in delivering those services. Over the years our budget has been slashed substantially. Cityworks implementation will allow us to do more with less.”

During 2005, DPW initiated a thorough review of all commercial off-the-shelf CMMS with a goal to more efficiently manage their assets and better fulfill the goals of

DPW had some primary objectives they wanted to accomplish through the process of implementing Cityworks as their new maintenance management system. The objectives included establishing a maintenance management system that utilizes the following components: Service Request Module, Work Order Management Module, Asset Management Module, and a Pavement Management Module. Next, DPW created overall goals they wanted to accomplish throughout the course of the project. The goals were to design and implement a successful GIS-based CMMS, to migrate from the existing system to Cityworks, and to obtain American Public Works Association (APWA) accreditation.

As part of the project, DPW initiated a detailed selfevaluation program throughout their department. The evaluation included a department-wide assessment of over 400 policies and practices to gain better insight into how county services are provided. The effort focused on creating a comprehensive program for positive 

INPRINT / FALL 2006

PAGE NINE

Partner News - Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

(cont.)

implementation of the JD Edwards Interface.

The central focus of DPW’s new GIS representation of Cityworks is the maintenance of roads, roadside assets, bridges, parks, and buildings. A very large scope of county assets are part of the project. The assets include county roads; which encompass 800 lane miles, 310 named routes, and 17,540 segments of 105 feet each; roadside assets, including 2709 guiderails, 11,765 traffic signs, 1192 walls, 2095 manholes, 4755 storm drains/ inlets and 3000 MS4 outfalls; 237 bridges; 386 culverts; 9 parks with 11 feature classes; 150 buildings; and 3000 materials warehouses with 500 suppliers.

change, orienting and training supervisors, and becoming a better managed public agency. When completed, the Department will be eligible to apply for the stringent APWA agency accreditation. Only 33 Public Works agencies in North America have met the requirements for this mark of distinction and have received official APWA recognition.

Once begun, DPW’s project of implementing Cityworks as their new maintenance management system was broken down into three phases. The project schedule for phase 1 included GIS mapping (importing Roadware asset survey data); database configuration, installation, and implementation; migration of legacy data from DPW’s previous non-GIS CMMS; training and mentoring; go-live support; and implementation of three modules— the service request (customer call-in), work order, and asset management. The efforts of Chester Engineers and Motorola, Inc. contributed to the success and speed of this phase of the execution.

The project results of Phase 1 were very positive and agreeable to how DPW hoped the stage would follow through. Phase 1 was completed in less than six months, a record time frame, from February 22, 2005 to August 8, 2005. Phase 1 used a 100% GIS-centric solution—Cityworks in conjunction with ArcGIS. The project was completed within the proposed time and budget, there were no change orders, and the project team accomplished a go-live within 6 months. Formal hands-on training was provided for all 60 DPW Cityworks Desktop users. Training for both Cityworks and GIS was completed in five consecutive days. Cityworks Designer training was provided for the administrative group.

Allegheny County’s Cityworks implementation involves many systems including: 20 concurrent Cityworks Desktop licenses supporting 60 users; ESRI’s ArcSDE 9.1, ArcGIS 9.1 ArcEditor and ArcView; Windows Server 2003 R2; SQL Server 2000; Citrix Presentation Server 4, and remote connections via VPN and dialup supporting 18 Dell thin clients.

The Cityworks Phase 1 configuration included 279 work order types (in WOTemplate table), 105 service request types (in problem leaf table), 1391 material types (in material leaf table), 3264 equipment types (in equipment leaf table), 520 employees (in employee table), and Storeroom with 3000 unique material types and 500 unique suppliers. These numbers will increase in subsequent phases of the project. DPW did not have an existing GIS layer for park assets, so they decided to create one. This was done during Phase 2 of the project by conducting heads-up digitization of park features from the year 2005 color 1-ft resolution orthophotos.

Eleven park features were captured which were swimming pools, athletic courts, athletic fields, lakes, ponds, playgrounds, restrooms, shelters and groves, office buildings, storage buildings/sheds, and parking lots.

Phase 2 of the project is currently in progress. This phase includes implementation of two separate modules and three applications. The modules included are the Pavement Management (MicroPAVER) and Storeroom modules. The applications are the Highway Occupancy (HOP) Interface, Roadware Inspections Interface, and Configuration for Trades, including electrical, carpentry, etc. Phase 3 is scheduled for 2007 and involves the PAGE TEN

INPRINT / FALL 2006

Partner News - Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

(cont.)

The implementation of Cityworks and the overall project of DPW revamping their system and moving to the Cityworks program has been very successful. The feat of this project depended heavily on teamwork and communication between staff of the DPW organization, prime contractor Chester Engineers, Motorola Inc., and Azteca Systems. Both organizations have been more than willing to work together to ensure positive results throughout the implementation. DPW is pleased to assert that Phase 1 of the project was very successful and Phase 2 is progressing in the same way. The county has confidence that the remainder of the project will have the same great results.

In their frustration with their previous CMMS software system, Cityworks has given Allegheny County the solution and peace of mind of how to better manage their assets and reach their organizational goals. Philip La May, Allegheny County DPW Deputy Director for Operations/Administration, reports: “For the first time in the DPW’s history, thanks to the new Cityworks system, we can show the taxpayers and elected officials what we accomplish every day and what it costs us to provide service to the public, both keeping us accountable and demonstrating our vital role to the community.”

Author information: Martin Demblowski (MDemblowski@ county.allegheny.pa.us) is with the Allegheny County Department of Public Works. Sam Shamsi (ushamsi@ atschester.com) and George Brown (gbrown@atschester.com) are with Chester Engineers, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. J

Partner Directory Authorized Business Partners • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Bowne Management Systems Chester Engineers Civil Solutions Civic Engineering and Information Technologies, Inc. EMH&T Geographic Mapping Technology Corp.

IT Nexus Jones, Edmunds and Associates Mactec Corporation Municipal Information Systems North Arrow Technologies NTB Associates OHM, Inc. OneGIS PBS&J, Inc. Power Engineers, Inc. Schneider Corporation Short Elliott Hendrickson Sunrise Engineering Timmons Group Velocitie Integration, Inc. Vanasse, Hangen, Brustlin, Inc.

INPRINT / FALL 2006

• • • • •

Varion Systems VESTRA Resources, Inc. Westin Engineering Weston Solutions Woolpert

Associate Business Partners • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Arcadis G&M Inc. BP Barber & Associates CH2M Hill, Inc. Collier Engineering Data Transfer Solutions, LLC Enterprise Information Solutions, Inc. Greenhorne & O’Mara, Inc. KCI Technologies L. Robert Kimball & Associates Michael Baker Jr., Inc. PSOMAS Stantec Consulting Strand Associates, Inc. Wade Trim Associates

International Distribution Partner • • • •

ESRI Canada, Canada Meldis, AB, Sweden OneGIS, Carribbean Systematics Limited, Israel

Strategic Partners • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Bergmann Associates Cobra Technologies CompassCom Coulter Mapping Solutions Dig-Smart Earth Touch Solutions ESRI Hyland Software Laurel Hill Miner & Miner Motorola MWH Soft Orion Technology Inc. Peninsular Technologies RIVA Online Route Smart Tadpole Technologies TruePoint Solutions PAGE ELEVEN

Project Management Update

Surprise!... Document Management Has Arrived and Waterford Township, Michigan, Is the First to Take Advantage of It...

(That part is not a surprise!)

by George Mastakas, Director of Enterprise Solutions

Cityworks has long supported the ability to associate documents to work orders and service requests.

The linkage between a document and a work order, for example, is a path location stored in the Cityworks database to the document. To retrieve the document, one just clicks the file path of the document in the Attachments tab, and Cityworks finds the location of that document on a networked file server. The document is then brought up in its native format (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.).

In 4.3.1 this changed... Well, it didn’t change per se— Cityworks still supports the existing functionality, and it will continue to support it. A better way of putting it is that now Cityworks supports Document Management.

By developing a supported integration with Hyland’s OnBase product, Cityworks is now able to store and retrieve documents from Hyland’s Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) OnBase. The OnBase EDMS has the ability to package and house the actual document in a relational database (i.e. SQL Server or Oracle) instead of a file server. This replaces static file linking as the method for storage with dynamic linking.

The ability to dynamically link documents to Cityworks work orders and service requests is tremendously advantageous. The biggest reason is that references to

documents can’t be broken. Further, they are stored in an actual database instead of a hard drive. And lastly, management of the documents is facilitated by a system that is developed for this specific purpose, rather than a manual process.

The integration between Cityworks and OnBase makes this dynamic linking a breeze. Cityworks provides a utility called Document Management Interface (see Fig. 1), that allows the Cityworks administrator to define specific keywords in the work order and the service request (Fig. 2). These keywords can be required, populated by default or accept manual input, displayed in the dialogue before being issued to the EDMS (Fig. 3), and/or locked so they cannot be changed by the user in the dialogue. These same keywords allow any user, who has access to the OnBase EDMS, the ability to retrieve any linked documents separate of Cityworks. However, if they do wish to use Cityworks to retrieve any linked documentation, it can literally be done with the click of a button which returns a list of linked documentation (Figs. 4, 5, 6). The same function is also used to archive documents by merely browsing the hard drive for the document to archive and submitting it. More than one document can be submitted for archival all at once (Fig. 7).

Figure 1

Figure 2 PAGE TWELVE

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Project Management Update Additional benefits are realized by Cityworks users implementing the OnBase EDMS. First, it’s a scalable solution and as such improves/streamlines access. Second, it provides a very high level security to protect the agency’s digital content from unwanted access. Third, as a NAGCS-certified application, OnBase has the ability to run in the ESRI ArcMap environment. This capability allows OnBase to archive and retrieve documents in the geodatabase asset inventory. In a similar fashion to Cityworks, users execute the archive/retrieve function from the OnBase tool bar after they’ve selected the asset in the GIS. A side benefit of using OnBase to store documents with the GIS asset inventory is that it fills a GASB requirement and thus moves the agency towards achieving compliance.

(cont.)

It’s for these reasons that Waterford Township, MI, has implemented this integration. Says Terry Biederman, Director of Public Works: “The merging of electronic document management capabilities substantially improves overall function of GIS and CMMS. No longer must we use the generic file attachment capabilities of GIS or CMMS. Instead, we are able to utilize the full potential of our electronic document management system, which will eliminate duplication of effort and allow for a central warehouse of all documents.”

Feel free to contact me with any questions: georgem@ azteca.com. For questions regarding the OnBase EDMS, feel free to contact Scott Anderson at Scott.Anderson@ onbase.com. J

Figure 5

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 6

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Figure 7 PAGE THIRTEEN

Cityworks 2006 User Conference June 19-21, 2006, Park City, Utah The Cityworks 2006 User Conference was a great success, complete with a gala celebration of Cityworks 10th anniversary. The conference had a strong turnout, consistent with the upward growth trends the event has experienced since its debut in 2001. Complete with workshops, presentations, networking, and socials the Cityworks 2006 User Conference generated an educational and enjoyable atmosphere, benefiting all 230 in attendance.

The conference plenary session was kicked off Monday morning by Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems, and George Mastakas, Director of Enterprise Solutions, presenting four Innovative Leadership Awards. These awards were presented to user sites which were recognized as leaders in Azteca’s user community for 3+ years.

White House Utility District, TN, was the first award recipient and was recognized for their Cityworks implementation in May 2003 which demonstrated significant changes in ratios for preventive vs. reactive maintenance work. They showed an 85% decrease in duplicate requests with a drop of 15% in total customer requests and an astounding decrease in actual hours to perform the work in the 3-month period studied. They use Cityworks in a wireless, Citrix-server environment.

Newport News Public Works, VI, was awarded and recognized for their Cityworks integration with their costaccounting financial system, thanks to help from Woolpert in developing the interface which is reconciled nightly.

They have been Cityworks users since Oct. 2002.

PAGE FOURTEEN

Waterford Township, MI, became Azteca’s third client in August 1997 and were selected for an award for integrating with third-party applications, such as SCATA and DigSmart, to utilize the phenomenal GIS data they have collected. Three years ago they began using Cityworks in real-time through a Citrix wireless connection.

Edmond, OK, was the final award recipient and was recognized for their citywide public works usage of Cityworks. Even the mayor’s office joined the ranks when Cityworks service requests went live to all city departments this past April. Edmond purchased Cityworks in July 1998 and it was their electric department implementation that facilitated the need for a change from the old ‘Pipeworks’ name to what is now called ‘Cityworks.’ Two new enhancements to service requests in the 4.3.1 software were credited to Edmond—the ability to add attachments, including web pages, to Q&As and the dockable window allowing more information to be viewed simultaneously.

Brian then proceeded by giving his annual State of the Company report.

He displayed a map of the U.S. and Canada which included a dot for every person attending the conference to illustrate the many people present at the event and the widespread location of the 170+ Cityworks users. Azteca’s overall client count in 2005 surged from the previous year and is on the same solid track for 2006.

Users were informed that Azteca is essentially debt-free, has not sought outside investment, and has strong revenue growth since 2000. The company is on sturdy ground and rapidly expanding. Brian continued with the

assurance that while Azteca is growing, it will maintain a conservative posture to sustain sensible growth.

Customers have remained the focus of Azteca with R&D an important priority.

Azteca places great value in listening to customers and using this feedback to identify the direction of Cityworks in future product development. This first 10 years marks the “end of the beginning” for Azteca as a company. A redesigned Designer is in the works to make configuration easier and a “mix and match” of Cityworks core products. The new Cityworks Anywhere, using ArcEngine technology to embed a map into a field version of Cityworks, is the newest companion to Cityworks Desktop with Cityworks Server on the way.

Brian also mentioned the low employee turnover as an indication the company is doing well. Fair compensation, good benefits, and a positive work environment have contributed to that as well as having a quality product. Carl Horton, Russell Shino, John Liu, Steve Thomas, and George Mastakas were recognized for being with Azteca for over ten years.

Gulfport’s remarkable employees were honored for working 75-85 hours a week with little sleep following hurricane Katrina and for having Cityworks back online within three weeks after the disaster. Due to having to return early and making their session available to everyone, Gulfport’s session was rescheduled for Tuesday at 5 p.m.

A short video clip followed with

INPRINT / FALL 2006

Jack Dangermond, President of ESRI, who spoke on the importance of getting together to share ideas and common practices and the new ESRI technology.

Carl Horton demonstrated the new Cityworks Server, relying on ESRI’s 9.2 ArcServer technology, to provide a highly configurable and customizable Cityworks setup. OnBase web parts and components can be pasted in to include a weather page, 911 calls, SCATA data, Storeroom, or traffic portal, which all run live. Web access by contractors to fill out work orders, graphing widgets, and customer service website are also possibilities. The release is anticipated in 2007, dependent on ESRI’s 9.2 commercial release date. Cityworks can coexist and work concurrently on the desktop, Anywhere, or Server environment all sharing the common backend SDE or personal GDB, as reflected by the new Cityworks logo.

Key enhancements were reviewed by George Mastakas, such as substring searches in service requests and the new Cityworks Anywhere field application. Sheldon Bagley helped demonstrate a budget summary and rollup reports that are planned for the 4.4 release as well as employee cost codes and job codes to allow different costs to be added by date ranges or job function.

and Database Manager software decreasing database structural errors. The FTP support site (data models) and on-going training courses are also available.

Monday morning’s plenary session was followed by a series of breakout sessions spanning over the next two days.

The presentations and workshops consisted of user and business partner Cityworks Implementations or User Case Studies and Azteca staff’s Technology and Using Cityworks workshops.

There were about 12 presentations in each category, totaling nearly 48 presentations.

The conference was an outstanding hit and truly benefited everyone involved.

It uniquely offered an educational and enjoyable first-class experience, which will continue onto next year’s conference. The 2007 Cityworks User Conference will be held May 22-24, 2007.

Put the date down in your calendar and ensure your chance to participate in this unmatched event. J

The Tuesday evening Anniversary Spectacular, held at the Utah Olympic Park, featured zip line, Alpine slide, or bobsled rides and cuisines from several lands, topped off with a breath-taking performance by the world-famous Flying Aces and poster autograph session.

Frank Fisher of Waterford Township connected live to Waterford via an Onbase viewer to show their onecall utility locating system which receives “tickets” by email and generates a work order, providing a direct link from the homeowner to the DigSmart interface.

Wayne Hill talked about the support technology and instant access available on mycityworks.com, including service patch executables, knowledgebase, and forum. A report showed the marked decrease in the time to resolve customer service calls received by Azteca from 2005 to 2006, much of which was attributed to the GoToMeetings share site

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PAGE FIFTEEN

Gulfport, Mississippi

LESSONS LEARNED FROM HURRICANE KATRINA Synopsis of a document by Ron Smith, Gulfport’s Assistant Director of Public Works and Assistant Disaster Recovery Coordinator As one of the participants at the 2006 Cityworks User Conference who had the unique opportunity to “experience” Gulfport’s presentation on “Recovering from Hurricane Katrina,” I found myself feeling a myriad of emotions. Not only was I astounded by the vast amount of devastation I saw depicted slide after slide—and awed by the power of nature that caused it—but I was left with a profound respect for the dignity of the human spirit as I listened to the amazing stories told by Kris Riemann and Ron Smith. They gained a lasting admiration from me for what they faced in coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. For many of us, it was one of the most memorable events at the conference.

(Conference attendee)

Hurricane Katrina struck land on August 29, 2005 and wrought major devastation in its path, including in the City of Gulfport, Mississippi, a 3-year Cityworks user. A year wiser and still in the midst of rebuilding efforts, they share many valuable suggestions for emergency preparedness which are applicable to all of us in our organizations and personal lives as well. Thanks, Gulfport, for taking the time to document your valuable lessons learned.

with the county Civil Defense Office for additional suggestions. Think through “what if” scenarios and how to coordinate efforts. To be most effective, run it through an approval process. While Gulfport’s Department of Public Works implemented a disaster plan in August 2000, it was insufficient for the destruction that occurred. Still it was better than the county’s wastewater plan, which “if they had one, completely failed them and the cities they support.

It didn’t do us any good to get our sewer lift stations up when the county’s large interceptors were not operational.”

Set up a Disaster Recovery Team (DRT).

Assign members from each department, recognizing that these employees will be solely concentrating on FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and state EMA recovery and documentation following the disaster. Select people who are detailoriented because their careful attention in filling out the necessary paperwork may earn you extra money for your recovery efforts.

DO NOW… Develop a citywide disaster preparedness plan, following local and state emergency management disaster recommendations. Check PAGE SIXTEEN

Train personnel on FEMA/State EMA requirements. Provide proper, in-depth training for all DRT members and departments’ management staff, including division heads, supervisors, purchasing personnel,

and equipment/facility maintenance supervisory staff. Set aside at least half a day to go through all the important information on postdisaster processes and paperwork requirements. In addition, send some key department/city personnel to the Public Assistance Operations I Course and other related courses offered by FEMA, the state EMA, and Homeland Security (HLS). Take advantage of the FEMA and state EMA pre-season briefings to learn about the latest changes to documentation requirements.

Set up an internal communication system. Purchase compatible phones or radios with the capability to cross-connect between all vital city and county departments. Some Gulfport City Departments were using Nextel, others SouthernLinc, and could not communicate except by phone but the telephone system and towers were down and out of service for a long period of time.

Maintain an accurate list of equipment, buildings, contractors, and personnel. Create a current, fixed asset inventory for each department and update at least annually. Take photos of the outside of all buildings/ facilities and inside views that clearly identify the contents of rooms/offices, especially all high-dollar fixed assets. Store the photos in a safe place. Keep in mind you may have to “prove a building—its design, style, materials, and what’s inside— existed when the entire building is completely gone or destroyed.” Also maintain current contractor and personnel information with up-to-date phone numbers and addresses.

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Gulfport, Mississippi Update insurance policies. Review policies annually to check that all buildings, areas, and items are insured with the proper level of coverage, including any expansions or remodeling. Personnel handling the insurance should understand the

policies, particularly the fine print.

Some Gulfport buildings were not covered; some that were covered were no longer owned by the city.

“Big problem.”

Prepare a master list of all historic buildings in the area, showing the description, location, estimated building date, historical value, use statement, inside/outside photos, etc. Include municipal government buildings as well as businesses and citizens’ homes. Historic areas may require authorization for business and private property debris cleanup and removal which can set back the process without the necessary preparation.

(cont.)

Set up safe areas and emergency food/water storage. Store all critical documents, files, and records in a secure vault, safe, or room to prevent them from being damaged or destroyed. This may be inside the current facility if the location is assumed to be safe. Set aside a safe area in all current facilities for the operating personnel and stock with enough food (MRE) and water to sustain the crew for 72-96 hours. For vital departments, have an alternate operational facility or mobile motorized operation trailer where they can operate from if the primary facility is destroyed. Designate an area of city property that could serve as a “tent” or “trailer” city for lodging and store tents, cots, sleeping bags, port-a-lets, portable prefabricated small buildings, etc. for out-of-town support in case hotels are destroyed, damaged, or shut down.

the costs, make it a priority to use work orders to document ALL labor, materials, and equipment used in the disaster.

Designate a server manager and set up an off-site server. Assign an Information Service (IS) representative to manage the server and ADP (Automated Data Processing) equipment to establish Cityworks functionality immediately following the disaster. Set up an off-site shadow server that can be used to get back online ASAP in case the main server is inoperable. Since documentation of all costs is vital in recouping

Prepare for sandbag distribution.

Purchase high-quality sandbags that will endure abuse and last longer.

Publish a sandbag issuing policy.

Stock a large quantity of pre-filled bags (6000 were not enough) and distribute from 2-3 strategic locations. Set up other sites where citizens can fill their own.

Add emergency info to Purchase Requests (PRs) and Purchase Orders (POs). Type the 5W questions on blank PR or PO documents with space to insert the assigned FEMA Declared Disaster Number. This speeds up the information-gathering process for each cost/purchase by including all the necessary details for proving an expenditure is hurricanerelated. Additional information requiring clarification includes whether insurance covers the damage and if the expenditure is an administrative cost, a normal expenditure, or a hurricane-related expense.

Provide ID cards for first responders.

Set up an emergency disaster support ID card process for personnel and contractors to be able to get in and around the city easily immediately following a disaster.

Purchase multi-use maintenance equipment that can be used for daily



Sideline…..

Kris Riemann of Gulfport, Mississippi, received the “Public Works Director of the Year Award” sponsored by American City & County Magazine and was formally recognized at the City Council Meeting on July 18, 2006.

Kris was featured on the cover of the American City & County Magazine, August 1, 2006 issue.

Congratulations Kris!

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PAGE SEVENTEEN

Gulfport, Mississippi

(cont.)

work and emergencies.

• A rough-terrain, reach-all forklift (RT F/L) aids in loading and offloading tremendous quantities of materials, equipment, and goods in wet, muddy, or rough terrain compared to forklifts that can only operate on dry, solid surfaces.

• Thumb attachments for medium- and large-crawler excavators enhance their capability in debris clearing and loading. Even better, a rubber-tire excavator doesn’t damage roads like crawler machines do and is easily mobile, unlike other equipment that must be moved around on semi-tractor/ trailers (hard to do when the roads are full of debris).

• Field service trucks, such as a mechanic crane service truck and a heavy-duty pickup set up with an air compressor, a welding machine with dual capability, and 110/220V power for electrical tools, could be used to support automotive and construction equipment in the field.

Purchase GPS units and digital cameras with memory cards for documenting damage. Get low-cost GPS units for inspectors, division heads, and those assigned to the initial damage assessment team since FEMA requires GPS coordinates for all damaged or destroyed locations.

Take photos of the damage.

Stock vehicle warning lights. Equip all critical disaster support vehicles and equipment with the yellow flashing strobe lights (portable magnetic type).

PAGE EIGHTEEN

Establish “pre-event contracts” for any applicable services.

• Debris removal, including pre-EPA approved dump and burn sites for construction, demolition, all types of hazmat, autos/boats, white debris (fridge, freezer), sewage spill spoils, etc.

• Post-disaster Fuelman Emergency Fuel Support for fuel tankers or backup stations • Emergency generators (large units of 100-300 KW) • Sewer systems utilities/materials, including emergency by-pass pumps • Wastewater management plan to get large interceptors operational ASAP • Water systems utilities/materials support, such as de-salinization units/plants or other potable water • Traffic signal and safety materials support • Automotive/construction equipment • Materials/parts support from local vendors for critical materials (Gulfport’s shortages were limestone and sand.)

• Port-a-Lets • A food service contract for emergency food to support the department’s 24/7 operations Establish Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with local military installations.

MOUs could be used to provide support for specific departments by specific military trade skill crews who will bring in their own tools, equipment, and crew trucks. For example: • 3 Tandem Dump Trucks, 3 Front-End Loaders, R/T with operators for emergency debris clearing of roads • 3 2-man crews of plumbers (UTs) to assist in water systems repair • 2 2-man crews of electricians (CEs) to assist in sewer lift stations and water wells electrical repairs • 2 2-man crews of electricians (CEs) with bucket trucks to assist the Traffic Signal and Safety

Division in repairing streets and highways traffic signals • 2 2-man crews of engineers/engineering aids (EAs) to assist the Engineering Department in poststorm assessments and evaluations throughout the city • 3 3-man builder crews (BUs) to assist in facilities damage repair, prevent further damage due to rain/wind, and eliminate safety hazards • 2-3 light and heavy equipment construction mechanics (CMs) to assist the Equipment Maintenance Division with automotive and construction equipment maintenance and repairs • Fuel Trucks; 1-Diesel, and 1Gasoline with operators to support 24/7 refueling operations of sewer lift stations and water well emergency support generators • Temporary fuel bladders and KD135 aircraft refueling support Arrange for fuel with some of type of internal department or city fuel storage/reserve capability to keep automotive and construction equipment in operation. Gas stations may be out of service for extended periods or lack the backup power to dispense it. Have a fuel truck available to provide large-scale refueling capability to keep emergency generators and pumps operating 24/7.

City and county equipment as well as local medical centers all need fuel. Gulfport experienced a serious lack of diesel and gasoline fuel.

“BIG—BIG PROBLEM!” Generators were refueled with two pickups that each had two 150-gallon fuel tanks in the back, trying to keep up with

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Gulfport, Mississippi a 6000-gallon per day diesel fuel demand! “The guys slept in these trucks when they were able to get an hour or two of sleep.”

Arrange for emergency generators and by-pass pumps. Set up a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to ensure generators, pumps, and direct drives are tested and routinely inspected prior to the start of hurricane season. Reevaluate stocking requirements of CL2 pumps, motors, and spare parts. Provide all generators and pumps with quick disconnect setups to save time. Set up water well emergency generators to run on natural gas to eliminate the need for diesel refueling.

Set up utility isolation plans for vulnerable areas. Outline the procedures to isolate utilities for high-hazard areas of the city. Keep in mind that Gulfport’s entire beachfront was destroyed.

ment or Scope of Procedures (SOP). Look into any state laws and regulations that pertain to this type process and if any water hydraulics studies are needed.

DO JUST PRIOR TO… Strategically locate portable assets. Disperse department vehicles and heavy equipment to prevent and minimize damage by designating personnel to take vehicles/equipment home when a disaster is imminent. This spreads out the department’s assets, speeds up the recovery effort, and makes it easier for personnel to quickly respond throughout the city. For possible flooding, move to high ground and out of all flood zone areas. Don’t concentrate all resources in one area or they may all be wiped out at once. Some departments’ entire fleets left at office headquarters went underwater in the tidal surges.

Contact Fuelman to authorize an override on fuel cards. Obtain a preapproved override to allow workers to dispense less than 87 octane fuel when the premium and mid-grade fuels run out. Stations can then issue fuel without having to call and get authorization for each improper purchase which is a slow, cumbersome process for station attendants, personnel, and customers in line.

Understand the mitigation programs—the 404 state-managed program, the 406 FEMA-managed program, and the HMGP a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program—to prevent missing out on available funds.

Be sure your plans are up to current standards/instructions and see if Council approval is needed. While this may be a lengthy process, with NO approved HMG Plan, NO money will be forthcoming, which could amount to 7½% of a disaster event cost.

Check into setting up water service support with neighboring cities.

Review the need to set up an agree-

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(cont.)

Establish a central call center. Use the news media to provide contact numbers to the citizens and staff with representatives from each department to quickly answer questions and help contact critical agencies in the event of emergencies, like fire, police, gas, or electrical.

Gulfport experienced a real problem when a gas line broke and no one was available to answer the gas company’s emergency lines.

IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING… Concentrate the Disaster Recovery Team. Maintain weekly or bi-weekly DRT meeting with full staff in attendance during the recovery process

to pass actions and information as well as check the status on requirements. Team members should be working on FEMA/state EMA for their respective departments, not their normal duties. All members need to be available during regular business hours to the Team Leader and FEMA staff for quick answers/actions.

Staggered work hours add an unnecessary burden for tracking all the small, but important, actions pending. Once the FEMA requirements are met for each department’s claims, the Team Leader should release the DRT member back to their normal departmental duties and responsibilities.

Set up status boards or maps for tracking progress. Use to collect data for FEMA/state EMA paperwork and validation to show what was damaged, the equipment used, and who performed the work. Effectively track and document the damage and current status of: • Critical traffic routes, which are open/blocked, which emergency team is clearing what location • Traffic signs and signals, which are down/damaged, which crews are working in what location with what equipment • Any emergency generators and pumps, what they are supporting with their unit number, supporting company, location, run-time, and fuel usage • All equipment, owned, rented, or loaned with the operating hours and fuel usage • Lift stations • Water wells and tanks • Water lines and fire hydrants • Sewer lines and manholes Team up with the local power



PAGE NINETEEN

Gulfport, Mississippi

(cont.)

company to clear routes ahead of them so they can establish power to the most critical sites around the city first, such as hospitals, nursing homes, water wells, sewer lift stations, critical government buildings/offices, etc. The power company workers would also be able to ensure downed lines are safe to work around.

Coordinate efforts with private utility companies and contractors. Set work area boundaries and schedule projects with DPW in advance so they know where to clear road, identify utilities, etc.

Use a central contact office for all entities to coordinate in advance where city departments need to be involved and be aware of what they are doing. Maintain a link to the Civil Defense and the assets available through them.

Request EMAC support in a large disaster event through the state EMA as soon as a complete damage assessment is done so they can prioritize and distribute their crews accordingly. The couple EMAC (Emergency Management Assistance Compact) teams assisting Gulfport with public works experience and their own equipment were “worth their weight in gold.”

Use electronic and/or triplicate departmental documents. Provide triple copies of all purchase orders, receipts, photos, labor-materials-equipment documentation forms, outside contracts, etc. to the City’s designated Disaster Recovery Coordinator to provide to FEMA/ state EMA and the City’s MASTER FILE. Electronic copies are highly recommended to reduce the paper-copying burden. Keep a copy of all documentation for your own departmental records.

Don’t delay documentation. ALL crew leaders, supervisors, managers, supply/purchasing personnel having responsibilities for FEMA paperwork must fully document, validate, and clarify all labor, materials, and equipment used at the time in order to get reimbursed from FEMA/state EMA. Be sure any outside contractors and supporting agencies understand FEMA requirements and how to fill out the forms required in the documentation process.

Plan for continuous parts/material operators. Distribute all parts or materials to a Cityworks work order with the work activity, location, and who’s doing work (the 5Ws) and set up rotating shifts with trained personnel for 24/7 operations. Documentation, accountability, and cost validation is critical in the FEMA reimbursement process. Have them review all tools, parts, and equipment purchase requests for accuracy prior to purchasing and/or issuing goods. Set up an alternate secure location (even just containers filled with essential parts) in the event that the original location is destroyed since local vendors may also be out of commission following a disaster.

Learn about FEMA’s mold remediation program. Check out the mold guidelines and procedures early on, especially where buildings are involved in the 50% or greater decision process. Four months after the storm is too late.

Hopefully we can all benefit from Gulfport’s experiences. Good luck to you in formulating your disaster preparedness plans and let’s hope we never have to put them to the test. J PAGE TWENTY

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Cityworks Client, Horry County, South Carolina, Recognized for Special Achievement in GIS Azteca Systems extends congratulations to the 2006 recipients of the ESRI Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) awards at the August 2006 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, CA. Azteca is excited to recognize one of its users, Horry County, SC, for receiving the award.

The ESRI SAG award recognizes ESRI customers that have proven outstanding use of GIS within their organization. Horry County was set apart from many others because of their enterprise-wide, GIS-centric approach in selecting the many new applications for use with the county. Cityworks was the first GIS-centric application deployed in Horry County a year and a half ago. With both the county and the city of North Myrtle Beach using Cityworks, service requests are being sent from consistent SDE GIS databases, enhancing the use of GIS in their organization. When Horry County became a Cityworks user, the initial project plan was to deploy the software into Stormwater, but now the county has expanded Cityworks to various departments with the organization and has it interacting back and forth between divisions of the county and the cities within Horry County. Their next implementation of Cityworks will be within the administrative departments of the county.

Sheila Butler, Director IT/GIS; Jack Dangermond; Tim Oliver, Assistant Director IT/GIS; Leon Scott, GSI Programmer

“We are very excited that Horry County was recognized

by ESRI for Special Achievement in GIS,” said Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems. “We want to congratulate all of those who were recognized as SAG award winners, but are particularly pleased that Horry County has achieved such impressive and applaudable use of GIS within their organization. Horry County’s use of GIS demonstrates the benefits and success of a GIS-based approach and proves the endless possibilities of how organizations can utilize GIS to fit into what they most need.”

J

Azteca Sponsors Charitable Golf Tournament Azteca Systems was pleased to be a sponsor of the 6th Annual Oakland Plus Golf Classic held on August 28, 2006 in Canton, Michigan, at the Red Run Golf Club. This charitable golf tournament was put on by Oakland Plus, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting valuable water resources such as lakes, rivers, and streams in the southeast Michigan area. Azteca was a “Lake Erie” level sponsor at the event and was represented in the golf tournament by Becky Tamashasky, Azteca Great Lakes Regional Representative, accompanied by husband, Eric Tamashasky. The two golfed alongside Cityworks clients Terry Biederman from Waterford Township and Les Chrysler from Oakland County.

The outing included a golf tournament and course contests at the exquisite Red Run Golf Club followed by a banquet and an awards ceremony. Funds raised at this event go toward the protection and preservation of water within Michigan and the promotion of water resource stewardship. Oakland Plus accomplishes its water protection goals by supporting educational programs, grants for water quality awareness, scholarships, and research. J

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PAGE TWENTY-ONE

Regional News Marketing & Sales Director and Intermountain Region Tom Palizzi 303-467-2738 tpalizzi@azteca.com

We’ve enjoyed a great deal of business so far this year, growing the Cityworks user community by leaps and bounds.

We’re excited to see more and more people discover what you already know: the benefits of using a GIS-centric system! Of course, our gratitude goes to all of our Cityworks customers for your continued confidence and support.

At the same time, we strive to be as many places as we can to help new customers see these benefits and keep in close touch with our existing users. We welcome Becky Tamashasky back following a short maternity leave and into our newly created Great Lakes Region. As well, we look to fill a new regional representative position for the Midwest region this fall. This further enables our ability to meet your needs. Visit our website for more information and a current view of our regions with up-to-date contact information to reach your representative.

Meanwhile, look for us at several upcoming events and especially the ESRI Nationwide Seminar Series: Introducing ArcGIS 9.2 throughout the remainder of the year. Enjoy the coming holidays and if we can be of assistance, please feel free to contact your regional representative or me!

South Region

Western Region

Brent Wilson

John Jarnagin

214-507-0579 bwilson@azteca.com

801-523-2751 jjarnagin@azteca.com

State of the Region…

Azteca has and will be participating in many conferences the rest of 2006 and I hope to see you all there.

There have been some great things going on in the Western States territory. I have been doing a fair amount of travel and feel like I am living the words of the song by Willie Nelson, “On the Road Again.”

What’s happening in the Southeast Region…?

New Clients • Sumter County, FL • Biloxi, MS • Jackson, MS • Seminole Tribe, FL • Port St. Lucie, FL • Topeka, KS Expansions of Cityworks Deployments • Burleson, TX • St. Johns County, FL • Miami Beach, FL The South Central Cityworks User Group meeting was in Burleson, TX, September 27th. It was a great meeting and I would like to thank the City of Burleson and Chris Bracht for hosting the meeting. We had about 20 clients in attendance. Thank you all for coming.

I have been out to visit many of you on-site the past few months. I always enjoy this! I love to see how Cityworks is being utilized in your organization and how this impacts your work. If I haven’t made it to your location, please don’t feel left out—I promise I’ll be by sometime in the next few months.

There have been many questions from each of you regarding integration, new products (such as Cityworks Anywhere), and pricing questions.

Please feel free to contact me directly and I’ll do my best to get your questions answered. I look forward to helping you in any way that I can. If I can’t answer the question, I’ll put you in touch with someone from Azteca that can.

Please help us welcome the newest Cityworks clients from the Western states: • City of Queen Creek, AZ • City of Glendale, CA

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Regional News

Midwest Region

Becky Tamashasky 574-231-8029 btamashasky@ azteca.com

Hello everyone—I’m back! I’m thrilled to be returning as the Account Manager for the Great Lakes Region and looking forward to working with the Midwest clients again. There’s been a lot of activity in this area between new clients and changes at existing client sites.

Along those lines I think it’d be great to see some user group meetings take place again – if you’re interested in having one take place and would like to sponsor it, let me know and I can assist with making it happen!

One of the great things happening in the Great Lakes region is that Lima, OH, went live this month with their Cityworks implementation which includes the use of Cityworks to manage their treatment plants.

Many of our client sites have been interested in managing treatment plants so we’re excited to see Lima making it happen!

Make sure to check out Azteca at these upcoming events: • October 19th – ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 Rollout in Columbus, OH • October 26th – ESRI ArcGIS 9.2 Rollout in Louisville, KY • November 13th & 14th – ILGISA in Oak Brook, IL

Northeast Region Phil Mogavero 716-882-1786 pmogavero@azteca.com

It’s been a busy summer and I want to thank all who attended this year’s better-than-ever Cityworks User Conference, especially those who took the time and effort to present.

The presentations were excellent across the board and I have received a tremendous amount of positive feedback from those who’ve attended.

I want to welcome back Becky Tamashasky from maternity leave, who is now covering the Great Lakes states, of which three states from the Northeast region have been moved (Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan). As always you can expect the utmost professional attention and assistance Azteca takes pride in providing.

AZTECA NEWS

Azteca Welcomes Two New Employees: Matt Harman joined the Azteca staff in July of this year. He is a full-time student at the University of Utah majoring in Engineering and will graduate in 2008. Recently he worked as an Engineering Intern and Public Works Inspector for the City of North Salt Lake.

He and his wife, Teri Lyn, have one child, Cecelia Jo, 2 months old.

We are pleased to welcome Bryan Chadwick as our newest Customer Service Representative in the Southeast Region.

Previously Bryan has worked at Loyola Inc. (Leica Systems), Air Force Combat Command Contractor in VA, City of Newport News, VA, and Horry County, SC. He graduated with a BS in Geography with minor in Political Science from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. He recently moved to Utah from South Carolina with his wife, Angie, and son, Austin (2 1/2).

INPRINT / FALL 2006

(cont.)

So what is going on in the Northeast? Washington D.C. Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Agency is now fully operational with Cityworks. Their use of the system has grown and they are utilizing DataPump to take their operation into the field.

Allegheny County DPW is operational using Cityworks and Storeroom. This fast tracked implementation took only six months with the help of Chester Engineers and Motorola. Please look for the article in this issue of InPrint for more details.

Philadelphia Streets Department has created a web service that citizens can report a street defect online. This information populates a Cityworks Service Request so the Streets Department can handle requests immediately. Azteca can now offer this same type of web service. Please contact us for information. Great work!

Good job to all those utilizing Cityworks in unique ways to handle their workflow needs. I encourage anyone to contact me to discuss how they are using Cityworks. Who knows, you could be in the next InPrint! J

Event Calendar October 17: ArcGIS 9.2 Expo - Des Moines, IA 21-25: WEFTEC (Water Enviroment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference) – Dallas, TX 24: ArcGIS 9.2 Expo – Kansas City, MO 26: ArcGIS 9.2 Expo – Louisville, KY November 1: ArcGIS 9.2 Expo – Little Rock, AR 8: ArcGIS 9.2 Expo – Columbus, OH 8-9: WEASC (Water Environment Association of South Carolina) – Myrtle Beach, SC 13-14: ILGISA (Illinois GIS Association) – Oakbrook, IL January 07 22-23: SCARC (South Carolina Arc GIS Users Network) – Charleston, SC March 4: GITA (Geospatial Information & Technology Association Annual Conference) – San Antonio, TX PAGE TWENTY-THREE

Ann Arbor, Michigan

(cont. from pg. 1)

main breaks, etc. With Pipeworks in hand (or on the shelf) and our data converted into the Pipeworks model, we were ready to go. Two years later, we were essentially in the same position. So what happened on the way to making use of Pipeworks? Well, life happened.

Like many places, Ann Arbor has limited resources,

several reasons for the success of this project. First is the selection of the consultant. Ann Arbor released an RFP for the project and received several quality proposals. Velocitie was selected due to their knowledge of the needs of Ann Arbor, the quality of their work, and their cost-effectiveness. Second, Ann Arbor and Velocitie maintained good communication throughout the project and each was flexible and open to needed changes in the implementation. This allowed the City and Velocitie to discuss and resolve any conflicts with the project. For example, two weeks prior to the installation and kickoff of Cityworks, the City needed to incorporate an implementation of Cityworks for the City’s Community Standards (Code Enforcement) Unit. Working together, we were able to configure and install Cityworks within that short time period. Third, good communication among the selected groups within the City helped the project be successful. Fourth, and not least, was the commitment and desire to embrace GIS and Cityworks from the Public Services management.

and we were unable to focus on the implementation of Pipeworks, developing GIS tools, creating databases, maintaining and creating data, etc. Additionally, the culture in the City was not ready for the tools that Pipeworks and GIS, in general, provided. A third factor that delayed usage was that the City was not set up to really provide enterprise services from its GIS.

In hindsight, there were a couple of areas in which the implementation process could have been improved.

Although we tried to communicate with City staff how Cityworks would affect their duties, additional demonstrations, or similar meetings would have benefited the project. Secondly, we probably tried to change too many processes at once. Many of the staff involved in the pilot were probably uncomfortable with the GIS/ Cityworks interface and there was some reluctance to use the applications. An alternative to starting out with service requests and work orders could have been just doing service requests for incoming calls.

In 2001, Ann Arbor decided to reduce staffing levels by offering early retirement to many of the City’s most experienced workers. This resulted in a loss of valuable experience and precious manpower. However, with the loss of some of the “old guard,” the culture toward GIS within the City began to change. Instead of a fancy way to make maps, GIS became a tool that would allow the City to maintain or even increase City services with less staff. At about the same time, ESRI was moving to the new geodatabase technology (ArcSDE) and Pipeworks had increased its functionality and become Cityworks.

City staff and management quickly recognized the benefits of moving to an enterprise environment. After many meetings with City staff from most departments and many demonstrations from patient Azteca representatives, Ann Arbor committed to migrate to an enterprise geodatabase for its water, sanitary and storm layers and pilot Cityworks in our Public Services’ Water Utilities field office. In a parallel project, ArcSDE was implemented and most of the City’s base layers were moved into an enterprise geodatabase.

In June 2004, we went live with both the Water Utilities and Community Standards pilot projects. The first

In 2003, Velocitie Integration (Kema Consulting) was selected as the consultant to develop data models for the water, sanitary, and storm systems; migrate the GIS data into an enterprise geodatabase; configure and implement a pilot Cityworks project; and provide training on both ArcGIS and Cityworks. Overall, the project went fairly smoothly and was ultimately successful. There are PAGE TWENTY-FOUR

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Ann Arbor, Michigan month, staff seemed to have troubles remembering to geocode requests, save the data, or close a request or work order when completed. However, as the pilot progressed, the number of these issues became less and less. Additionally, the software started becoming second nature to the staff and using Cityworks became part of how business is done in Ann Arbor. After approximately seven months, it was apparent that Cityworks was a good enterprise solution for managing request and work activities against the City’s assets. At the end of the pilot, a Cityworks Implementation Group was formed to plan for future use.

(cont.)

storm systems as well as City-maintained trees and the solid waste system, complaint tracking, tracking out-ofservice fire hydrants, detention pond inspections, and code-enforcement activities. A recent and highly successful implementation was for Sidewalk Inspections.

The City purchased two tablet PCs and loaded ArcGIS and Cityworks on them. The old way was to do inspections with pen and paper with data entry several days later and maintaining information only on houses with violations. Now, every single property gets an inspection; the data is collected faster, more accurately, and is available for use more quickly. Additionally, the inspectors are collecting data that the City always desired but were physically unable to do due to the tremendous amount of paperwork involved.

In the two years since going live, the Public Services Area has increased its usage of Cityworks from a very modest couple hundred requests and work orders in a six-month period, to hundreds of requests and thousands of work orders per month.

By September 2006, Cityworks has been integrated into the work routines of five other units within the Public Services area as well as the Community Standards Unit in Safety Services. The additional implementations include Solid Waste, Forestry Operations, Transportation Safety, Customer Service, and Systems Planning.

Additionally, Cityworks has allowed data to effectively be shared across Service Area (Department) boundaries to the City’s Safety Services and soon to the Buildings Inspection Unit. Use of Cityworks includes requests for service and work done on the City’s water, sanitary, and

INPRINT / FALL 2006

As Ann Arbor looks to the future, Cityworks usage will only increase and expand into additional units in Public Services and other service areas. Currently, a new contract with Velocitie is being finalized that will develop an Internet Customer Request for Service application.

Additionally, Cityworks will be integrated with the City’s Utilities billing systems and human resources databases.

We also intend to add additional processes to the Customer Service implementation. Long-term plans include potential integrations with the MissDig (One Call) program, the City’s permitting system, and the automated meter-reading program as well as incorporating the myriad of inspection types, the water and wastewater treatment plants, and the streets units. Essentially, we are limited only by our own imaginations. J

PAGE TWENTY-FIVE

Wirebury

(cont. from pg. 1)

Distribution Companies (LDC’s) to provide Ontario consumers with the opportunity to choose their own distributor based on competitive rates and services.

Headed by General Manager and COO, Rick Rakus, Wirebury staff focused their attention on developing the business model for Wirebury. Staff determined that the most effective approach would be to adopt a fully-outsourced business model. Partnering with service providers that were “best in class” would provide economies of scale and streamline business processes. Wirebury’s customers would benefit by seeing electrical distribution services provided at the lowest cost based on the model.

Once Wirebury determined how its business would be structured, the next question was how to operate it effectively. If all of Wirebury’s service providers were outsourced, how could they communicate what needs to be done and who’s doing it? Managing the work would be a large undertaking, requiring a method to coordinate issues and monitor multiple business partners performing various roles. Some business partners resided as far as 2000 kms away. The answer, of course, was to find a tool that would allow all the stakeholders to understand their role and for Wirebury to track the work being done on their behalf.

After careful consideration, Wirebury selected ESRI Canada as the provider of choice for their work and asset management system. Frank Pallotta, Director of Operations; Bryan Duarte, Director of Engineering; and Delores Montgomery, Director of IT, saw ESRI’s solution of Cityworks with ArcGIS and Miner & Miner’s ArcFM as the perfect fit for Wirebury’s needs. The ability to manage work and assets in one location complemented Wirebury’s streamlined approach to managing the business.

As a startup business, Wirebury was in the perfect position for creating a work and asset management system.

There was no messy conversion of data, and it provided the opportunity to take a fresh approach to designing

workflow and recordkeeping on capital assets. With the invaluable assistance of ESRI Canada, Wirebury was able to implement the work management tools provided by Cityworks, via Citrix, in order to reach the geographically-displaced business partners.

Wirebury’s unique business model presented some interesting security challenges. Since various business partners would be accessing workload for the same infrastructure in the same domain, security became a contentious issue. Concerns were mitigated by providing business partners with their own unique work orders and service requests. This would allow Wirebury Project Managers and Operations staff to issue work based on the template name to the desired business partner, without allowing other providers to view and access their work.

While Operations, Engineering, and IT staff were busy designing workflow through Cityworks, other staff was dealing with far more pressing issues that significantly impacted Wirebury’s business as well as how Cityworks would be used in the future.

Wirebury’s initial target was the new subdivision market, but regulatory restrictions in this area caused Wirebury to refocus its efforts. While still working towards licensing, the Sales and Marketing team turned their attention toward a previously untapped market – the multi-residential (or high-rise) market, particularly in the Metropolitan Toronto area, which has one of North America’s largest new condominium sectors. This sector did not have the same regulatory restrictions as the subdivision market so provided an ideal direction for Wirebury to head in.

With their attention focused on this market, Wirebury was able to achieve success. However, individually metering apartments, condominiums, and townhouse complexes came with some challenges. Buildings that were previously designed with bulk meters in mind would require design changes to accommodate individual suite metering.

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Wirebury To address this issue, Wirebury chose state-of-the-art interval meters that were equipped with automatic meter reading (AMR) capabilities. These meters allow tracking electricity usage (or consumption) and the way it is used (peak use). It allows end-use customers to reduce electricity costs by taking advantage of time-of-use pricing and lowering peak use of power. The unique design of a single unit (or “mini-closet”) could accommodate up to 12 individual suites (or customers) and mini-closets were compact so could be easily installed in locations such as existing meter closets.

While Wirebury’s business model, market focus, and design issues were being resolved, Work Management design and implementation was well on its way. Critical to Wirebury’s success at managing the outsourced business partners was ensuring that work completed against the assets was captured properly with work orders and service requests. A great deal of time was spent configuring Cityworks to ensure that it would accommodate the special needs of the business.

(cont.)

the financial system that, in turn, sets off an electronic payment to the appropriate provider. Business partners are provided with a field in the work order to reference their own internal invoice numbers so accounting reconciliation is seamless.

“Using Cityworks, we’re able to meet the needs of our customers and business partners in the constantly evolving electricity market,” said Delores Montgomery, Director of Business Integration and Technology for Wirebury. All of this translates into the reduction of process redundancy which equals reduced expenses. And reduced expenses means Wirebury can provide more competitive rates to their customers.

One of the best features of Cityworks is the flexibility offered by the configuration tools. Lynn Scruton, System Administrator of Cityworks, found Cityworks Designer to be a powerful and effective tool that allowed the business to meet its unique needs. Capitalizing on the ability to create hierarchies, codes, and custom fields, Lynn was able to design solutions to address the requirements of Engineering, Operations, Call Centres, Finance, and Revenue Management departments. Through business processes and an integrated work management system, users are able to track and manage projects with one tool.

Cityworks is used not only as a method of managing capital assets and ongoing O&M activities, but also serves as a global communication tool between all business partners and stakeholders. It has allowed for a “one-stopshopping” environment across the business. Project Managers track the progress of projects under construction through their own Project Administration work order, with multiple tasks that are completed as a project progresses. The Call Centre communicates customer issues and queries for both billing and service-related situations, and even IT utilizes service requests to track additions and updates for the various hierarchies.

Since Wirebury started, it has emerged as a leader in the smart metering and electricity provider for multi-residential customers. In the short time Wirebury has been operational, it has individually metered approximately 34 buildings, with 50 or more buildings slated to come on-stream within the next 2 years. Growth won’t stop there since the Ontario government has made the installation of over 800,000 residential smart meters a target for December 2007 and the entire Province by 2010.

Wirebury projects their growth will help make that target possible. Responding to and managing this growth will be achievable with scalable, effective tools at their disposal, including Cityworks. J

Wirebury has truly made Cityworks an integrated system. Work orders serve multiple purposes for not only Wirebury, but for their service providers. Initiating a work order to supply materials for a project acts as a Purchase Order. The service provider responds to the PO, fills the requirements, and submits the work order back with all relevant material and logistics charges, which becomes the provider’s invoice. A Wirebury staff member validates the charges and closes the work order as a sign of approval to pay. This is then interfaced to

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PAGE TWENTY-SEVEN

Save the date:

May 22 - 24, 2007 User Conference 2007 *This is one day earlier than previously announced!

May 20 - 21, 2007 Pre-Conference Training If you couldn’t join us last year, here is some of what you missed!

DON’T MISS OUT THIS YEAR! PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT

INPRINT / FALL 2006