InPrint Spring 2013

InPrint

CityworksÂŽ

Spring 2013

Empowering GIS™ for Asset Management, Permitting, Licensing, and more!

In This Issue: Cityworks GIS-centric Platform

Scalability from the Top, Down Cityworks Contracts Module Harnessing Cloud Computing

Cityworks®

InPrint Empowering GIS TM for Asset Management, Permitting, Licensing, and more!

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

InPrint Staff: Editor in Chief: Tom Palizzi Managing Editor: Kaye Ryser Associate Editor: Lindsay Ferguson Copy Editor: Reece Hanzon Graphic Design: Kent Hepworth Graphic Design: Rachel Haslam Advertising: Cindy Curletti

Subscription: To subscribe, change your address, or cancel your subscription: inprint@cityworks.com Contact Us: Tel: 801-523-2751 Email: info@cityworks.com Archives available at: www.cityworks.com Azteca Systems Inc. 11075 South State Street, Suite 24 Sandy, UT 84070 801-523-2751 www.cityworks.com

Editor’s Page

Scalability

W

e hear the word scalability used extensively to describe today’s technology. For all intents and purposes, it is typically used to illustrate a solution’s ability to accommodate a variety of needs and preferences.

Most software starts as a solution to a specific problem or need—a defined application that performs a task or process. This was the case in 1996, when Azteca Systems developed an application to manage work associated with utility networks—water and wastewater systems. While work management applications already existed, the Azteca Systems’ solution, Pipeworks, was based on a new and innovative approach.

Pipeworks began as a GIS-based software application for tracking and managing water and wastewater maintenance. At that point, scalability was not much of a factor, but as often happens, technology and experience combined to adjust the software landscape and create opportunities. While Esri was introducing ArcGIS and the object data model, computers were finding their way into nearly every office, creating a new awareness of possibilities.

Meanwhile, Pipeworks had been implemented at a few cities when a customer observed it could easily be applied to nearly everything else in the city. With a simple renaming of the application, Cityworks was born and almost instantly became an amazingly scalable solution that could meet the needs of nearly every other department Leveraging the inherent scalability of ArcGIS and the flexibility of the geodatabase, Cityworks could theoretically be applied to virtually any asset, in any industry, anywhere in the world. This capability took Cityworks well beyond its humble beginnings and pushed it into the doors of airports and electric utilities, into the offices of management personnel, and into the hands of field crews throughout the United State and around the world. Scalability is a key feature of Cityworks, meeting the needs of a wide variety of users across a broad spectrum of industries and on an array of devices.

This issue of InPrint takes a look at Cityworks’ unique scalability through examples that illustrate how it is used by directors, field staff, different industries, and different applications. Perhaps most important, however, is not so much where we have been, but where we are going, and the effects that will have on scalability. Turn the page and discover what’s out there on the ground and in the Cloud with Cityworks.

Thanks for reading this issue of Cityworks InPrint!

Tom Palizzi InPrint Editor-in-Chief

Copyright © Azteca Systems Inc. 2013 All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

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

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

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

FOR ONLINE TRAINING [Get those ROCK HARD CITYWORKS APPS you’ve been looking for.]

Forget the airfare. Forget the hotels. Online remote training is quickly becoming the most popular form of Cityworks training. It's quick and easy to sign up and it's by far the most economical way to get an intense workout from a personal Cityworks trainer. Improved worker efficiency and time savings are just a click away.

Excercise all you training options at www.mycityworks.com/cityworkscampus

Contents

Spr ing 2013

President’s Corner 6 Cityworks GIS-centric Platform

Focus–Scalability 8

8

A Tale of Two Cities [Scalability across organization sizes]

10 Breadth at Depth [Scalability across utilities]

28

12 Scalability from the Top, Down [Scalability across an organization]

Features 14 Small Town Gets Big Asset Management Improvements

10

16 Cityworks Contracts Module—Contract Management Stress Reliever

18 Quick and Easy Deployment of Cityworks Online at Arnold, Missouri

20 Harnessing Cloud Computing for Cityworks Online

Te c h n o l o g y

21 Rapid Implementation of Cityworks Using the Local Government

28 Software Release Plan 2013-2014

Solution at Beaverton, Oregon

User Spotlight

22 St. Cloud in the Cloud 24 Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Gets their Workflow in Line 26 Cityworks Toolset—Asset Analytics

30 O’Fallon, Illinois

Partner News 32 Successful Cityworks Implementation and Integration at the City of

International

Auburn, Alabama

User Information

27 Canada Is Heating Up

34 Customer Support: Customer Support Statistics—What they may be saying

18

35 MyCityworks.com – Strengthening Password Security 36 Tools & Tips: Getting the Most out of Cityworks Analytics

CWOL

12

Cityworks News 38 Upcoming Events New Employees

39 Cityworks Community InAction: Trichotillomania Learning Center 39 Esri Partner Council Oct. 2012 Esri Partner Conference Mar. 2013

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

5

President’s Cor ner

Cityworks GIS-centric Platform

By Brian L. Haslam, President & CEO, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

Portions of the following article are adapted from Jack Dangermond’s article titled “Transforming ArcGIS into a Platform” that recently appeared in the Winter ArcNews.

The Cityworks data can be saved as a URL and JSON output to be used in any web map configuration.

C

ityworks has a foundational principle: leveraging investment in Esri® GIS saves local governments money. Nearly all local governments utilize Esri GIS because the most up-to-date and accurate database for assets is GIS. It makes sense to design and build a system optimized for Esri GIS. We, at Cityworks, have called this approach GIScentric Public Asset Management.

Today, some 500 organizations have adopted Cityworks for asset management, maintenance management, permitting, licensing, land management, facilities management, and more. Cityworks users have enthusiastically adopted the GIS-centric approach and proven that leveraging GIS saves money by improving efficiency and decisionmaking. Cityworks is a recognized leading system because of our Cityworks users. We are excited for the future of GIS-centric Public Asset Management.

Cloud Technological Inflection Point Last year, at the Cityworks User Conference and in InPrint, I explained how the Cloud represents a major technological inflection point. The Cloud impacts computing in every way. It is changing software design.

It is altering the patterns of computer devices purchased. But it is not

In the example below, work orders, service requests, and an inspection are displayed in Cityworks Server.

6

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

making the back office obsolete; instead, it helps the front office benefit from the back office investment. It is not about abandoning on-premises computing, but extending it. The Cloud is about easily leveraging and connecting data sources to improve efficiency and decision-making. The virtues of GIS-centric Public Asset Management are magnified by the Cloud.

Esri’s investment in ArcGIS Online is a bellwether or indicator of this trend and Esri is committed to providing more and more content and application functionality. ArcGIS provides useful content for background information, such as 30 meter resolution satellite imagery, topographic maps, and household income demographic data. Also, supplemental applications provide geocoding, route finding, and the recently announced Geo-event processor to take advantage of Geo-fencing, GeoTagging and other real time continuous data analysis tools.

GIS-centric Platform Today, we hear a lot about “platforms.” A platform includes hardware, a software framework, and content. The combination allows software, particularly application software, to run and provide a solution.

Often, platforms are Cloud-based. A simple example is a smartphone or tablet running an application that can access Cloud-based hardware, software and content to provide you the location of and directions to the closest restaurant that serves New York style pizza.

Yum! ArcGIS is a platform that is content rich, application diverse, and device agnostic.

Cityworks is designed to work with the ArcGIS platform to perform Public Asset Management. Cityworks has always been able to organize, use, and display critical work management data in an Esri map—a map associated with features in the Esri geodatabase and relying on the geodatabase as the asset inventory. These characteristics are central to the Cityworks GIS-centric design.

The ArcGIS platform web map, which Cityworks supports, is central to the use, organizing, and sharing (or leveraging) of GIS and Cityworks data. The web map is one of the important design aspects transforming Cityworks to be a GIS-centric platform. The GIS-centric platform extends this design and incorporates URL and JSON output that can be organized in the web map. Any application that can consume the web map can use and share Cityworks’ work management data, and do so in a secure way. Any functionality or content provided by the application is available to Cityworks users.

The web map is configured to organize, use, and share Cityworks data, and can be viewed in ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Online Map Template, and Esri Operation Dashboard, or any other application that can view a web map.

In conclusion, Cityworks extends the ArcGIS platform for Public Asset Management.

Using the web map as a common environment, departments can easily organize, use, and share Cityworks data internally and externally, to improve efficiencies and decision-making, and save money. The web map is a central design aspect supported by Cityworks to become a

GIS-centric platform that allows organizations to take full advantage of Cityworks and ArcGIS; on-premises and online, thus tapping into rich content and application functionality. The GIScentric platform fully respects organizational boundaries and assures protection of valuable authoritative data.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

7

Focus

A Tale of Two Cities [Scalability across organization sizes]

BUTLER, INDIANA

By Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

T

he staff at Azteca Systems—Cityworks often comment on the range of the clients using Cityworks—from small towns to large counties, utilities, even airports. Regardless of the size or focus of the organization, Cityworks is flexible enough to meet their needs. A look at two clients, each at opposite ends of the spectrum, illustrates this flexibility.

Butler, Indiana Butler is located in rural northeast Indiana and has a population of about 2,700. Butler’s focus is on daily recurring maintenance and what this costs the city—this applies to every asset in the city, from water and wastewater infrastructure, to computers and servers. Butler GIS/IT coordinator, Jim Otis, said “We are a small city surrounded by farmland. Communities around us are incredulous when they learn we’re using GIS or computerized maintenance management. One of the foremost reasons a city our size can do something like this is because we have forward-thinking leadership that is supportive of using this type of technology for asset management.”

Regarding the daily use of Cityworks, Otis said “Pretty much anything the guys do, they create work orders for in Cityworks.

This allows us to then pull reports, which tell us the cost for all infrastructure and activities.”

The information pulled from Cityworks enables the city to make decisions on how to handle daily maintenance activities. For example,

8

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

using work order information and costs in Cityworks, they were able to calculate the overall cost of snow removal. Based off the review, the city was able to easily determine that it was more cost effective to have the city crew plow certain areas, rather than hire contractors to handle the services. Furthermore, by allowing city officials to review annual maintenance expenditures, Cityworks facilitates better annual budget planning.

The use of Cityworks in Butler also goes beyond the main office. Over

“We are a small city surrounded by farmland. Communities around us are incredulous when they learn we’re using GIS or computerized maintenance management.” time, the city’s mobile usage has moved from Data Pump, to VPN and remote desktop access via air cards, to Cityworks Server with Verizon air cards. The future plans include potentially moving to iPads and Cityworks Mobile, but since the city GIS/IT/Cityworks department is a one-man operation, the changes and updates take time.

“Our leadership is still learning how to best utilize the information Cityworks and our GIS provide,” Otis said. “But we are making progress—and definitely seeing benefits from Cityworks.”

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania At the other end of the spectrum is the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. With a population of 1.5 million, Philadelphia is also

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA concerned with daily maintenance and the cost of activities. However, on top of those concerns, the city also has to deal with coordinating multiple departments and maintaining compliance with regulatory standards. Within Philadelphia, Cityworks is used in the Streets department, Water department, and Parks & Recreation department.

These groups often need to compare maintenance activities to identify points of overlap and mutual involvement.

The mission of the Philadelphia Streets department is to keep the streets clean and safe for citizens in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The department delivers a number of city services which are critical to maintaining the public health and safety in surrounding communities. Accomplishing this goal involves, but is not limited to, maintaining street lights, traffic signals and signs, street surfaces, curbside trash and recycling collection, snow and ice removal, code enforcement related to sanitation, sidewalks, and the roadway rightof-way. The department oversees the construction and maintenance of 320 bridges and 2,575 miles of streets and highways. In addition, the Streets department is also the central location for requests received by the city’s 311 system and Customer Affairs unit, which includes a citizen web portal.

Because of the number of groups and the large geographic area covered, the Streets department uses a combination of configurations in Cityworks and Esri to route the requests to the correct field location.

This helps to insure requests are dispatched quickly and addressed by the correct staff. And within the Streets department, there is variation in those workflows because different divisions utilize different components of Cityworks. For example, the Sanitation division only uses the service request portion of Cityworks because their workflows are often a onestep process. Meanwhile, the Street Lighting and Highway units rely

heavily on the work order component of Cityworks, as their workflows relate to an asset and are managed through a series of tasks.

Often the work involved with the workflows involves multiple tasks and coordination with other departments—particularly with the Water department. The Streets department is responsible for the permanent repair for work performed by both the Water department and private plumbers (who obtain street opening permits from the Water department). Given the magnitude of work done by the city, this involves daily updates between the two departments. In addition to its other work activities, the Streets department receives updates on work performed by the Water department, and must then oversee repairs to any affected streets.

Philadelphia Streets Department information services director, Marion Storey, said, “Cityworks is particularly helpful when the department is dealing with a large project that requires regular reporting. For example, the city is currently replacing all 18,000 alley lights. This is a multi-year project requiring leadership from the Street Lighting division and coordination with the Sanitation division and contractors to handle cleaning the alleys, tree trimming, and replacement of each and every alley light. The work order count is over 5,700 for this project alone.”

In these instances, each city has implemented the solution in a manner that helps to meet their unique needs, based on organization size, service size, and focus. The scalability of Cityworks is highlighted by the contained usage within Butler and the distribution of the solution among different divisions and departments within Philadelphia, as well as the variances in which components of the solution are used by different users. This flexibility will continue to be a vital asset as each organization grows and adds new departments and users. cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

9

Focus

BREADTH at DEPTH [Scalability across utilities]

By Lindsay Ferguson, PR & Marketing, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

C

ityworks has the flexibility and customizable nature to be scalable for many different uses across the utility industry, including water, wastewater, gas, electricity, fiber, and so on. Central Arkansas Water and Gainesville Regional Utilities are only two of Cityworks’ utility clients, but they exemplify how Cityworks fulfills varying customers needs.

Central Arkansas Water Central Arkansas Water (CAW) is a metropolitan water system serving a population of approximately 400,000 residential, commercial, industrial, and master-metered water customers across five counties. CAW customers include the City of Little Rock, and more than a dozen other cities and communities of central Arkansas.

CAW is currently using Cityworks in its distribution, customer service, administration, and engineering departments. Running a combination of Cityworks Server AMS and Desktop technology for specific user requirements, CAW has leveraged one centralized database configuration with Cityworks. Using Cityworks Datapump, CAW has more than sixty users running the software on laptops in the field.

Cityworks leverages APIs for on-line customer problem reporting. Cityworks’ Designer tool allows staff to extend, configure, and customize the program without custom programming.

“With Cityworks, we have been able to leverage our investment in Esri software and our geodatabase, extending our GIS capabilities,” stated CAW GIS manager, Vince Guillet. “Central Arkansas Water has converted treatment plant assets into existing geodatabase architecture to allow one system for both linear and vertical asset management.”

Since implementing Cityworks, CAW has moved from paper-based work orders to a nearly 100% digital work management process. Tracking work order costs down to the asset level, information derived from Cityworks is used for reporting, capital improvement planning, online and in-house customer service request tracking, tracking work order cost by project, and storeroom warehouse inventory management. For tracking compliance and reporting on US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiatives, such as Effective Water Utility Management (EUM) standards, Cityworks is used to track items such as the number of leaks per mile of pipe, number of water quality complaints, and so on.

“Cityworks has provided Central Arkansas Water with a virtually paperless process, capturing more detailed information and attaching it to each asset to be used for capital improvement planning,” continued Guillet. “Our reporting process has been simplified, specifically for items required by the EUM standards. We can now schedule and track work more efficiently, and preventative maintenance work orders are automatically generated. It’s easier

10

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

to access existing data to see if problems are recurring due to certain pipe configuration or system conditions.”

CAW is currently expanding their Cityworks user base to include the customer service field section, which is responsible for high-volume work order management related to meter shutoffs, meter checks, re-reads, and other meter-related issues. They will be implementing Cityworks Server AMS for this group, which will enable them to utilize the field worker mode so that they can use iPad tablets to access Cityworks. Using JSON web services, they plan to integrate directly to their Customer Information System enQuesta by Systems and

“With Cityworks, we have been able to leverage our investment in Esri software and our geodatabase, extending our GIS capabilities ....”

Software. This will allow the customer service department to open and close work orders in both Cityworks and enQuesta, and have them automatically routed to the appropriate database, keeping each system constantly updated.

CAW also plans to implement a more formal condition assessment and inspection process to take advantage of Cityworks’ asset analytics and heat mapping functionalities. They also want to start using Cityworks Analytics to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for EUM reporting.

Gainesville Regional Utilities Gainesville Regional Utilities, known as GRU, is a multi-service utility owned by the City of Gainesville, Florida. The fifth largest municipal electric utility in Florida, GRU serves approximately 93,000 retail and wholesale customers in Gainesville and surrounding areas, offering electric, natural gas, water, wastewater, and telecommunications services.

GRU uses Cityworks Server AMS in their Water/Wastewater, Fiber, Gas, and Electric departments, and is currently in the process of going live with Server PLL (Permitting, Licensing, and Land) in their Electric

Engineering department for project tracking. Originally implemented in Water/Wastewater, GRU’s Cityworks usage has evolved over the years and grown throughout its multiple departments. Cityworks now provides a wide variety of work functions, including inspection and maintenance, reactive work items, follow-up work items, and capital improvement. GRU’s largest use of Server AMS is for streetlight maintenance, with over 19,000 tickets generated in approximately four years.

“Cityworks’ highly customizable format allows us to introduce the system to other departments and show how the system can be used to organize and polish business processes,” said GRU technical systems analyst, Richard Gunton. “Cityworks has allowed us to better visualize our work data, set realistic Key Performance Indicators, and polish our outdated business processes to better accommodate for the digital age.

With maintenance cycles extending anywhere from three to five years up to a couple of decades, Cityworks gives us the tools to set in place an environment that is conducive to getting accurate data from the field.

With accurate data, we can better adjust the maintenance cycles to match real world events, emergencies, and future needs of our electric transmission and distribution system.”

Looking forward, GRU hopes to extend their implementation to public works and general government. Once their PLL implementation for capital project tracking is complete, the plan is to branch PLL out to other departments across the utility. After moving to an even greater distribution of the software across the organization, public works, and general government, GRU is expecting to realize a site license, which will allow them to develop solutions in-house to better minimize the time and effort spent getting accurate data from the field, thus streamlining processes.

“Through the Cityworks community, regional user conferences, and the yearly Cityworks User Conference, we’ve been able to communicate with others in our industry and various other industries to understand how they are using the software,” said Gunton. “Such opportunities provide us with fresh ideas on how we can better use the software ourselves. With the Ideas page on MyCityworks.com, the white papers, shared reports, and forums, Azteca has provided a great conduit to share and interface with others in the industry.”

Cityworks has the scalability and flexibility to fit the needs of a large water utility, such as Central Arkansas Water, to mid-size multi-service utility providers, such as Gainesville Regional Utility. In addition to these utility clients, Cityworks has many other users both on the large and smaller end of the spectrum that tailor the software to their needs for many different uses, from water/wastewater to gas, electric, fiber, and so on. In the case of both CAW and GRU, the organizations have taken advantage of Cityworks’ flexible nature to meet the specific needs of their utility, based on their focus, service size, and customer needs. cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

11

Focus

[Scalability across an organization]

By Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager, and Lindsay Ferguson, PR & Marketing, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

C

ityworks can be used for an array of purposes within any organization. Scalable from the top down, from city directors to field crew members, Cityworks provides professionals with tools to elevate their work management capabilities. The software’s easy-touse, intuitive interface makes it an easily-operable program so all professionals, whether technically advanced or new to the field, can quickly learn to use it to augment their workflow.

Below, we discuss the benefits Cityworks provides to a few key roles within an organization.

MANAGEMENT ROI, Meeting Mandates, Reporting Cityworks represents an important investment for any organization.

Accordingly, it yields solid returns in saving man-hours and placing assets on preventative maintenance programs, saving both time and money. For managing mandated requirements, such as NPDES, CMOM, CWA, and others, Cityworks helps to easily document work performed and reduce the time required to generate the necessary reports. This also helps management understand the projected and actual costs of meeting those requirements. Cityworks also quantifies work performed, helping to identify purchasing patterns and compile the data to support better, more informed budgeting.

Cost Analysis & Negotiation With Cityworks, departments can easily quantify their needs, whether for personnel or materials. Cityworks also facilitates cost comparisons of work performed by contractors versus city staff, allowing managers to decide whether or not to outsource various tasks. In addition, Cityworks also allows managers to track whether contracted work is actually being carried out by the contractor or city staff—and how that transfers into negotiation of contract costs in the future. For example, a Cityworks client contracted out trash pickups. The contractor was assigned trash pickups, but the city handled missed pickups. With Cityworks, the city documented that cost over a year and, as a result, negotiated to reduce the cost of the contract the next year.

System Integrations Cityworks integrates easily with other business systems, increasing efficiency across the board. Integration with SCADA systems allows work order or inspections to be generated automatically, based on alarms; integration with fuel systems allows work orders to be generated automatically, based on usage, to ensure optimized maintenance.

12

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

TY FROM THE T O P , D O W N

SCALABILI

Directors

Administrative End-User

Asset Management, Reporting, Data Mining, KPIs In geodatabase, Cityworks connects work performed directly to the asset on which it was performed. In doing so, it enables departments to easily identify lingering or recurring issues through the GIS. Cityworks also includes a variety of reporting tools, from the Cityworks Search engine, to sophisticated report templates that pull information from multiple databases. Cityworks Analytics provides the tools for data mining and leveraging KPIs that are largely unavailable in other asset management systems.

Work Management Cityworks immediately improves maintenance, tracking, and management of the department’s work activities. Duplicate work orders are reduced, saving time for both the administration and the field crew. For example, the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, began using Cityworks for sidewalk management, moving from an Access database to Cityworks. Using Cityworks, they were able to track work performed in the field, which reduced the number of duplicate service requests and work orders. This consequently saved the city a great deal of time and money.

Streamlined Permitting Processes Cityworks Server PLL (Permitting, Licensing, and Land) is built to streamline these processes with online application submittal, plan review, departmental feedback, fee calculations, inspection scheduling, email notifications, bond tracking, GIS updates, and more.

IT Department Implementation, Web Services Since Cityworks isn’t modular, it allows one application to be deployed to multiple departments—which means IT personnel don’t have to manage multiple systems. This also means Cityworks provides a single interface for users to work with, simplifying the training process as new employees come into the system. In addition, Cityworks provides a large number of web services that ease integration from a variety of touch points (i.e. financial systems, CRMs, SCADA, fuel systems, etc.)

GIS Capabilities, Customizable Cityworks’ seamless integration with GIS gives it unique GIS capabilities other systems do not possess. Its work orders and service requests can be easily customized to the specific needs of an organization, saving IT staff a great deal of time and effort. Because Cityworks only utilizes the GeoDatabase as the asset database, it allows for integration with other applications that are accessing the GeoDatabase as well. One example is hydraulic modeling where the modeling software and Cityworks are both able to access the asset information and share the activities within the Esri framework.

With the expansion into ArcGIS Online, organizations also have the tools to take activity maps generated in Cityworks and share those on websites to inform citizens and residents of upcoming work and service disruptions.

For some organizations the GIS may be used primarily as the source for asset data, but Cityworks can allow it to provide much more than a “map.” Using a variety of tools within Cityworks such as Event Layers, Heat Map Manager, and the Asset Analytics tools, the map becomes the tool to help identify trends in regions. Also, by exploring the data in the GeoDatabase, organizations can explain the reasons for higher levels of activities and costs in certain areas.

Ease of Use, Customization Cityworks’ easy-to-use interface makes it an ideal solution for administrators who want a system they can pick up quickly and use from the get go. The ability to simply add end users as needed makes it an easily expandable solution. The customizable interface allows users to expand its templates and system data on their own.

Programming and call back aren’t necessary to make modifications and additions to the Cityworks database.

Field Supervisors and Field Users Improved Accuracy, Better Planning and Resolution Cityworks ensures personnel have accurate, up-to-date data, allowing field supervisors to plan their work and dispatch crews to projects with the proper tools and materials suited to the situation.

Mobile Cityworks Mobile provides a means for crews to quickly enter the necessary information from the field. This ensures other users have the latest and most accurate information, allowing them to continually access work as it is being created and to keep work moving forward.

GIS Benefits With Cityworks directly linked to the GIS, departments are able to route crews in response to service requests, such as special pick-ups and pothole repairs. By having the information tracked in the GIS, the crews are better informed of what to expect in the field, and thereby better equipped to do the job.

Citizens Improved Customer Service Cityworks provides improved customer service for its users by providing customers with quick, accurate information and more timely repairs. With Cityworks, call center personnel have more information at their fingertips and are able to easily retrieve information on scheduled work and view comments from the field.

They are also able to see what activities are going on near citizens which may cause a disruption of regular services. Cityworks can also provide a seamless web portal where citizens can log service requests, which are then routed directly to the correct department.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

13

Feature

SMALL TOWN Gets BIG

Asset Management Improvements Town of Rothesay, New Brunswick, Realizes Improved Customer Service too

By Barry Kelly, Industry Manager, Public Works, Business Development, Esri Canada

W

ith a population of just under 12,000, the Town of Rothesay, New Brunswick, borders Saint John and shares several facilities with neighboring municipalities. The town faces many of the same challenges experienced by small local governments across Canada.

Research has shown that smaller municipalities struggle to maintain infrastructure and prepare detailed asset management plans due to reduced capacity or limited financial resources. When PS 3150 introduced a requirement to report Tangible Capital Assets on the Statement of Financial Position, the town recognized a need to upgrade legacy systems and develop a more strategic approach to asset management.

Field managers equipped with ruggedized tablets can connect with Cityworks in the field to view, update, and complete service requests remotely.

14

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Previously, to manage service requests, the Town of Rothesay was relying on a legacy IT system that was not integrated with the town’s GIS database. Countless hours were spent manually importing and exporting data to view asset information, and only five users had access to asset-related data. This data was stored in several hundred different databases and was often outdated and unreliable. Service requests would be received by the town’s receptionist, logged into the system, and then a call would be placed to field staff to notify them of the request. Field staff would then be required to travel to Town Hall to pick up the service request prior to addressing the issue. This process was creating significant delays in the maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure.

Using the Asset Valuation Toolkit, depreciation and amortization can be calculated for each individual asset.

Automating operational processes The Town of Rothesay selected Cityworks Server 2012 to automate the turnaround of service requests. This GIS-based asset management solution pulls data from a central geodatabase and allows assets to be viewed through an intuitive map interface. When a service request is received, it is now logged in a Cityworks template and an automatically generated email is forwarded to staff members. An email is also sent to the resident to inform them that the service request has been received and to let them know when the issue has been resolved.

The town customized over 40 service request templates to support all areas of operations including water/wastewater, transportation, street maintenance, snowplowing, and parks & grounds. Field managers equipped with ruggedized Dell Latitude tablets can connect with

“When a service request is received, it is now logged in a Cityworks template and an automatically generated email is forwarded to staff members.”

Cityworks in the field to view, update, and complete service requests remotely. Work performed on an asset can be recorded through mobile tablets and immediately reflected in the town’s geodatabase.

To improve its asset inventory and create PS 3150-compliant reports, the town also implemented Esri Canada’s Asset Valuation Toolkit (AVT): a collection of GIS-based tools that help local governments collect, manage, maintain, amortize, and report asset information. Using this tool allows the municipality to valuate its assets, measure depreciation, and build a PSAB-compliant database

without relying on an external contractor. The town can also view current and future costs related to capital, repair, and maintenance at-a-glance.

“The ability to communicate service requests to staff in the field saves us hours of time so that asset-related issues can be rapidly resolved,” said Rothesay senior GIS technician, Corinne Bexson.

“GIS-based valuation tools also allow us to maintain safe and reliable infrastructure both today and well into the future.”

Ensuring safe, reliable infrastructure Using Cityworks allows department managers to learn about service requests within minutes, rather than days, of being received. As such, infrastructure-related issues are resolved much more quickly which has allowed the town to improve its level of customer service. The timely turnaround of service requests makes it easier to maintain safe and operational infrastructure while avoiding potential issues such as sanitary back up, dangerous road conditions, and other safety-related concerns. Field crews are no longer required to travel back and forth from Town Hall, saving valuable time and money.

Integrating the AVT has led to further cost savings by eliminating the need for an external contractor. Built-in accounting rules allow staff to determine acquisition costs and expected life for each individual asset in-house. Depreciation and amortization can be automatically calculated leveraging a PSAB-compliant asset inventory.

The ability to account for all tangible capital assets supports strategic planning and budgeting while enabling the town to assess future revenue requirements, the performance and sustainability of existing infrastructure, and the likely cost of proposed activities. In the near future, the Town of Rothesay will extend Cityworks functionality to work orders and inspections, and expand access to over 20 users.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

15

Feature

liever

t ac

Contr

Re

Cityworks Contracts Module—

a

ment S tre s s

M

ge na

City of Troy, Michigan, Gains Improved Insight Into Contracting Process

By Alex Bellak, GIS Administrator, City of Troy, Michigan

O

ver the past few years, people and organizations all across the country have had to find ways to cut down on expenses and manpower, without compromising their quality of work. For the City of Troy, Michigan, this was a particular challenge when it came to maintaining its infrastructure.

According to the city’s parks, streets, and drains superintendent, Kurt Bovensiep, “Maintaining the condition of our physical infrastructure is of the utmost importance to the city administrators and citizens of Troy.

Even in the leanest of financial times, the city ensured that the infrastructure maintenance was adequately funded in order to stay ahead of the never-ending deterioration cycle that infrastructure experiences.”

While the city has ensured the infrastructure is adequately funded, it was necessary to make tough staffing decisions recently. With a reduced staff and a maintenance schedule that continues to grow every year, the city realized it would have to modernize its methods of managing maintenance activities and take better advantage of time saving features offered by technology. While the city has been managing work activities through the use of work orders and cost tracking for other assets, a more sophisticated solution to aid in cost tracking for transportation assets was needed, especially in managing pavement infrastructure. Troy invests heavily every year

16

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

into pavement maintenance activities, ranging from a comprehensive sidewalk replacement program, to concrete slab replacement and asphalt crack and joint sealing.

Unlike other asset maintenance activities performed in Troy, the majority of maintenance activities performed on pavement infrastructure is conducted by outside contractors through a bidding process.

The by-product of outsourcing these activities

“... [T]he city ensured that the infrastructure maintenance was adequately funded in order to stay ahead of the never-ending deterioration cycle that infrastructure experiences.” was that it made it more difficult to setup and track these costs using traditional tools.

Fortunately, the Cityworks Contract module had just the solution to help manage these various contracts. The city’s Information Technology department, who had already worked very closely with Public Works to implement Cityworks service requests and work orders, assisted in developing the necessary workflow and configured the Contracts module to manage these maintenance activities.

The Contract module is an optional feature of the Cityworks Server AMS system that allows the city to set up and manage all costs for approved activities on a per-contract basis. In addition, other essential details about the contract can be documented, such as basic contractor information, insurance specifications, and contractor bond data.

The city initially started with the management of its concrete slab replacement process. With an annual budget of a little more than $3 million, it was no small undertaking, and a good test of the Contracts module. The revamped process worked extremely well and provided several unintended benefits. Once the Contracts module was configured in Cityworks, the new process worked as follows: • The city’s construction manager receives the estimated repairs from the field inspector.

• Work orders are generated for each street segment requiring repair, and the construction manager then adds the cost items to the work orders as reported costs.

• As the repairs are performed and approved by the city, the cost items’ status is changed to signify its completion and approval. It then becomes eligible to move to the invoicing process.

• A release of funds is authorized through an SSRS report, based on the approved work order cost items, and provided to the vendor to invoice the city for payment.

Utilizing the Contracts module not only gives the city a better tool to organize and manage its ongoing work activities, it also provides up-to-the-minute expenses on projects against budgets to avoid exceeding approved contract amounts. In conjunction with the project management features of Server AMS, Contracts has provided the City of Troy with a suite of tools to dramatically revamp the administration of construction projects.

In addition to gaining a better handle on its ongoing projects, the city also gained substantial efficiencies in the invoicing process, significantly shortening the time from approval of work performed to approve a contractor to invoice the city. Now entering its third construction season since implementing Cityworks, with over 4,000 work orders and 7,000 cost activities tracked using the Contracts module, the city has expanded the management of work activities to parking lot resurfacing and sidewalk replacement. To date, over $11 million dollars worth of repair activities have been successfully managed with the help of the Contracts module within Server AMS.

About Troy, Michigan

The City of Troy, Michigan, is located within the Detroit Metropolitan region and can be best categorized as a residential community with a population of approximately 81,000. The City of Troy is home to one of the largest commercial hubs for the Detroit Metropolitan region and includes over 6,100 businesses, employing over 125,000 individuals.

The City of Troy first implemented Cityworks in 2010.

While not new to asset management practices, the city was excited about the opportunities that Cityworks offered for improvement. Prior to implementing Cityworks, the city had invested a lot of effort in modeling its infrastructure within its GIS and had earned a reputation for being progressive in its use of technology to modernize practices in order to better serve the public.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

17

Feature

Quick and Easy Deployment of

Cityworks Online

CWOL

at Arnold, Missouri

By Deion Christopher, Information Technology Manager, City of Arnold, Missouri, and Lindsay Ferguson, PR & Marketing, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

T

he City of Arnold, Missouri, is constantly on the lookout for cuttingedge technology and ways to incorporate it into their practices. So when the option of deploying the Cityworks Online (CWOL) solution arose, Arnold management and staff jumped at the opportunity.

CWOL is the latest option of deploying Cityworks. Using Cloud technology, CWOL offers a cost-effective solution that is easily and quickly deployed. [Refer to page 20 for more details on Cityworks Online.]

Arnold’s CWOL deployment went exceptionally well. City information technology manager, Deion Christopher, said, “During the testing phase, our staff saved up their work orders and service requests in order to push the limits of Cityworks Online with mass entries. Since then, and as of today, I have not received a single complaint. Everyone is happy with the user interface, and Internet connection hasn’t caused any latency issues.

There is nothing but praises coming from our user group.”

Cloud Hosted Cost Benefits CWOL is the city’s second project involving Cloud-hosted services. As a forward looking organization, city staff recognize the importance of getting out from behind their desks to better engage citizens in the public.

They are equally aware that new technology like CWOL allows for immediate response and resolutions while working in the field where problems arise.

18

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

The overall estimated cost benefits for the city was what spearheaded the decision to test CWOL. In the spring of 2009, Arnold was faced with replacing antiquated AIX servers running database systems for its Finance, Community Development, and City Clerk departments.

The city performed a cost analysis to find the total cost of server replacements, continued maintenance of those machines, initial purchase of the required software upgrade, staff training, and the workload needed to maintain the new system.

“Based on our analysis, the city’s finance director, Debbie Lewis, and I made the decision, drastic though it seemed at the

“There are just as many SOFT BENEFITS as there are cost savings in our estimated ROI.” time, to move from our in-house system to a completely Cloud-hosted application service provider environment,” said Christopher.

“Although the costs were somewhat higher with a hosted system, the overall ROI far outweighed those costs.”

Christopher was prompted to call the city’s Cityworks representative and enquire about a possible GIS and Cityworks Cloud-hosted solution for the city. With CWOL already in the works at Azteca Systems, the city was brought on as one of the early adopters.

However, CWOL is not new software. It is just

a Cloud option for accessing Cityworks Server, the same software organizations are using on-premises.

“During our city’s preliminary project meetings we realized that any additional yearly costs for moving to CWOL could be immediately offset by eliminating unused licenses in other software programs,” said Christopher. “I further calculated savings through elimination of new server costs and associated four years of maintenance costs.

There were a couple of other prominent cost benefits uncovered as well. In using the program, local nightly backups will complete faster and require less space, since Cityworks and GIS data backups will be handled by Azteca Systems. In truth, there are just as many soft benefits as there are cost savings in our estimated ROI.” Last budget year, the Community Development department purchased two laptops for its building inspectors, in preparation for moving towards CWOL. Eventually mobile users will utilize tablets or iPads to access online data such as Cityworks Online. There are plans for CCTV inspections from a recent INI (inflo and infiltration) study to be hosted on a streaming video site and accessed via links through ArcGIS Online.

City administration has met with a local GIS specialist to map out the city’s future GIS needs. Discussions have focused on hosting GIS maps and data online. Christopher continued, “Needless to say, from this point forward, all decisions pertaining to GIS made

by the city will adhere to a hosted system roadmap. This is a direct result of the success we’ve had with our previous Cloud-hosted solutions.”

The Testing Phase Prior to officially deploying CWOL, the city was brought on in a test environment and participated in an intensive testing phase designed to stretch the program’s capacity and limits, for the benefit of both the city and Azteca Systems. Specific staff were chosen to participate in the testing phase, based on their current level of interaction with the city’s in-house system. Data was to be entered into the system throughout the testing timeframe. Testers were eager to try out the new system.

“We asked our testers to push the CWOL system hard and to try every feature offered,” Christopher said. “From work order requests to service call entries the feedback I received was positive. In fact, our testers continued

CITYWORKS: CONCEPT TO COMPLETION

accessing CWOL after the official test phase stop date was reached and requested an extension because they wanted to further test features that either were not tried due to the time constraints or they wanted to try out features not thought of earlier. Overall, I would say that the CWOL testing phase was a great success.”

Moving Forward With a thorough and successful testing phase behind them, the city is moving forward to full deployment of CWOL and experiencing the benefits and results this method of deployment offers.

Christopher concludes, “I am pleased with how the Cityworks Online solution meets our current IT needs. Staff are thrilled to be moving one step closer to severing those tethers to their offices. The City of Arnold looks forward to working with Azteca Systems as we move forward with CWOL as our final Cloud-hosted GIS solution.”

About Arnold, Missouri

Arnold is a growing and prosperous city of nearly 20,000 people located in the St. Louis Metropolitan Region along the central-eastern border of Missouri. Situated at the confluence of the Mississippi and Meramec Rivers, the city’s parks, rivers, and beautiful countryside offer its residents and visitors a host of recreational activities including hiking, fishing, and others.

Arnold’s strong sense of unity and appreciation of culture make it an ideal suburban community to live in.

®

Enterprise Asset Management. Utility Analytics.

Condition Assessment. Permitting and Licensing.

Vegetation Management. Inspections.

Public Involvement.

Bart.Koenig@powereng.com Jana.Constant@powereng.com

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

19

Feature

Harnessing Cloud Computing for Cityworks Online

By Josh Stroessner, Account Manager, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

M

ost of us have heard about the next big thing in IT: Cloud computing. Azteca Systems–Cityworks uses this technology as part of the platform for Cityworks Online (CWOL), one of our newest, Cloud-based products.

Cityworks has enjoyed steady growth over the years and has overcome many challenges along the way. For example, the IT demands of a growing company are constantly changing, which requires insight and careful planning. Adapting to advances in email, storage, content management, and collaboration is quite different today than it was even a few years ago.

One way we have adapted is to assign the majority of our IT workload to a Cloud service provider. An independent provider manages the majority of our email and document management needs in a private instance on their servers. Other tasks can be delegated to the provider as well, such as managing the exchange email server for a decentralized employee base. The Cloud service provider manages much of the hardware and software, which enables staff to focus on helping Cityworks clients manage their assets. It was immediately clear that we could offer the same advantages of Cloud computing to our clients— thus, CWOL was born.

CWOL requires minimal collaboration for the initial deployment, which consists of installing the software, configuring the industrystandard, out-of-the-box Local Government Templates (LGT), training, and rollout. The remote implementation can be done in weeks, not months, and the initial cost—both in professional services and resource

20

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

allocation—is very positive. Once the software is running and the client is trained to use it, all of the overhead associated with maintaining the software is managed by Azteca Systems–Cityworks. The client can simply use the software to perform the daily tasks that Cityworks is designed for.

Another benefit of Cloud computing that has contributed to our steady growth over the past few years is that it’s scalable so it grows along with the organization. It is one thing to have a system in place that works well today; however, needs constantly change, and a hosted/managed environment allows systems to evolve quickly. The hardware that runs these systems must react fast to new stresses. The Cloud provides unlimited computing power to handle ever-evolving environments. With the majority of our back-office systems moving to the Cloud, continued and accelerating systems change is easily manageable.

Likewise, as clients evolve, CWOL allows new users to be added quickly and at any time. New employees are quickly productive. System performance is the same during peak times as off-peak times, without the need for large, on-site servers.

CWOL brings the benefits and savings of Cloud computing to Cityworks users everywhere. All software management and maintenance is performed by Azteca Systems–Cityworks employees, saving users time and resources. The solution is deployed quickly, allowing users to get to work faster than ever; and, the solution is easily scalable to accommodate growth. Asset management has never been so easy.

of Cityworks Using the Local Government Solution at Beaverton, Oregon Mike Jun, Maurice Johns, Juston Manville, Heidi Suna and Doug Taylor

By Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

E

arly in 2012 the City of Beaverton, Oregon, decided to try and improve their current work-management system which at the time was not widely used in the organization. After making an effort to use their system and realizing it just wasn’t meeting their needs, they decided to review other solutions. As a long-time Esri client, they set their sights on developing a GIS-centric solution and made the decision to implement Cityworks. “Why go GIS-centric? All of our users typically had the map open on one monitor and our work management system open on another trying to match data,” said Beaverton GIS manager, Juston Manville. Going GIS-centric was simply the next step in simplifying and streamlining their maintenance management workflow.

Beaverton decided to implement using Cityworks Local Government Templates; they procured Cityworks software in September of 2012 and chose to configure the software using internal resources following the Simple Iterative Partitions model. After attending onsite training for Cityworks in October, they quickly got to work. Around the same time, they started working on migrating their existing Esri data and asset data from a previous work management system to Esri’s Local Government Information Model. Once all asset data was in the Local Government model, the city moved on to configuring the Cityworks

database. Using the Local Government Templates designed to align with Esri’s Local Government Information Model, they were able to have the initial configuration available for review and refinement within six weeks of the initial software purchase and three weeks after attending training. “This methodology helped us to realize an almost instant return on our investment; and, the Local Government Data Model and Local Government Templates made this possible,” remarked Manville. “Many organizations spend years implementing and paying maintenance on their software before they actually use the product they purchased. The Local Government Templates allowed us to use Cityworks in a production environment almost instantly.”

Currently Beaverton has implemented their Traffic, Water, Sewer, and Stormwater divisions, and they have plans to tackle the Streets division next. Future phases involve integrating with Granite XP for CCTV Inspections and MicroPaver for pavement inspections.

“Often with the Local Government Templates we were just tweaking nuances versus coming up with templates from scratch. Users were able to see their suggestions implemented very quickly. This gave them a sense of ownership that is often hard to achieve when implementing new software to a group that has a tried and true process,” said Manville.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

21

Feature

St. Cloud in the

CLOUD

New Mobile Initiatives and an Expanding Cityworks Platform

By Katrina Robles, CMMS/GIS Analyst, City of St. Cloud, Florida, and Lindsay Ferguson, PR & Marketing, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

T

he City of St. Cloud, Florida, has been running Cityworks Server since 2007. With the program utilized across various areas of the organization and now in the field, Cityworks has not only proven an adaptable system, but grown into the city’s platform solution.

Work in the Field Recently, St. Cloud adopted unique mobile initiatives for Cityworks using Sprint 3G. This solution for tracking work in the field, from creation to resolution, has elevated their field processes through paper elimination and time savings, and it has provided increased quality of customer service.

“Initially, we were using paper service request and work orders,” said city CMMS/GIS analyst, Katrina Robles. “Crew leads would print and hand out the day’s assignments to the field staff. If calls came in during the day, all of this was done via phone and paper. Resolutions would be written on paper and customers would frequently call back before the resolution was entered into the computer, resulting in the call taker having to call the lead to verify the outcome.”

Now, with Cityworks run on Dell semi-rugged laptops with Sprint 3G air-cards, St. Cloud’s field work has been transformed from timeconsuming and cumbersome to quick and efficient.

Robles continued, “Since we put laptops in the trucks, our field technicians are entering the resolution of work into Cityworks right when they finish their investigation. The call taker can see this in realtime so that, when a customer calls to see if the situation is resolved, they have an actual answer, even if the work has been dispatched but not yet completed. Initially it was thought that some of the field technicians may have difficulty using the new approach. However, they made a smooth transition away from paper and have taken very well to Cityworks. Being a municipality, paper often becomes a matter of

22

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

public record that we are required to store. Cityworks allows us to use less paper and storage space.”

The new field solution has provided many benefits beyond moving to a paperless environment. “We have increased our quality of customer service,” stated Ms. Robles. “We have also eased crew leads’ burden of entering resolutions and creating work orders. That is now done on the technician level, while still in the field. The lead reviews each item before closing, saving a great amount of time while still staying in-the-know of all that is going on in the field.”

An Expanding Platform In January 2013, St. Cloud upgraded to Cityworks 2012.1 sp2 and Esri’s ArcGIS 10.1. Currently, Cityworks is being used in the Public Services department by environmental utilities (lines maintenance, backflow and hydrants, and some use by lift stations), traffic, streets, stormwater, and engineering (primarily for pond and driveway inspections).

“We are making efforts to leverage software that we already own, and make sure that any new software purchases are compatible with Cityworks, as it has become our enterprise platform. We will soon be implementing CIS Infinity software for billing because of the existing interface with Cityworks.”

About St. Cloud, Florida

The City of St. Cloud, Florida, boasts a family-oriented community with small-town charm and a strong sense of heritage. Located in central Florida within Osceola County, St. Cloud has a population of 37,723. Closely associated with the adjacent city of Kissimmee, it is within close proximity to Orlando area theme parks, including Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, and SeaWorld.

“

Through the ... yearly CITYWORKS

USER CONFERENCE, we’ve

been able to communicate with others in our industry ... to understand how they are using the software. Such opportunities provide us with FRESH

“

St. Cloud is currently working with Woolpert to expand use of Cityworks throughout the Public Services department. Beginning with formalizing levels of service, KPI’s, and reporting strategies, they are also adding additional Cityworks users, as well as requiring deeper usage of the program from their field technicians. The next group up and running will be Lift Stations, followed by Treatment Plants and CCTV. In addition, the Planning and Building departments are in the process of acquiring funds to implement Server PLL. The Public Services department intends to utilize Server PLL for their own purposes once the implementation has begun.

IDEAS on how we can

better use the software ourselves.

– Richard Gunton, Technical Systems Analyst, Gainesville Regional Utilities

Register now at: www.cityworks.com/uc13

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR UC13.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

23

Feature

Village of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

Gets their WORKFLOW in LINE

By Tom Hupp, Utility Analyst, Village of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

T

he Village of Pleasant Prairie, which covers a thirty-six square mile area in the southeast corner of Wisconsin, says that Cityworks has been a good fit for their public works crew of 25 full-time employees who manage over ten thousand assets. Cityworks is user friendly, and its integration with ArcGIS puts a wealth of information in the hands of the crews in the field.

Over the course of a few months, public works supervisors, along with IT personnel, developed a workflow that would cover all of the village’s needs. Public works department foremen use laptops connected to large screen televisions to distribute the work to the crews in the morning meetings. To access Cityworks in the field, the crews use portable tablets that are equipped with cell cards for accessing the internet and built-in cameras for attaching pictures to work orders.

The village assigns work orders to crews instead of individual employees, giving administrators the flexibility to assign work orders to multiple employees, as well as change which employees are on each crew as needed. A mixture of custom observations, service requests, and inspections are used within the work orders to track needed information.

The Inbox user tab feature allows the village to break up the saved searches into multiple groupings. Each department foreman has his own tab with several user panels to divide the saved searches. The

24

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

saved searches are used to distribute the work orders to the proper personnel. The first panel has searches for unassigned or incomplete work orders, as well as work orders placed on hold. Assigned work orders are located in the second panel and the third panel shows completed work orders waiting to be closed by a supervisor. The foreman assigns a work order to a crew from his unassigned saved search. The employees will then open the search for their assigned crew and complete the work order. Once the crew completes the work, it is routed back to the foreman to review and close. Other departments have their own saved searches, giving them the ability to view completed work orders with the information they need and eliminating the need to create any paper copies.

There is one custom field panel per work order, which is used for work orders with single assets or where only one set of data is needed.

For example, the sanitation crews work on a single work order all day and record how much refuse was collected and the invoice number. A meter install only has a single asset per work order, which allows the necessary data to be collected in one observation panel.

Service requests attached to work orders are used to track any requests from residents. This allows the caller information to be tracked and the location to be geocoded based on the address of the request.

Service requests can be attached to either an existing work order or a new work order. For example, a call for missed garbage pickup is a service request that can be attached to the closest existing garbage route work order, while a call for a possible water main break will have the service request attached to a newly-created work order. Each type of service request has the proper work order templates assigned to it to ensure the appropriate budget numbers are used for the request.

The ability to attach multiple inspections to a single work order means that multiple assets on one work order can be inspected, a time stamp of when each inspection took place can be included, and the employee is then required to fill out Equipment, Labor, and Material (ELM) just once. For example, for five lift stations with submersible pumps, each of those five inspections are added to a single work order, saving time out in the field. Inspections also provide the ability to create more than one custom panel, so an inspection template and a custom field panel can be created on the same work order.

The village also needed an easy way for crews in the field to create work orders for repairs to vehicles, tools, or attachments. The solution was to create “blanket� work orders for all of our fleet equipment. The searches are separated by light vehicles, heavy vehicles, tools, or attachments; and the work orders automatically regenerate as soon as one is completed.

An employee can open a work order for a vehicle, request to have a repair completed, and send it directly to the supervisor.

The workflow that has been created is very similar to the way it was done on paper, which allowed for an easier transition for our supervisors and employees. The work order completion time was cut in half in as little as two weeks after the initial training. Adapting a Cityworks workflow was the key to a successful implementation.

About Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin

Located in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, Pleasant Prairie is home to just over 19,000. While it boasts a mix of residential, commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural land use, over 25% of Pleasant Prairie is dedicated to natural conservancy areas like the Chiwaukee Prairie and Des Plaines River Floodplain.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

25

Feature

Cityworks Toolset Asset Analytics

By Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

F

or many Cityworks clients, the primary focus is managing the daily work and ongoing costs associated with maintaining the organization’s infrastructure. But what about using the data being collected through everyday work to generate a more in-depth view of system health? That is where the Cityworks Asset Analytics toolset comes into play. This group of tools is useful for analyzing the historical data maintained in a system so managers can start planning and making decisions regarding future maintenance.

The Asset Analytics toolset was first introduced in Cityworks 2011, and since then has been continually enhanced. This toolset provides robust, out-of-box tools for analysis of infrastructure lifetime costs, condition, and maintenance history. The Asset Analytics tools include maintenance scoring, condition scoring, heat mapping, and an overall Asset Analytics page with a matrix view of lifetime activity and costs.

Maintenance Scoring Maintenance scoring provides a method to identify infrastructure assets that have required more maintenance but do not easily allow for inspections to assess condition. This is particularly helpful when dealing with contained infrastructure such as water distribution mains. Implementing maintenance scoring is simple and only requires the administrator to enter a maintenance score on the work order template. Organizations have the flexibility to apply their own scoring and scale based on internal work priorities. For example, in one organization the maintenance scores for various work activities may be equal across all work activities. Meanwhile, in another organization, activities that are more expensive or indicate possible future failure would have a higher maintenance score, while regular preventive maintenance activities would have a lower maintenance score. In both scenarios, the higher maintenance score would be an indication of a problem area or a level of ongoing maintenance which exceeds the norm for that asset type or area.

Each time the work activity is applied to an asset, the maintenance score is applied and a cumulative score is stored in the Cityworks database. This information can then be viewed graphically using the “Maintenance Scoring” option on the Condition tool on the Cityworks map. With the connection between the maintenance score, work history, and the GIS, decision makers have the tools to identify why particular assets of the infrastructure require more maintenance than others.

Using the Year slide bar, users can review the accumulation of maintenance history at different locations over time. In addition, by

26

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

using the Score slide bar scores can be filtered out to isolate the higher scores and identify areas that represent ongoing issues. Once the desired segments are represented, users can create a selection set for additional activities, such as more aggressive preventive maintenance or replacement.

Condition Scoring The second component in this toolset is condition scoring, which identifies an asset’s condition or health at a specific point in time.

This functionality is configured using custom inspections and allows organizations to weigh each condition observation and score each condition result. As the inspections are carried out in the field, the corresponding scores are attached to the respective assets in the Cityworks database, along with the option to write the most current score to an attribute field for each asset in the GIS. This makes sharing the data with other applications much easier.

Just like with maintenance scoring, the condition scores are displayed through the Condition tool in the Cityworks map. As the tool runs, it identifies the assets of the specified feature layer and displays the historical condition scores. The difference between maintenance scoring and condition scoring is that condition scoring, rather than displaying a numerical score on the map, displays a heat map to represent the density of the scores in the area. Just as with the maintenance scoring though, scores can be filtered and attribute information displayed.

With the heat map option, managers can isolate the worst condition scores and identify where the highest density of those scores are occurring. This helps staff identify trends in the system, locate areas where condition may be decreasing more rapidly, and coordinate the information with the bigger picture provided by the GIS. In both instances, using these tools within the organization’s GIS increases the power of the analysis. It allows organizations to pull in additional information for greater insight into the cause of problems, as well as to identify trends based on the spatial locations and networks.

The power of these views within the GIS is so beneficial that Cityworks added a Heat Map Manager, which applies the heat map utility to any saved search within Cityworks. This lets organizations identify hot zones or regions within their systems where issues occur more frequently, and quickly providing managers with a view of areas to prioritize upcoming CIP work or increased preventive maintenance.

International Canada Is Heating Up

By Phil Mogavero, International Business Development Manager, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

C

ityworks is working to find and serve new clients all around the world, in countries such as Canada, Australia, Spain, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, and Kuwait. Additionally, Cityworks has found new business partners in Africa, Europe, and South America.

Over the past six months, the Cityworks client base in Canada has been growing especially well. We thought it would be fun to take a closer look at the variety of new clients on the Canadian front.

York Region, Ontario — Located in the Toronto metro area, York Region is a large municipality with more than a million residents. York is currently in the process of implementing and testing Server AMS for their Transportation department.

District of Sechelt, British Columbia — Located on the lower Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Sechelt has a population of about 9,000 and is currently implementing an Enterprise solution of both Server AMS and PLL (Permitting, Licensing, and Land).

Niagara Region, Ontario — Located in southern Ontario between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, Niagara Region serves a population of about 430,000. Niagara implemented Server AMS last year and recently went live with Server PLL for their Transportation department.

Regional District of North Okanagan (RDNO), British Columbia — RDNO is one of the 28 regional districts in British Columbia and provides a variety of utility services to more than 77,000 residents, with their largest population center being the city of Vernon. RDNO is currently in the process of implementing Server AMS via the City of Vernon’s servers.

City of Greater Sudbury, Ontario — Home to about 160,000 residents, Sudbury is the largest city in Northern Ontario.

Geographically, it is also the largest city in Ontario and the seventh largest municipality in Canada. Sudbury recently implemented Cityworks Server AMS and already has twenty users up and running.

City of Lethbridge, Alberta — The largest city in southern Alberta, with a population of about 88,000, and the fourth-largest city in the province, Lethbridge recently selected Cityworks as its new asset management solution. Plans for implementation are underway.

Town of Cobourg, Ontario — Located on Lake Ontario, east of Toronto, Cobourg, Ontario is a small town of 18,500 people. They have recently started their implementation of Server AMS and are hoping to expand to PLL within the next year.

REALLY,

it’s not too late to register for UC13.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

27

Technology

SOFTWARE RELEASE PLAN 2013-2014

By Carl Horton, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

T

he Cityworks user base is very diverse. Some users desire new functionality, some desire support for the latest technology. Some users want frequent software updates, others prefer infrequent updates.

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

While there is no perfect solution to release management, we are taking steps to address as many desires as possible with a new release model, referred to as a Release Train. A release train is the process of building software releases on a regular a timetable, of similar “size” with respect to new functionality, and with enhancements for each release identified months in advance.

This model provides numerous advantages. Releases are far more predictable. They are scheduled and released at regular intervals. The first release in the train, Cityworks 2013, is a heavily tested and stable version, referred to as a corporate release. Corporate releases are intended to have a maintained lifespan of at least two years. If critical bugs or other issues need to be addressed in the corporate release, a service pack addressing only those specific issues will be made.

The corporate release will be followed by four bi-monthly revisions, through 2013. Each revision will have targeted enhancements, bug

fixes, and testing focused on those bugs and enhancements, along with the existing library of automated tests covering a broad range of functionality. If a particular enhancement cannot be made or stabilized in time, it is furloughed until the next revision. Assuming an April release for 2013, Revision 1 will be in June, Revision 2 in August, Revision 3 in October, and Revision 4 in December.

Cityworks 2014 will represent all the new software released in the 2013 revisions, with more substantial levels of automated and manual testing, client-site-specific script testing, release candidates, and so forth, for the 2014 Corporate Release.

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

User sites that prefer frequent updates, or need specific new enhancements, can update to any or all revisions. While normal testing procedures will be in place for each revision, normal bug fixes will be addressed in the next revision—which will also include new enhancements.

For us at Azteca Systems, the time period and predictability become the main drivers, allowing features that can’t make the scheduled release cycle to be deferred to the next cycle. These features will generally support incremental innovation and incremental development.

Incremental development requires us to carefully code enhancements, since the development code set cannot remain in an unbuildable state for more than very short time periods. Since releases are bi-monthly, larger initiatives will cross release boundaries, requiring us to structure these large initiatives into smaller, more manageable pieces.

April 2014 2014 Corporate Release August 2013 Revision 2 April 2013 2013 Corporate Release A Corporate Release is designed to be as problem-free as possible through heavy testing and quality control. The release will be maintained for at least two years, any significant problems found in the release will be resolved through service packs

iOS Inspection App Android Inspection App Misc Enhancements HTML5 Inspection App Esri App Integration

R2

2014

A heavily tested and quality controlled version of Cityworks 2013 Revisions 1-4.

December 2013

R4

Revision 4 Storeroom Misc Enhancements

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

2013 2013 Service Packs One or more possible Service Packs, released as needed. No enhancements or functional changes

28

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Revision Testing Iterations of automated and manual testing Documentation testing

R1

June 2013 Revision 1 Javascript Map Cityworks Tablet Misc Enhancements Asset Analytics Workflow Manager Online Access

R3

October 2013

DB Manager Revision 3 Resource Allocation Designer Misc Enhancements

PLANNING. IMPLEMENTATION. INTEGRATION.

At Timmons Group, we focus on proven, cost-effective solutions for our clients. Using Cityworks®, we provide innovative solutions and customized user training to maximize your software investment. This includes the use of newer capabilities in mobile computing to bring the office to the field, utilization of Cityworks Server PLL to efficiently manage engineering design projects, and the integration of third-party systems and Cityworks Server AMS to create seamless workflows without paper and duplicated data entry.

UPCOMING WEBINARS: ` The Future of Mobile Computing – what Cityworks users need to know ` Create Your Destiny – Top 10 elements to creating your Asset Management RoadMAP ` Streamline, Streamline, Streamline – Optimize workflows with Cityworks Server PLL for engineering ` Integrate or Duplicate, It’s Your Choice – Eliminate redundant data and keystrokes through improved system integration

Register today at webinars.timmonsgis.com to attend our free educational webinar series, covering everything from planning for new development projects to managing your existing infrastructure.

For more information, please contact us at eam@timmons.com.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

29

user spotlight Cityworks Spotlight:

O’Fallon, Illinois Q&A with Dan Gentry, IT Manager

Cityworks: O’Fallon has been a Cityworks user since 2005. How has the city’s use of Cityworks evolved over the years?

Dan Gentry: O’Fallon’s original Cityworks implementation included two desktop users and an administrator within the Public Works department, focused primarily on utility operations. The original setup involved a personal geodatabase consumed by Cityworks Desktop and three concurrent-use GIS licenses. During our first full year of Cityworks use, we documented 2,200 work orders. Since that time we have expanded our Cityworks deployment.

In the last three years, we have documented more than 11,000 work activities each year.

CW: What departments and areas of the city is Cityworks currently utilized in?

DG: Over time we have expanded both our use of Cityworks and Esri products beyond our original few localized installations. Now a significant number of employees throughout the organization rely on it. We have been running enterprise licenses for both Cityworks and Esri since 2008.

We are currently running Server AMS 2012.1 and Desktop. Use of Cityworks has expanded to include facility maintenance activities, as well as GIS and software project tracking.

Departmental usage has expanded to include parks and information technology. Our user base has gone from two day-to-day users to more than a dozen regular users. Many others

30

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

rely on Cityworks for either management reporting or ticket and asset management.

Cityworks is integrated with Dig-Smart LLC for utility locate processing and tracking. We have also been using Cityworks in conjunction with CCTV operations, using the Cityworks PACP client software.

Our original Cityworks SQL Server installation has grown to support ArcSDE and ArcGIS Server Standard installations. The current environment includes a pair of clustered enterprise SQL Servers with failover capabilities.

Cityworks Server is hosted on 2 virtualized installations, and there are 3 Server AMS sites. The GIS environment currently in place includes a combination of 7 physical and virtual ArcGIS Server installations. While our capabilities have grown over the years, staff from Burns & McDonnell help with high-level GIS and software support.

CW: What benefits has O’Fallon experienced using Cityworks?

DG: The biggest benefit of Cityworks has been the ability to get information about assets, service requests, maintenance needs, etc., to those who need it. Before we implemented Cityworks, only a few key employees knew anything about scheduled and historical maintenance activities. There was no reliable system in place for dispatching service requests or reporting on their progress.

Planning, management, and budget decisions were complicated by these

gaps in communication and information.

Cityworks is able to provide information to support policy and staffing discussions, as well as answer questions related to service requests. Supervisors can now benchmark activities and discuss productivity measures with their staff.

Sometimes we can even demonstrate that the “squeaky wheel” isn’t necessarily the most urgent need.

CW: What role do you feel Cityworks has had on O’Fallon’s efforts in GIS? DG: Beyond helping us understand, track, and schedule maintenance and expenditures, Cityworks has played a key part in the construction of our GIS database. It initially provided a schema to use as a guide for the geodatabase, and then provided an incentive to build a more complete account of our infrastructure. Once we had the capability to track our assets, we could focus on building our GIS database.

When Cityworks was implemented, we had a handful of feature classes hosted in a personal geodatabase. This has grown to a substantial SDE database, housing approximately 250 vector

user spotlight feature classes, encompassing 1.15 million map features and several dozen image services. This growth in GIS data is directly linked to Cityworks.

When our geodatabase matured to have value beyond internal uses, we focused on making our information available to the public. We were recognized for our efforts to provide public access to our GIS data, maps, and analysis. We are now planning to provide more ways for the public to report service requests through the Service Request API. CW: What originally led O’Fallon to implement Cityworks?

DG: We chose to implement Cityworks when O’Fallon’s GIS was in its infancy. We had many senior employees who had an unwritten knowledge of our water, sewer, and storm systems.

Plans on file often did not match field conditions, and we had no records of what maintenance had been or needed to be performed. Our population had nearly doubled in the previous two decades, and the growth rate was picking up. There are many systems available that provide a mechanism for work tracking, but we needed more than that. We wanted the ability to manage our infrastructure and related assets in a platform that would complement, support, and enhance our GIS system.

We didn’t want to enter asset records in both GIS and a separate maintenance platform, and we wanted the asset management system to help drive the process of building our GIS platform.

Cityworks’ GIS centric approach was, and remains, a perfect fit.

CW: What unique ways has O’Fallon found of utilizing Cityworks over the years?

DG: In a few cases, we have been able to use Cityworks as a short-term measure to meet needs beyond O’Fallon’s core

Congratulations to the City of O’Fallon, Esri 2012 SAG Award Recipient.

(We apologize for inadvertently leaving them out of our last issue.)

focus for its deployment. Because Cityworks is so flexible, it has allowed us to expand its scope for both temporary and permanent needs relatively quickly, instead of building custom databases or scoping and acquiring systems for other needs.

The most notable for us would be information technology ticket maintenance. Prior to 2007, O’Fallon did not have a centralized IT department. Network needs were outsourced, and server, database, and software maintenance were handled by individual departments, usually as an “other duties as required” part of one or two employees’ job descriptions. With the hiring of an IT manager in 2007, Cityworks became the temporary central repository for IT maintenance and ticket tracking needs. It filled this role well for three years until IT staff developed a long-term solution.

CW: What are O’Fallon’s plans for Cityworks?

DG: Our public works management information systems staff was recently consolidated with our Information Technology department. The MIS manager is the new IT manager.

Cityworks, GIS, SCADA, and other related systems will continue to have a heavy public works usage, but are now being considered as enterprise systems. This will allow us to use Cityworks beyond public works. We have plans to implement the Service Request API to expand access to Cityworks to all departments. Server AMS gives us a good platform to develop and deploy department-specific maps and inboxes appropriate to their needs. We are also working towards providing better field access to employees. To this end, we are looking forward to testing Cityworks 2013, as well as exploring business partner tools for mobile devices.

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

31

Partner News

Successful Cityworks

Implementation and Integration at the City of Auburn, Alabama

By Jennifer Brooks, Marketing Coordinator, Timmons Group

T

he City of Auburn’s Water Works Department provides service to nearly 20,000 consumers at a water consumption rate of at least 6 million gallons per day (MGD). The department needed to update their information systems to improve their customer service and streamline operations. In 2012, the City of Auburn, Alabama, began implementing the Cityworks Asset Management Solution assisted by Timmons Group, a Cityworks partner. The implementation included the deployment of Cityworks Server AMS 2012 SP2, with Esri ArcGIS 10.0 SP4 and integrated with Tyler Technology’s Eden Financial Management software. This solution leveraged the newest release and technology from Cityworks and directly integrated workflows between Cityworks and Tyler Technology’s Eden Financial and Utility Billing system.

32

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Partner News

Cityworks Partners Imple me nta tio n Pa rtne rs

Several factors led to the implementation of the new system. Existing utility billing software systems were antiquated and could neither keep pace nor interact with the city’s more modern business systems.

Additionally, there was an overall lack of a city-wide work order/asset management capability. To deal with these factors, Auburn required a reliable system to handle all city work order/asset management needs.

With the successful implementation of Cityworks, the City of Auburn is able to maintain water assets through an integrated system of work order management, preventative maintenance, inventory control, and utility billing—while reducing strain on city staff. Through the integration of Cityworks and Tyler Technology’s Eden software (through API and web services), the city has streamlined workflows between utility billing and work order management.

The city went live with this solution in February 2013.

“The City of Auburn is excited about the new capabilities gained through this implementation.

It addresses the city’s mission of providing quality, responsible, services to its citizens. Through integration of Cityworks and Tyler Technology Eden Utility Billing, our employees have seamless access to critical information in the office and in the field, thereby facilitating the delivery of quality service to our water customers. Furthermore this solution leads the way for the adoption of an enterprise asset maintenance management system in the City of Auburn.”—Christopher Graff—City of Auburn GIS manager.

About the City of Auburn The City of Auburn is a thriving community of approximately 60 square miles and 54,000 residents located in eastern Alabama. As the home of Auburn University, the city has a picturesque small town feel with a wealth of growing cultural and educational opportunities.

PLATINUM • POWER Engineers • Woolpert

GOLD • Rolta International, Inc. • SEH Technology Solutions • Timmons Group

SILVER • Burns & McDonnell • CH2M Hill, Inc. • EA Engineering • GeoEngineers • Jones Edmunds & Associates • Motorola • North Arrow Technologies • NTB Associates • RJN Group • Strand Associates, Inc. • Westin Engineering, Inc. For a complete list of Implementation Member Partners, see www.cityworks.com.

Inte rna tiona l Distribution Pa rtne rs • Esri Canada • Esri India (NIIT GIS Limited) • Esri S-GROUP Sverige AB, Sweden • InfoGraph, Jordan

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

33

Customer Support

Customer Support Statistics— What They May Be Saying

By Steve Thomas, Executive Manager, Customer Support, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

T

he Cityworks customer support team has been providing full-time support since 2001. Since then, Azteca Systems has licensed nearly 400 municipalities, continued to add software functionality, and increased the number of support cases. In 2012, the number of cases per month ranged from 379 in June to 674 in October.

Customer support accepts requests for assistance in many ways, including phone, Cityworks online chat, and email. To date, the preferred method of requesting support by clients has been email, followed

by Cityworks online chat.

We introduced Cityworks online chat during the fall of 2011, and it has been very successful. Chatting is the second most popular support method because it allows both parties to participate in other activities, such as conversing with fellow employees or running other processes on your computer, while providing immediate contact when a support representative is available.

Of the three most common methods, the phone support is the least used. While the number of daily cases continues to increase with the growth of the company, the number of phone calls has decreased, while both chat and email requests have increased.

The number of cases for the specific Cityworks applications is also understandably changing over time. New clients are implementing Server AMS, and many of our Desktop clients are moving to Server AMS. In 2011, Desktop and Anywhere made up 61% of all calls, followed by Server at 17%. As expected, the ratio of Desktop cases dropped considerably in 2012 and Server AMS cases increased significantly.

This trend is expected to continue in 2013 as others migrate to our cloud and online services.

34

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Customer Support

By Greg Walters, Office Manager, West Bend Office, Lead Customer Service Representative, Azteca Systems—Cityworks

Strengthening Password Security on MyCityworks.com

T

he next time you log into MyCityworks.com, you’ll be prompted to change your password into a “strong password.” This strong password must be at least eight characters long and have a combination of alphanumeric (a, A, b, B, 1, 2, 3, etc.) and special characters ({, >, !, @, #, etc.). The password is case-sensitive and you’ll be required to have at least one letter in uppercase, one letter in lowercase, and one special character. It’s good practice to re-evaluate the strength of all your passwords, including your MyCityworks.com password, at least every six months. Changing your MyCityworks.com password is very easy—just login to MyCityworks.com and click the “Change Password” link in the upper right hand corner of the webpage.

Tips for Creating a Strong Password • Make sure the password is at least eight characters long and includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

• Use a different password for each online account you have–if one account is compromised, your other accounts should still be safe.

• Make it strong and unique, but easy to remember.

• Don’t include any part of your user name, real name, or company you work for.

• Use an acronym that is easy to remember. For example, I love to play football may look like [ILuv2PlayF00tb@ll!].

• Check the strength of your password with Microsoft’s password strength checker https://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/passwordchecker.aspx.

• The following tools can manage your passwords for you: eWallet, KeePass, LastPass, lPassword, Roboform, or SplashID. A security software developer, Splashdata, released its annual “Worst Passwords of 2012.” This is a list of the 25 most common account passwords on the Internet. No matter what, do not use any of these passwords. Here’s the top 15 from the list: 1. password

5. qwerty

9. 111111

13. 1234567

2. 123456

6. monkey

10. baseball

14. sunshine

3. 12345678

7. letmein

11. iloveyou

15. master

4. abc123

8. dragon

12. trustno1

New and Updated Content All older versions of the Cityworks software have been removed from MyCityworks.com. Currently, only Cityworks 2012.1 and 2013 are available for download. Please contact your Customer Support representative if you are in need of an older versions of the software.

We’ve cleaned and decluttered the Reports page and added 3 new bar-scanning Crystal reports.

PLL users! We now have a PLL Crystal Reports zip file that contains over 100 PLL reports.

More Information Cityworks users can request a MyCityworks.com login by contacting Customer Support at 801-990-1888 or cwsupport@cityworks.com. cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

35

Tools & Tips

Getting the Most Out of Cityworks Analytics

By Gunnar Lorbiecki, Technical Support Representative Azteca Systems—Cityworks

C

ityworks Analytics allows you to quickly create detailed reports using the information in your database. These powerful reports are used to graphically analyze your organization’s performance. Cityworks Analytics utilizes Microsoft’s PowerPivot Excel add-on. More information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/bi/powerpivot.aspx. Here are some helpful tips to help you get the most out of Cityworks Analytics.

Sparklines Sparklines are small graphs that display next to tables to give a snapshot representation of the data in each row.

• Select the data for which you would like to create a sparkline graph. You only need to select data for one row—you can easily expand the data later.

• Click on the Insert tab, and select which type of sparkline you would like to use.

• Select the cell that you would like the sparkline placed in.

TIP: The first open cell next to your table is a good place for the sparkline.

• Click OK. Now you have a sparkline created for one row of data. To add the sparkline to the rest of the data, follow these steps: • Select the cell that contains the sparkline and hover the mouse over the lower right corner of the cell until the plus sign turns solid. Then click and drag down to add the sparklines to the rest of the data. Your sparklines can be further customized using the Design tab in PowerPivot.

36

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Enable Powerpivot If you open Excel and the PowerPivot tab is not visible, PowerPivot may have been disabled. To enable it, follow these steps: • Navigate to File > Options > Add-Ins. • Select Com Add-ins from the Manage dropdown and click Go. • Check the box next to PowerPivot for Excel to enable it.

NOTE: If the box is already checked, uncheck it, click OK, and then return to the main screen. Repeat these steps to enable PowerPivot again.

Hide Field Buttons Hiding the field buttons cleans up the appearance of your chart.

• To hide the field buttons, right-click on a chart and select Hide Value Field Buttons on Chart.

TIP: To hide all of the field buttons at once, select Hide All Field Buttons on Chart.

• To view the buttons again, go to PivotChart Tools > Analyze tab and click on Field Buttons.

• Select the buttons you want to display.

Hide Spreadsheets Once you start creating charts, you will notice that Excel automatically creates a spreadsheet for each chart. Eventually these data spreadsheets will start to fill up your spreadsheet toolbar. To get rid of them, right-click on the chart and select Hide.

More Cityworks Analytics information is available in the Analytics Guide: https://www.mycityworks.com/resources/Cityworks%202012.1/Documents/Cityworks%20Analytics%20Guide.pdf

cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

37

Cityworks News

Upcoming Events Conference

| City

| State

| Country

| Date

Cityworks 2013 User Conference

Salt Lake City

Utah

USA

May 22-24, 2013

AWWA ACE13

Denver

Colorado

USA

June 9-13, 2013

Esri UC

San Diego

California

USA

July 8-12, 2013

APWA International Congress

Chicago

Illinois

USA

Aug. 25-28, 2013

Weftec

Chicago

Illinois

USA

Oct. 5-9, 2013

Welcome New Employees!

Aaron Clifton recently joined our Training department as a Technical Trainer. He graduated cum laude from Brigham Young University in April 2012 with a B.S. in Geography—Geospatial Intelligence. Aaron was born in Homestead, Florida, and grew up in South Korea (he lived there for 14 years). His father is an Air Force veteran and his parents still live in South Korea. Aaron’s hobbies include mountain biking, bowling, intermural sports, social gaming, collecting rocks and fossils, and spending time with his wife, Hyein, and their son, Mason, who is 23 months old.

Tyler Larson is a Customer Support intern currently studying at the University of Utah. He will graduate next spring with a B.S. in Geography and certificates in GIS and Geospatial Intelligence.

Tyler has lived in 9 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and has visited 44 states, but he says that Utah is his favorite. He enjoys all outdoor activities, especially backpacking, and hopes to one day backpack around the world. While volunteering at the Jackson/Teton County Animal Shelter in Jackson, Wyoming, Tyler adopted Jack—a 3 year old Boxer/German Shepherd mix.

38

InPrint Spring 2013 cityworks.com

Cityworks News

Cityworks Community InAction TLC Appointment for Cityworks President

Esri Partner Council Oct. 2012

I

t is our pleasure to announce that Brian L. Haslam, President – CEO, Azteca Systems– Cityworks, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Trichotillomania Learning Center (TLC). Founded in 1991, TLC is a non-profit that provides education, outreach, and support of research into the cause and treatment of Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior (BFRB) disorders such as hair pulling disorder (trichotillomania) and skin picking disorder (dermotillomania).

“I am honored to be associated with this great organization,” said Brian L. Haslam.

“My own story with trichotillomania is deeply personal. I am the father of a beautiful, talented, and wonderful young woman who also has trichotillomania. For years, we searched for answers and healing.

We discovered TLC in February of 2010, and that spring attended our first TLC Conference in Dallas. The hope, happiness, and friendships we gained through association with TLC is something we want to share with others who struggle with BFRB disorders. I am pleased to be able to help the great people who are dedicated to helping those who suffer from this little known and often misdiagnosed disorder.”

Left to right – Neal Carpenter (Sidwell), Milan Mueller (Omega), Josh Lewis (Esri), Lindsay Roselle (Schneider), Chris Stern (Trimble), Carson Finical (Esri), Steven Myhill-Jones (Latitude), Tom Counts (3-GIS), James Sippel (SAIC), Lee Lichlyter (GISi), Sandi Peterson (Esri), Elizabeth Bradshaw (BCS), Brian Haslam (Cityworks), Chris Nickola (Esri), Alan Cassidy (Esri), Andy Huntington (Esri), Paul Salah (Esri Canada)

Esri Partner Conference Mar. 2013

Left to right – Brian Haslam (Cityworks), Jack Dangermond (Esri president), SJ Camerata (Esri), Lester Pierre (Wall Street Network), and Jeff Chernick (Ride Amigos) cityworks.com Spring 2013 InPrint

39

11075 S. State Street, Ste. 24 Sandy, UT 84070

If you have received this newsletter in error, please call 801-523-2751 or email kryser@cityworks.com.