Fort Collins Enjoys Significant Cost Benefits with Cityworks

Sandy, UT — The City of Fort Collins, Colorado, has realized significant benefits using Cityworks, the leading GIS-centric asset management solution. Cityworks has helped this northern Colorado City receive a measurable return on investment (ROI) through increased efficiency by streamlining workflows, scheduling, improved project tracking and completion, and reporting. As a direct result of its GIS-centric capabilities the City saves time and money, resulting in their strong satisfaction with Cityworks and its ROI.

Fort Collins has been using Cityworks since 2005 where it was first deployed in the Streets & Traffic Department. It was then expanded to include the Natural Areas (parks and trails) and Engineering Departments. They track all the work they do and tie it to the number of units accomplished to see exactly what it costs per unit for each work activity, which in turn has enabled them to analyze production practices. Employee hours are tracked in Cityworks and automatically transferred into their accounting system. In addition, accurate tracking of materials has resulted in an improved inventory.

In the winter of 2010, the City had a major problem with ice buildup on city streets, which resulted in over 900 citizen requests. Utilizing Cityworks, the department could easily visualize ice removal requests and track where crews had cleared roads and sidewalks, giving managers a dynamic map of the areas where work was completed versus areas still needing services. This allowed managers to easily allocate and schedule their resources.

“There were eight crews working throughout the city to complete the ice removal,” recounts Stan Welsch, Financial Coordinator at Fort Collins. “Without Cityworks and its maps, it would have been very difficult for managers to schedule work. The manner in which the work was completed – because of Cityworks and its GIS mapping capabilities – resulted in the City performing the work more efficiently than we ever could have done had we not had the system. This saved us valuable time and money in being able to perform the ice removal in an orderly, productive manner.”

Sandy Aragon, Financial Coordinator at Fort Collins, details further aspects of the City’s satisfaction with the software and its ROI benefits. “Prior to Cityworks, we knew that we were not recovering all of our costs of materials, equipment, and time. With Cityworks, we now have a system that allows us to charge down to the bolts – therefore recovering all of our costs. We have seen an increase in revenue and are better able to track inventory and costs. Cityworks is very adaptable and we’ve found we can reduce the time and money associated with many of our processes. Our crew chiefs love it and retrieving information for billings and reports is a snap. We’ve been very pleased with Cityworks and I think we at the City all agree it has provided us a great return on investment.”

“The City of Fort Collins is a leading example across the board,” states Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems. “It is a fabulous place to live because City management clearly understands how to deliver the very best in services to their citizens. Managing the economics of running a city has been challenging for a long time. For public agencies, revenue is dynamic and often strained. So, capitalizing on systems, procedures, and practices that deliver measurable return on investment are without question the sensible and smart thing to do. We recognize all of our customers are like Fort Collins. The results they experience utilizing Cityworks are significant, measurable, and unmatched, and we will maintain our focus on delivering the leading GIS-centric solutions to help them meet their needs.”