Data Accuracy and Citywide Accessibility among benefits of GIS-centric Solution
Sandy, UT — Four times a year, the City of Surrey, B.C. Canada, conducts “sector checks” during which field crews inspect assets along the city’s road network, recording any issues along the way. To better manage this time-intensive task, Surrey looked to Cityworks by Azteca Systems Inc., the leading provider of GIS-centric management solutions. Streamlining maintenance operations is but one of many improvements Cityworks has delivered.
In 2006, Surrey deployed Cityworks to manage their day-to-day infrastructure maintenance and operations. Even though recording and tracking citizen requests and work orders was a primary driver, interfacing the application with the city’s finance, human resource, and warehousing systems was equally important to improving asset lifecycle management. Leveraging data from Surrey’s GIS (Esri’s ArcGIS), Cityworks provided the tools necessary for better maintenance management of their critical assets and to a broad range of employees throughout the city. With the ability to see their world in an accurate and consistent map view, Surrey employees were able to better understand the characteristics and relationships shared by various assets. Clicking on an asset, field staff now have instant access to detailed information such as manufacturer, material, and condition of an object, as well as the ability to view the entire maintenance history of any object, interact with current work orders, or respond to service requests.
A significant part of the city’s maintenance management strategy was to provide state-of-the-art asset management capabilities across the enterprise, in the office and in the field. Field crews were equipped with Cityworks on lightweight Panasonic Toughbook computers with real-time access to the city’s GIS asset and land information. Detailed asset information, service requests, and work orders are all visible in real time on accurate digital maps. A true enterprise system, Cityworks keeps their environment consistently up-to-date with information flowing seamlessly among field crews, supervisors, dispatchers, and management.
“Configuring our workflows in Cityworks has made all of our jobs significantly easier and improved data accuracy and accessibility,” said Gord Simmonds, Project Supervisor & Computer Applications, City of Surrey. “Just to have reliable and timely information available throughout the organization has been a real game changer. A good example: enabling our field staff with current asset information on their laptops not only saves time with our sector checks, but insures these are performed consistently and compliantly.”
Cityworks has helped the city collect consistent and complete information during sector checks. Pick lists built into user-defined templates reduce typing requirements so that field workers can easily record information on the spot. Cityworks unique, map-based interface has replaced costly, printed map-books. With the city’s rapid growth rate paper maps quickly become outdated.
“With Esri’s GIS capabilities built-in, Cityworks gives our crews instant access to satellite and aerial imagery helping them locate the infrastructure they are after a lot faster and a lot easier,” continued Simmonds. “This has been especially useful for inspections in the rural areas of the city.”
“Surrey is an impressive example of our many clients across Canada,” said Brian Haslam, President and CEO of Azteca Systems Inc. “Their use of Cityworks in field operations has not only delivered the results they were looking for, but is representative of the outcomes we see throughout our user community. What makes Cityworks a superior solution is its combination of robust capabilities blended with its intuitive, GIS-centric design. Maps provide a common view that bridges language and culture, and clearly illustrate the relationships between features. Still the only solution that directly utilizes the customer’s geo-database as the authoritative asset inventory, Cityworks delivers unparalleled value by leveraging your investment in GIS and helping you maintain your world with fewer resources.”
Surrey was presented an award of excellence at the Esri Canada User Conference held in Vancouver in November distinguishing them for their outstanding achievements in GIS.
About Azteca Systems Inc.
Since 1986, Azteca Systems Inc. has been providing innovative GIS-centric Management Solutions to agencies that own and care for critical infrastructure, capital assets, and property. Built exclusively on Esri’s ArcGIS technology, Cityworks is a powerful, scalable, and affordable solution for asset management, permitting and licensing. Time-tested and proven technology, Cityworks is Empowering GIS™ at more than 450 user sites around the world.