GIS-centric Asset Management Improves Customer Service at Rothesay, New Brunswick
Sandy, UT – On a quest to develop a strategic approach to asset management, the Town of Rothesay, New Brunswick, Canada selected Cityworks to automate their asset management, enabling staff to learn about service requests within minutes, rather than days, of being received. As a result, infrastructure-related issues are now resolved much more quickly, allowing the town to improve its level of customer service.
Previously, Rothesay was using a legacy system that was not integrated with the town’s GIS database and the overall process was creating significant delays in the maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure. Now, pulling data from a central geodatabase and allowing assets
to be viewed through an intuitive map interface, the automated service requests keep staff and residents informed when issues are 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 to Cityworks in the field to remotely view, update, and complete service requests. Work performed on an asset can be recorded through 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. This tool allows Rothesay 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 projected 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 Corinne Bexson, senior GIS technician at Rothesay. “GIS-based valuation tools also allow us to maintain safe and reliable infrastructure both today and well into the future.”
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, or 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.
The ability to account for all tangible capital assets supports strategic planning and budgeting while enabling the town to assess future revenue requirements, performance and sustainability of existing infrastructure, and the likely cost of proposed activities. Using the Cityworks Local Government Templates (LGT), Rothesay is currently customizing work orders for implementation in the Operations Department and is on track to go live in January 2014. In the past year, Rothesay has also extended Cityworks to the Parks Department to capture detailed inspections on parks infrastructure and playgrounds and is implementing Cityworks PLL to manage municipal permitting.
“By using Cityworks PLL, we will be able to better manage municipal permits issued and resulting inspections,” said Bexson. “This will result in more efficient application processing times for our citizens while maintaining consistent workflows and detailed records of each step in the process.”
“From large municipalities to small towns, Cityworks customers report big improvements in how they get work done,” stated Brian Haslam, president and CEO of Cityworks – Azteca Systems. “Perhaps more important, we hear consistent news of dramatic improvements in our client’s citizen engagement. Anyone who has looked to local government officials for assistance both recognize and appreciate timely and accurate actions. Designed around a smart, intuitive interface, the Cityworks platform helps agencies of all kinds and sizes get the job done by leveraging the benefits of GIS well beyond the capability of simple applications. We make it our mission every day to help our customers reach this goal—Empowering GIS® for asset management, permitting, licensing, and more.”
About Cityworks – Azteca Systems
Since 1986, Cityworks – Azteca Systems has been providing innovative GIS-centric Asset Management Solutions to organizations that own and care for critical infrastructure, capital assets, and property. Created and designed exclusively on Esri’s ArcGIS technology, Cityworks is a powerful, scalable, and affordable solution for asset management, permitting, licensing, and more. Time-tested, proven, and a leading system, Cityworks is Empowering GIS™ at organizations throughout North America and around the world.
