In 2007, the Washington State Department of Ecology published the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements for municipalities. The purpose of the permit is to mitigate the impact of water pollution by regulating and managing point sources that discharge pollutants into public waters.

Homegrown Approach

Located 11 miles south of Seattle, the city of Burien has a population of about 45,000. The city’s Public Works Department (PWD) is responsible for the maintenance and operation of its storm water facilities. Working to keep waterways clean and safe for the community, fish, animals and habitat, the department ensures safe functioning of drainage facilities, reduction of contaminants from storm water runoff and high water quality standards.

Like many cities, Burien, Wash., quickly discovered that its storm water management system lacked the capabilities to track and report pollutant and water quality criteria to adhere to the new standard.

Previously, the city had managed its storm water infrastructure using a homegrown work management system. Asset data was collected on paper and entered into an Access database developed to manage work activities on storm water features. After identifying work management needs, the city mapped the features in the GIS. While this system worked well initially, the new permit requirements, combined with substantial city growth, pushed the existing system beyond its limits.

“As the city became larger and more assets were being mapped, the ability to create work orders, run inspections and update the GIS data became too cumbersome,” said Fernando Llamas Jr., GIS analyst for the city of Burien. “Upgrades to the GIS software also made it difficult to keep our custom work management system up to speed with software changes.”

Changes on the Horizon

At the same time, Burien was bringing its maintenance crew in house. Despite the many benefits this change brought, it also produced an influx of work-related information to be managed, putting further strain on the city’s existing work management system.

These inefficiencies prompted the city to look for a new asset management system (AMS). Burien sought a system that would fulfill the NPDES permit requirements, support growing infrastructure and leverage its investment in GIS.

“With a strong GIS background, naturally I was—and still am—a big proponent of GIS-based solutions,” Llamas said. “I had seen Cityworks AMS by Azteca Systems, which is seamlessly interwoven with Esri’s ArcGIS, and was compelled to further investigate the solution. Initially, our biggest draw to the product was its existence within the GIS database resulting in no middle tier. We looked into other options, but in the end we felt confident [the AMS system] would meet our needs and decided to sole source it.”

The city began its implementation of Cityworks Desktop in 2008. Initially, the software was used to manage storm water assets and maintenance activities within the PWD. Continued growth and the addition of more maintenance staff led the city to upgrade to the browser-based Cityworks Server AMS solution in February 2011.

Permit Compliance

The integration of the city’s GIS asset inventory, inspections and work order management has helped Burien meet its NPDES permit requirements. Cityworks Server AMS plays an important role in fulfilling essential components of the permit process and helped the city attain more accurate and efficient storm water management practices.

“By centralizing the work activities and integrating them with GIS, Burien has been able to produce more accurate, timely and up-to-date information on storm water assets,” Llamas said. “Duplication of effort has been reduced, and we’re able to better utilize our maintenance crew by performing work more efficiently. We can also now perform data analysis that delivers standardized and reliable results.”

Burien’s storm water maintenance workers can open, complete and close work orders from the field in real time. Replacement and installation of assets are identified and added to the GIS, with underlying reference mapping visible on handheld devices. Inspections are performed in the same workflow, giving users and analysts access to the most current work and inspection information.

The city was easily able to justify its switch to the new system with a few reports. Better work activity management helped mitigate and reduce liability as work can be easily tracked and substantiated.

“Increased access to work information in real time enables us to follow up with city residents faster and with proof that work was completed on a particular asset or at a specific location in the city,” Llamas said.

Equipped for the Future

In the future, Burien plans to further develop inspections and automate enforcement tasks related to privately owned or maintained water facilities and assets. The city also plans to develop more reporting and analysis that will support development of future capital projects to improve aging infrastructure.

Azteca Systems Inc. Client Relations division, led by Wayne Hill, is responsible for client relations, product delivery and training and the Customer Support team is led by Steve Thomas. Tom Palizzi oversees Sales and Marketing, which has established Cityworks among the top tier of maintenance management, permitting and licensing solutions worldwide. Brent Wilson was also appointed Executive Director of Sales.

“The dedication and fortitude these gentlemen have maintained over the years is the reason our customers and our company have enjoyed such success,” said Brian Haslam, President & CEO of Azteca Systems Inc. “Talent and hard work are only part of the equation.  The integrity, creativity and strong character they display are the reasons we have consistently grown and met our goals. While everyone at Azteca Systems Inc. is key, these executives represent the heart and soul, and leadership that has made all the difference.”

“Joe brings a strong sales background working with enterprise resource planning systems,” said Tom Palizzi, Vice President Sales and Marketing. “His depth in municipal public works and utilities combined with his knowledge in applications development, information management consulting and GIS will allow him to clearly understand customer needs and help our client’s discover the benefits of our unique GIS-centric solutions.”

Azteca Systems Inc. maintains a network of regionally based sales professionals throughout the United States with international distributors around the world.  Headquartered in Sandy, Utah, a southern suburban community of Salt Lake City, the company recently opened offices in West Bend, Wisconsin.

Competition Details

• Contain charts and/or graphs
• Include formatting, summaries, etc. that are easy to interpret
• Display complex data in a simple way

• Track unique or highly specialized data

• Use multiple databases
• Have a minimum of 4 categories
• Demonstrate use of complex formulas, sub-reports and detail

Legacy Approach

What we call “The Legacy Approach” to meeting water utility GIS needs was an approach commonly used about 10 years ago.  This approach was typified by water utilities building their GIS from the bottom up, often with many projects over a multi-year period.  With this approach water utilities were spending a lot of time and money assembling a GIS platform and then creating customizations to perform industry common functions.

By assembling a GIS platform we mean that utilities were typically deploying GIS technology components in a piecemeal way, usually as multiple stages or phases of projects to build out their desktop, web and mobile GIS applications. For example start with a desktop GIS to edit data and create maps, a few years later go to a multiuser editing environment, a few years later start deploying web applications than after that deploy a mobile GIS application.   Efforts were often more focused around bringing in pieces of technology (“I’m implementing SDE” “we are deploying ArcIMS”) rather than the applications supported by the GIS technology.  With each new piece of technology brought into the GIS platform, the utility would have to modify existing customizations, build new customizations that utilize the new technology, create new workflows and perhaps make schema modifications.

When talking about the Legacy Approach, we’ve had some astute people say, the term “legacy” has a negative connotation to it.  Absolutely, it does…  today.  To be fair, this was a logical approach years ago, but with the advancements of ArcGIS and more broad advancement in information technology, knowledge about deploying GIS in the water utility industry and the financial realities of running a modern water utility this isn’t a viable approach any longer.

The ArcGIS System Approach

About 5 years ago we began seeing more water utilities taking what we call “The ArcGIS System Approach”.  This approach was typified by deploying ArcGIS as a single comprehensive system or platform for geo-spatial information at a water utility.  This enabled water utilities to meet their general GIS platform needs with a COTS system with all the components designed to work together.  Water utilities need to utilize GIS through desktop, web and mobile applications as well as to integrate GIS to other enterprise systems through IT standards and have all applications working off a single authoritative source of data.  At a platform level, this is what the ArcGIS System does.  Deploying ArcGIS as a platform eliminates the need for the utility to assemble a custom GIS platform in a piecemeal manner.

Implementing ArcGIS as a single geo-spatial platform at a water utility still leaves a gap to meet the needs of an individual water utility.  That gap is comprised of industry specific needs and unique organizational needs. Water utilities were bridging this gap by “do it yourself” implementations/customizations, purchasing 3^rd party applications that sit on top of the ArcGIS Platform and/or hiring consultants.  If you think about meeting the GIS needs of a water utility as project, the ArcGIS System Approach enables water utilities to reduce the cost, time and risk in comparison to the Legacy Approach.

It is important to note that many water utilities used Esri’s water and sewer datamodels as a way to address some industry specific needs, in particular having a geodatabase schema to store water and sewer pipe networks in GIS.  The old Esri water and sewer datamodels were both ground breaking and very beneficial for water utility GIS, however their focus on pipe networks caused water utilities to have to build out their own custom schemas to accommodate things like operational data and base mapping.

As we interacted with water utilities that were deploying ArcGIS as platform, we observed that there were common customizations that utilities were creating to meet their industry specific needs or more appropriately their industry common needs.  Those customizations are what first drove the creation of the Water Utility Templates which ultimately evolved into ArcGIS for Water Utilities.

ArcGIS for Water Utilities Approach

The “ArcGIS for Water Utilities Approach” is to deploy a focused set of maps and applications that utilize a harmonized information model on top of the COTS ArcGIS platform.  The ArcGIS platform meets the general GIS platform needs of a water utility and the ArcGIS for Water Utilities maps, apps and the Local Government Information Model meets industry common water utility needs.

Deploying the COTS ArcGIS platform gives water utilities desktop, web, and mobile GIS applications configured for a water utility as well as the ability to spatially enable other enterprise systems.  The COTS platform utilizes a single authoritative source of data and includes ArcGIS Online for cloud based geo-collaboration.  So simply put the ArcGIS for Water Utilities maps and apps and the Local Government Information Model are configurations deployed on top of the COTS ArcGIS platform.

The ArcGIS for Water Utilities approach enables water utilities to focus their GIS efforts on meeting true organizational needs through do-it-yourself activities, purchasing 3^rd party applications that sit on top of  ArcGIS for Water Utilities and/or by engaging consultants.  The types of efforts typical to bridge the gap between ArcGIS for Water Utilities and an organization’s unique needs are extending the maps, apps and/or the information model or deploying new maps and apps that utilize the information model.

By following the ArcGIS for Water Utilities approach water utilities can reduce the cost, risk and amount of time it takes to meet organizational GIS needs.  Of course to maximize your benefit from ArcGIS for Water Utilities, you must embrace the industry common functionality included in the maps, apps and information model and also have a clear understanding where true organizational needs require additional effort and the effort is worth the cost.

April 13, 2012, in Water Utilities, by Howard Crothers via Esri

The increase in vacant properties threatened the property values and quality of life for many neighborhoods. By using GIS to get a clearer picture of where these properties are and what is happening on them, the city is better able to mitigate the issues. “We use the map as our first go-to source for anything that’s going on,” said Cindy Hintze, administrative specialist for the city. “When we get a phone call about a property, the first thing we do is pull up our map and see if we have anything going on there.” The maps provide valuable data on the history of each property — when issues occurred, how they were fixed, what was observed during inspections and much more.

GIS also helps the city track and fix problems with rental properties. “Landlords need to run a good business, and if they’re running a poor business, we need to respond to that, so the neighborhood doesn’t deteriorate,” said Hintze.

The city uses Esri ArcMap and asset management software from Cityworks, an Esri partner. By displaying all the data on a map, the city can easily see the big picture — and the details.

By mapping these properties, the city has made great strides in fixing issues, organizing inspections, maintaining properties, and even sharing information. “We can easily show our city council what’s going on in neighborhoods, because all this information is tied to the address point,” Hintze said.

by Cindy Hintze, Coon Rapids GIS via Government Technology

In March 2012 a return-on-investment (ROI) report issued by Professor Richard Zerbe and Associates showed that use of the King County Geographic Information System has resulted in at least $775 million in net benefits to the county over the eighteen-year period from 1992 to 2010.

While ROI estimates are often developed as part of a proposal to develop a geographic information system, it is believed that this is the first study by independent economic consultants to examine and measure the actual benefits realized by a city or county from the internal agency use of GIS.

The study methodology looked at the cost to perform county agency business functions both with and without GIS. For example, county permit technicians were asked how much time it takes to pull together all the maps and spatial data needed to assist a permit applicant now with GIS, versus the time it would take the technician to perform the same business function without GIS tools and data. The methodology included detailed interviews of 30 key county staff and then an online survey to county GIS users that was completed by 175 respondents.

Interview and survey responses were analyzed to compare both with-GIS and without-GIS level of effort. The results were then compiled and monetized by output type and agency to measure cost savings and productivity benefits.

The total cost for King County GIS, including capital development, central GIS operations and maintenance, and agency GIS end-user costs from 1992 to 2010 is over $201 million. In 2010 alone these county GIS costs were $14.6 million, but for the same year the Zerbe report measured benefits from GIS of $180 million, with a lower estimate of $87 million. So the benefits over a single year far outweigh the costs for the year, and if repeated for 2011 and 2012, the benefits realized over just two years could eclipse the costs of the previous twenty.

This project was partly funded by the Oregon Department of Administrative Services, Geospatial Enterprise Office.

Dr. Richard O. Zerbe, Jr. is the Daniel J. Evans Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Washington, where he is Director of the Center for Benefit-Cost Analysis.

The King County GIS Center is a part of King County Information Technology, chartered as an internal service fund to provide GIS services to county agencies and external customers. The King County GIS Center operates King County’s enterprise GIS and provides data, services, and training to help put GIS to work. ( www.kingcounty.gov/gis). For more information, contact Greg Babinski at the King County GIS Center (206-263-3753 ; Email Contact).

KCGIS ROI Report Executive Summary (65kb PDF)
KCGIS ROI Report, complete (459kb PDF)

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From GISCafe

Since 2005, Cityworks has been managing infrastructure and other assets throughout Grand Rapids. In 2010, the City chose to develop a citizen engagement tool to facilitate interaction between citizens and government services. With GRCity311 available to residents as a downloadable smartphone app, citizens can request specific services and register issues and complaints. At City Hall, GRCity311 logs requests and manages the distribution to the appropriate city department using Cityworks’ service request.

“In a typical scenario, a citizen captures a service request with GRCity311 using the native GPS functionality on their mobile device,” says Joe Bennet, GIS Administrator at Grand Rapids. “That report makes its way into Cityworks with coordinates, allowing us to visualize the data in Cityworks and our ArcGIS environment. What’s powerful about GRCity311 is that it enables us to bring citizens into the process. Enterprise GIS has been around for decades, but with the emergence of new mobile and Web technologies, we’re seeing it collide with the Geoweb.”

In recent months, the use of GRCity311 has had a dramatic effect on snow removal. When a snowstorm is imminent, Grand Rapids is able to add Snow Removal to the list of available services that appear on the mobile app and web interface. Citizens can effortlessly notify the city of unplowed streets, sidewalks and other potentially dangerous situations. Yet, while GRCity311 is primarily targeted to citizens, some of its “power users” are city employees.

“We have Police Officers who submit reports regularly while on patrol,” states Robert Coe, IT Director at Grand Rapids. “They know first-hand what can happen when certain issues go unattended.  Increasing their accessibility to other agencies has been beneficial.”

“Spot Reporters gives us the flexibility to promote usage around service issues we can handle,” said Coe. “In fact, the app has actually helped identify areas in need of operational improvement by bringing transparency to the system.  Grand Rapids can’t afford to be in the software development business, so we look to established vendors like Cityworks and Connected Bits to build and maintain applications. Their experience with other customers is a big part of what makes our technology program successful.”

“Citizen engagement apps like the one powered by Spot Reporters are fast becoming mainstream,” states Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems.  “There’s no question that crowd sourcing is a powerful force. Combined with strong work management and permitting solutions like Cityworks Server AMS and PLL, the power to communicate quickly and accurately with constituents allows organizations to operate much more efficiently and effectively. We wholly support the notion of government transparency and citizen involvement, having designed and built Cityworks around that same paradigm.”

About Grand Rapids

The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, serves a population of approximately 200,000 people with a municipal area of 46 square miles. The City is also a regional provider of water, wastewater, storm water and other public services to a number of municipalities in the Kent and Ottawa Counties, serving a population of approximately 280,000 and covering 137 square miles of service area.

About Connected Bits

Connected Bits is the developer of Spot Reporters, a mobile reporting application that enables governments and other organizations to “deputize” their communities to report issues – from potholes to power outages – using mobile devices and the web.  Founded in 2003, Connected Bits has worked with major players in the mobile ecosystem including AT&T, Motorola, HTC, Microsoft, and France Telecom.  Connected Bits partnered with the City of Boston to develop and launch one of the country’s first mobile 311 services in 2009.  Spot Reporters has since been adopted by tens of thousands of mobile users in several major cities. Find Connected Bits on the web at www.connectedbits.com.

The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has improved operations by integrating a mobile app, powered by Spot Reporters, with the City’s asset management system from Cityworks. Using the smartphone-enabled framework from Connected Bits, GRCity311 has increased levels of customer service and agency responsiveness for critical needs such as snow plowing

As a result of this experience, Berkowitz launched SeeClickFix, a Web-based tool citizens use to report complaints. It became the solution to his problems — and could ultimately become a platform for a national 311 system.
Solving One Problem at a Time

Around the same time Berkowitz launched SeeClickFix, New Haven deployed Cityworks, a content management system that integrated with the city’s GIS to track work orders for utilities and public works jobs. That setup worked rather well internally, according to Robert Smuts, the city’s chief administrative officer, but staff needed something new to facilitate citizen engagement.

In 2008, New Haven adopted SeeClickFix. By then, Berkowitz and his colleagues had refined their system.

“We built a simple site early on that allowed people to just mark problems in their neighborhoods on a Google map,” he said, “and then we allowed people to receive alerts based on the geography that they are interested in.”

Ultimately, however, Berkowitz envisioned a system in which residents could submit concerns to be quickly resolved. His goal was to create a Web-based tool for people anywhere in the world to report and track nonemergency issues. “We started looking at customer support for governments and for communities from that perspective,” Berkowitz said.

Today that vision is a reality.

The public can report issues via SeeClickFix on a conventional computer or mobile device. Users can create custom “watch areas” to monitor issues where they live, which could be convenient for neighborhood watch groups or news organizations monitoring their local beats. For example, both the New Haven Independent and the New Haven Register have SeeClickFix embedded on their websites.

New Haven’s Department of Public Works embedded the SeeClickFix application on its website via the “Report an Issue” link, which takes users to the SeeClickFix widget. There users can report an issue or create a watch area.

Those reporting an issue designate on a map where the problem is located as well as input details and upload photos related to the issue. The user can also opt to receive e-mail notifications when the issue has been resolved or when others comment on it.

Users can create a watch area by drawing a polygon on a map, representing an area they want to monitor. “Within that geographical boundary, you’ll get e-mailed notifications for either all issues or for the things that you specify,” said Smuts.

On the back end, data submitted through SeeClickFix is fed into New Haven’s Cityworks system and GIS database, and issues are e-mailed to the agency that can best handle the problem. City staff members receive geo-coded service requests that are used to create work orders. City officials can track these orders in an asset registry and analyze reporting history.

The integration between SeeClickFix, Cityworks and the GIS is a time-saver for city personnel. “That allows the issues that are being reported to the [department] to be processed more effectively in our work order system,” Smuts said.
Increased Response

New Haven’s SeeClickFix map uses orange, blue and green circles to mark locations where issues have been reported, and track their progress toward resolution. Clicking on the orange marker generates a box that displays details on an unresolved issue, how many people voted for it to be fixed, and when the issue was reported. Green circles mean the issue has been acknowledged by Public Works, and blue shapes mean it has been resolved.

Users can vote on what they want fixed, comment on each type of issue, flag comments they find inappropriate, and share the issue on social networking sites like Facebook, Tumblr or Twitter. Cityworks prompts SeeClickFix to automaticallye-mail whoever reported the issue when the complaint has been received.

“The public in New Haven really took to this product. It’s very user-friendly, very easy to use [and] much more intuitive,” Smuts said. “We’ve had something like 36,000 uses on it — either issues or comments on other people’s issues — which is significant for a city our size.” He estimated that 20,000 of the reported issues have been related to potholes and other road conditions.

On the whole, the volume of e-mails received has been much greater than the volume of calls received in the past, Smuts said, and loads of e-mails from people reporting problems are easier to deal with than loads of phone calls.

“SeeClickFix isn’t going out and making the potholes, it’s just making it much easier for people to let us know what potholes are out there, or graffiti or tree limbs that need to be trimmed,” Smuts said. “I think the increase in volume is somewhat inevitable with changes in technology.”

And there are options for adapting the system, including embedding the reporting form and display data on a Web page. The company also has created mobile applications, including one that allows people to photograph problems and receive the GPS location, Berkowitz said.

“You can save money by getting citizens to report issues to governments, as opposed to governments paying people to go out and inspect the public space,” Berkowitz said, adding that a government entity can also save money if the volume of phone calls goes down. “You can save money by having citizens report through the Web or mobile application as opposed to reporting issues over the phone.”
A National Platform?

Though its use is currently scattered, SeeClickFix has the potential to become a national 311 system. The platform already communicates with more governments than any other platform in the country, Berkowitz said, and there’s room to grow.

“Our goal is become an international 311 system,” he said. “We have a ways to go to that end, but on a national level, we get closer and closer with the signing of new cities every day.”

One component that helps give SeeClickFix the potential to go national is its use of the Open311 protocol, which expands the platform’s features. Open311 is an application development interface designed to give software developers standardized parameters through which they can design 311 applications and modules. Berkowitz and colleagues are implementing Open311-compliant applications as they work toward national deployment. By using the standards, SeeClickFix programmers can create tools that allow multiple people to exchange information related to a single issue in a many-to-many communication model.

“Through Open311, SeeClickFix connects to Washington, D.C., [and] Boston, and I know Toronto’s very interested in becoming involved,” Berkowitz said.

Development opportunities are plentiful because Open311 isn’t hardware- or software-specific. “If you have a platform that connects to the Web, you can use the Open311 standard to pass data from that platform out to other applications,” he said.

October 28, 2011 By Hilton Collins

from Government Technology

Deployed in February 2011, Eagan is using Cityworks Server PLL (Permitting, Licensing, and Land) to track Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) issues, helping keep staff informed and records straight. PLL provides the City a defined process that keeps staff involved and informed at every stage of each permit, while allowing quick and easy access to all associated documents. The solution maintains the business flow throughout the permitting process, making it easy and efficient to track resolutions and outcomes in one place. Staff is informed via automated email, allowing as many users as necessary to be involved in processes.

PLL tracks the resolution process for non-compliant properties. Each property in the City of Eagan is inspected for issues that contribute I&I to the sanitary sewer system. Inspectors report all non-compliant properties to administrative staff that enter that information into PLL. The permitting process begins with the first letter informing the resident of their non-compliant issue, proceeds with the issuance of the permit in the Building Inspections department, and culminates with final completion and reimbursement of costs through the Finance department. Throughout the process, the dates and information for each step are recorded and documents are attached. Once the necessary repairs have been completed by the home owner, the final reimbursement closes out the permit.

“We’ve enjoyed some great benefits with the implementation of Cityworks Server PLL,” stated James Hauth, Utility Technician at Eagan. “Using Cityworks Server PLL to manage our Inflow and Infiltration program, we’ve been able to enforce City Ordinances more effectively. The defined process allows staff to be involved in the project and has freed up time for other staff to focus on additional areas. We will soon be adding the right-of-way permitting process and implementing the public access portion of PLL.”

The City is in the process of creating a public website for permit applicants to apply for and review their permits online. With the implementation of the public access portion of PLL, Eagan will soon be using Cityworks to handle all ROW permits.

Eagan has seen great improvements in permit tracking for non-compliant I&I permits, including efficiency, data integrity, and overall quality of the process. Before the implementation of PLL, this process was administered by one employee, and record-keeping was limited to what that employee could remember. The permitting process implemented in PLL has allowed Eagan to employ many people on various aspects of the permitting process while also maintaining a central hub for information on each resident. The City already uses PLL to track deadlines and enforce I&I program requirements, allowing City staff to focus more on correcting I&I issues and less on tracking down residents that have not completed the necessary repairs.

“Cityworks Server PLL’s breakthrough technology is consistently delivering fantastic results to agencies throughout the country,” states Brian Haslam. “Like the City of Eagan, our PLL customers are reporting faster customer service with more timely and accurate information, ultimately shaving resource requirements and costs. Designed to work together, Cityworks Server PLL and AMS offer them the advantage of a consolidated GIS-centric solution for asset management — a key business component for public agencies.”

About Eagan

The City of Eagan lies on the south bank of the Minnesota River upstream from the confluence with the Mississippi River.  Eagan and nearby suburbs form the southern portion of Minneapolis-St. Paul, the sixteenth largest metropolitan area in the U.S.  The population of Eagan was about 65,000 at the 2010 census.  Originally a rural Irish farming community and the “Onion Capital of the United States”, Eagan became the eighth largest Minnesota city in the 2000 Census.  The City of Eagan is a dynamic community and a place where careful land use planning is resulting in lovely residential areas, extensive outdoor recreation opportunities and a quality commercial and industrial base.