In This Issue

Transcription

In This Issue

Summer 2014
Empowering GIS® for Public Asset Management
In This Issue:
The GIS-centric Platform – 6
Cityworks Helps Communities
with Extreme Winter Season – 12
Partners—An Essential
Component – 15
Cityworks Builds Community – 28
InPrint
Empowering GIS ® Public Asset
Management
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, Executive Producer
Brent Wilson, Vice President 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, Audrey Blake
Graphic Design: Kent Hepworth
Graphic Design: Rachel Haslam
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Azteca Systems Inc.
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801-523-2751
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Editor’s Page
C
ommunity is defined as a social unit that shares common values. It’s not by
coincidence that we perceive and refer to the people with whom we share our
vision as a community. Twenty years ago, we recognized the innovative and compelling benefits of
a Geographic Information System (GIS)—the intrinsic power of the geodatabase. Considering it an authoritative, spatially-enabled asset inventory and a
system of record suddenly made it a game changer. A truly innovative approach,
Cityworks was built to support critical business processes such as asset management, permitting, licensing, and more. It became evident it was no longer just about
the map, and a community has emerged around that belief.
At the core of the Cityworks community is a software solution used by thousands
of people in hundreds of organizations to ensure the public infrastructure and
property we depend on, yet often take for granted, is there when needed—all day,
every day. Sharing the vision of Cityworks, this community puts their confidence
in a group of insightful and dedicated people in a small office in suburban Salt Lake
City. Integrity, honesty, and mutual respect allowed the company to grow and be
there to support, educate, and innovate.
This mutually beneficial relationship took a simple, great idea and made it better
and better. With the belief that responsible commerce is built on trust, the community of users and developers pursued a focused, best-of-class path. Filling the
need to extend and complement Cityworks is a larger, diverse, and well-established
community that shared our GIS-centric values. The community gathers every year at the Cityworks User Conference to share
knowledge, experiences, ideas, and direction. For the rest of the year, we share a
virtual geography that extends from the communities in which we live. Today, the
Cityworks community reaches around the world and includes a much larger group,
of which all of us are part—the constituents, subscribers, and citizens, the benefactors of the very work we do.
This issue of InPrint tells the stories of our community, of how people just like
you use Cityworks to manage the network of public assets and property in their
communities; how our partners extend and deploy Cityworks to meet new and
unusual needs; and how the work we do ensures the Cityworks platform can help
us continue our missions. Thanks for reading this issue of Cityworks InPrint!
Tom Palizzi
InPrint Editor in Chief
Copyright © Azteca Systems Inc. 2014
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
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contained in this document is subject to change without notice.
Azteca Systems, Cityworks, Cityworks SAM, and Powered by Esri are registered
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The names of other companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks or
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Contents
Partner Community
15 Cityworks Partner Community: An Essential Component
10
16 Freeance Mobile gives Highland Village Upper Hand
17 Baxter & Woodman Help Wood Dale Build with Cityworks
18 White House Utility District Think GIS-centric: Act Globally
20 Philadelphia Water Department, Water Security Initiative
22 Esri Canada Accessing Automated Vehicle Location Data
President’s Corner
6
26 Esri EPC and Developer Summit
The GIS-centric Platform—ArcGIS and Cityworks, and …
27 We are Cityworks – Partners
User Community
9
Together Forever – Colonie Loves Using Both AMS and PLL
10 Omaha City and Douglas County Get It Together
12
11 We are Cityworks – Users
12 Cityworks helps Communities with Extreme Winter Season
14 2014 Cityworks Exemplary User Award Recipients
15
4
InPrint Summer 2014 cityworks.com
2015
SummerQ12014
2015 Preview 2
Q3 2014
• iOS Inspection Ap
• Android Inspectio
• Misc Enhancemen
2014 Corporate Release
Corporate Community
28 Small Company, Big Reputation!
29 Working to Serve You!
30 Cityworks Teams Behind the Scenes
31 Regional User Group Meetings Connect
Cityworks Communities
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.
42
Corporate Release Testing
•
•
•
•
•
Iterations of automated and manual testing
Documentation testing
Client-site specific script testing
Release candidates
Project specific testing
32 Serving Our Communities With a Purpose
2014
8
34 Welcome New Employees
35 Cityworks Opens Regional Offices in Texas and Wisconsin
2014 SP
Preview Te
• Iterations o
and manua
• Document
38
2014 Service Packs
20
Te c h n o l o g y
Service Packs will be released as
needed. No additional
enhancements or functional
changes will be added.
36 Cityworks Mobile
38 Cityworks 2014–2015 Release Model
40 Deploying Cityworks PLL with AMS
42 Test Blitz
43 Tools & Tips: The Differences Between Condition and Maintenance
Scores
Cityworks User Conference
24 2014 User Conference Recap
cityworks.com Summer 2014 InPrint
5
President’s Cor ner
The GIS-centric Platform—
ArcGIS and Cityworks, and …
By Brian L. Haslam, President & CEO
T
oday, we are seeing explosive growth in computing platform(s). The
goal of a platform is to allow developers to design and build software
applications to support unique workflows out of ready-made components, functions, and content available from a platform. Any discussion
about trends in computing will include mention of a platform. But, this
is not really new for GIS. The basic characteristics of a platform have
existed in Esri® GIS for many years and are leveraged by Cityworks.
In 1987, I was tasked with researching GIS software and choosing
the GIS that should be adopted by the University of Utah Department
of Geography’s DIGIT Lab to support instruction and research. At that
time, there were many GIS choices. It was not yet clear that Esri would
become the dominant GIS platform. I spent nine months learning about
various GIS. I gravitated towards Arc/Info® because it contained a highlevel macro language called AML (ARC Macro Language) that end users
could use to create applications.
AML provided the ability to create on-screen menus, use and assign variables, control statement execution, and get and use maps. I
believed the ability to extend Arc/Info to meet specific end-user workflow needs was a critical characteristic necessary for an organization
to realize maximum benefits from their investment in GIS. In the late
80s and during the 90s, federal, state, and local government agencies
6
used AML extensively to create applications that supported workflows
for their unique needs.
At the most basic level, what set Arc/Info apart from other GIS was
what we now call platform qualities. “A computing platform is, in the most
general sense, whatever pre-existing environment a piece of software is designed to run within, obeying its constraints, and making use of its facilities.”1
Using AML, software developers designed applications that ran within
the pre-existing Arc/Info environment to call command line routines
that obeyed constraints and extended its capabilities for specific enduser workflow needs—a platform.
From 1991–1992 we used AML at the University of Utah DIGIT Lab
to create one of the first interfaces between a work order system and
Arc/Info for Salt Lake City Public Utilities. Soon, we were asked to do
the same for other organizations. In late 1995 and early 1996, ArcView
2.1 was released as a beta software. It contained an extensible framework using Avenue scripts. We realized that a basic framework existed
for creating a maintenance management system as an extension of
ArcView®, with the geodatabase as the asset inventory; that is, Esri
1 “Computing platform.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 26 March 2014. Web. 26 March 2014.
GIS as a platform could be extended to become an integral tool to help
local governments manage their assets. Cityworks and the GIS-centric
approach was born.
The Cityworks GIS-centric approach for local government asset management has always been the union of two software systems, Cityworks
and Esri GIS. Cityworks is designed to extend the Esri GIS platform.
Over time, the tools we used grew and changed as Esri GIS changed from
Arc/Info to ArcView to ArcGIS. Beginning with AML, we later moved to
Avenue which was followed by MapObjects, VBA, ArcObjects, ArcEngine,
Silverlight SDK, Javascript SDK, and mobile SDKs.
The Cityworks GIS-centric approach uses ArcGIS for more than just
application development. The GIS-centric approach utilizes the ArcGIS
geodatabase as the authoritative data and system of record for local
government assets without redundancies, constraints, or proprietary
claims. In other words, Cityworks is configured to use the geodatabase
as the asset inventory. ArcGIS provides tools necessary to maintain an
inventory of local government assets and to use geography for analysis. Cityworks provides tools for managing and tracking the work that
regulates local government assets. This approach delivers immediate
and tangible benefits, including simplifying the process to maintain an
asset inventory and eliminating the need for data-syncing interfaces and
associated data normalization challenges.
Just as ArcGIS has grown, Cityworks has grown to become a platform.
The Cityworks platform works in tandem with the ArcGIS platform to
manage local government assets—a platform-on-platform design.
Application developers can access ArcGIS and Cityworks to design and
build applications that support unique end-user workflows. Access to the
Cityworks platform happens with APIs (Application Program Interface),
often referred to as Web APIs because accessibility to the APIs is through
web communication protocols. Most commonly, Web APIs are accessed
by URL (Universal Resource Locator) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol) request-response. The client, a browser or mobile device, submits a URL-HTTP request to an API residing on the platform server located on-premises or in the cloud. The platform server provides resources
such as data content and functions, returning a response.
Today, we are seeing explosive growth in computing platforms and
parallel rapid growth in the GIS-centric platform. Application development using the GIS-centric platform approach can send requests for
resources and receive responses from ArcGIS, Cityworks, and any other
system. To be part of the GIS-centric platform, the asset data used by the
organization and by the application must reside in the Esri geodatabase.
The geodatabase is the authoritative data and system of record for local government assets without redundancy, constraints, or proprietary
claims. This assures that all of the systems have equal and unfettered
access to the same asset data.
Developers are designing and building software applications to support unique workflows out of ready-made components, functions, and
content available from ArcGIS, Cityworks, and other systems. Trimble,
Esri Canada, Freeance, Innovyze, GeoCortex, CompassCom, Sedarū, and
CitySourced are some of the Cityworks and Esri partners using the GIScentric platform. There is no limitation to how the GIS-centric platform
can be enhanced with content, functions, or ready-made components,
including using Esri’s ArcGIS Online content and applications to add
even more value to any on-premises implementation. The GIS-centric
platform is real and providing platform-on-platform unique application
solutions for particular workflow needs.
7
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Excercise all your training options at
www.mycityworks.com/cityworkscampus
8
User Community
Together Forever
Colonie Loves Using Both AMS and PLL
By Rob Mateja, GIS Coordinator, Town of Colonie, New York
T
he Town of Colonie, New York, has found great success using
Cityworks Server PLL and Server AMS together for a complete work
management solution. The programs provide the town with a central database for managing asset and permitting data, and make it possible to
link the two systems when needed. For Colonie, the GIS-centric platform
capabilities are key to the advantageous nature of the solution.
“The Town of Colonie has found a large benefit from our joint use of
Cityworks Server PLL and AMS,” says Rob Mateja, GIS coordinator at
Colonie, “particularly in our capital planning process. Everything our
public operations do is associated with either a fixed asset or a parcel of
land. Being able to see this work on a map is incredibly helpful to both
frontline staff and higher-up decision makers.”
Cityworks is used throughout Colonie in the Water, Sewer, Highway,
Building, Planning, and Fire Services Departments. It is also being
used to track service requests and work performed on water and sanitary sewer infrastructure
systems, and to track complaints made to the Building
Department such as buildings without a permit, property maintenance issues,
and vehicle complaints.
Before
implementing
Server PLL in 2010, it was
difficult to track the work
being done in residential
and commercial building
permitting, including when
the work was happening
and who was completing it.
“We were very excited when
Cityworks introduced Server
PLL,” explains Mateja. “Not
only were we able to move
away from a paper system,
but having permitting data
in the same database as our
asset management data provided opportunities to link
the systems together when
appropriate.”
For example, when a new home is built, a water and sewer permit is
associated with the construction site. In addition, there are water line
and sewer lateral installations and inspections that are completed as
work orders on the home. Now the entire process is being captured in
Cityworks, which gives the town a complete picture of what is going on
at the construction site.
Colonie first started implementing Server PLL in the Public Works
Department to track complaints and field work performed on water and
sewer systems. The town is now issuing all permits through Cityworks,
including building, water, sewer, highway work, grading, and operating
permits. Cityworks tracks the entire planning approval process for new
subdivisions and major commercial projects.
“Having the ability to see the workflow in its entirety in Server PLL
has been invaluable,” says Mateja. “Currently, the building department is
starting to track complaints in Cityworks, which allows us to tie complaints
with a permit when appropriate.
Cityworks has made it possible
for a project to be captured in its
entirety, from a developer’s initial concept all the way through
certificate of occupation.”
Using Server PLL has given
staff the ability to see the status
of all permits. Fees are now
calculated within the system,
which has eliminated errors, and
permits now have a payment history associated with them.
Cityworks manages all
money collected throughout
the permitting process. The
town can then generate reports
to accompany money to the
comptroller’s office, providing
an internal control system.
Using Cityworks Server PLL
and AMS together has been very
beneficial for Colonie. The town
looks forward to continued benefits moving forward with the
complete Cityworks solution.
9
Omaha City and Douglas County
Get It Together
By Michael Schonlau, Douglas County GIS Coordinator and
Steve Cacioppo, Douglas County GIS Analyst
T
hrough a joint venture, Douglas County and the city of Omaha,
Nebraska, share IT and GIS resources that make it possible to come
together in their use of Cityworks. This collaboration allows both city
and county to benefit from Cityworks, which is hosted in the cloud, while
also maximizing resources. The widespread use of Cityworks at both
Omaha City and Douglas County has united the two agencies to elevate
work management for both communities.
As with many collaborations, the road that led to the two entities
joining forces happened over time. In most communities, resources,
planning, and decisions at city and county seldom intersect. But Omaha
City and Douglas County recognize they are stronger and more effective
when working together.
Cityworks was first implemented in Douglas County in the spring
of 2005 to help adhere to GASB (Government Accounting Standards
Board) standards. Soon the county began tracking assets, equipment,
labor, and materials using Cityworks. Having this data in a centralized
location made information easy to retrieve and simple to analyze using
Cityworks reporting capabilities.
As Douglas County continued to benefit from Cityworks, the City of
Omaha Public Works Department (OPW) was impressed with what they
saw happening at the county and intrigued by what Cityworks could
offer them. At the time, departments throughout Omaha were using
different work order management systems—none of which used GIS.
“The integration of GIS into the work management process appealed to
the Omaha Public Works Department,” says Michael Schonlau, Douglas
County GIS coordinator. The city recognized that their decision to choose
Cityworks as their GIS-centric software “was based on leveraging what
the county had learned from their Cityworks implementation,” Schonlau
states. “Douglas County had a permanent GIS staff to administer the
system, assist with the implementation, and integrate their existing GIS
data into a more comprehensive work management system.”
In the spring of 2007, OPW began using Cityworks for street and sewer
maintenance and tracking work orders on city-owned assets. Immediately,
the department was pleased with the results. Since then, Cityworks has
become an enterprise solution for both the city and the county.
At Omaha City, Cityworks is currently used in the following areas at
OPW: construction, streets, sewers, traffic, and environmental quality.
It is also used by the Police Department, Law Department, and Parks
Department for code enforcement. The City’s barricade contractor and
the Mayor’s office also use Cityworks.
At Douglas County, Cityworks is currently used in several departments,
including the GIS, Engineering, Environmental Services (weed control
and stormwater management), and Health (environmental and sanitary
inspections) Departments, as well as the Land Reutilization Committee.
Between city and county, the use of Cityworks crosses over when the
agencies have similar operations on both sides, some of which include
issues from roads, snow, or weeds. Having a shared enterprise environment “benefits both the city and county because we have built up a lot
of user and administrative expertise, saved on infrastructure costs, and
centralized management of the various systems,” says Schonlau. “The
centralization of those components has enabled technical staff to focus
10
InPrint Summer
Summer 2014
2014 cityworks.com
cityworks.com
User Community
on their GIS data, workflows and reports, and
focus on making Cityworks a more integrated
part of their day-to-day operations.”
The cloud deployment of Cityworks,
which began in 2011, was also a joint venture between city and county. The Douglas
County GIS Department manages most of
its enterprise software and databases in the
We are
cloud. All components tied to Cityworks (SQL
Server, ArcSDE, ArcGIS Server, Cityworks
Server AMS) are hosted in the cloud. Schonlau
comments, “This environment is beneficial
because we are more scalable, more flexible,
and can more quickly and efficiently deploy
new versions of software without impacting
our production environment.”
Over the years, both city and county have
realized many advantages due to their use of
Cityworks. Steve Cacioppo, Douglas County
GIS analyst, explains, “Cityworks has benefited
both agencies in numerous ways. The obvious
benefit is with work order and asset management. Having multiple departments on a
single work order management system makes
communication easier and more effective.” As
both agencies work together, Cacioppo says,
“Field inspectors can access work order and GIS
data on mobile devices in the field, making them
more productive and more efficient at resolving
issues. We have seen increased productivity, better use of resources, improved communication,
and enhanced reporting capabilities, to name
a few improvements.” And most importantly,
Cacioppo adds, “Cityworks provides management a big picture of what is going on in the city.”
Omaha City and Douglas County have been
pleased with their decision to come together
in their use of Cityworks, and feel the joint
venture has been, and will continue to be, very
beneficial to both organizations.
Oakland
County, MI
Staff at Oakland County, Michigan, wearing their Cityworks SAM shirts.
11
By Lindsay Ferguson, Associate Editor
hile millions across North America rang in the 2014 New Year, an
arctic cold front was brewing. During the first week of January,
polar weather conditions tracked across the continent, resulting in
heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures. The 2014 North American
Cold Wave/Polar Vortex affected parts of Canada and the US from the
Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean, extending south to northeastern Mexico and north to Canada. On January 7, all 50 states saw freezing
temperatures at some point during the day, and some northern US states
and parts of Canada experienced daylong temperatures colder than summer temperatures on Mars.
Thus began an extreme 2014 winter that continued to affect parts
of North America well into March. While most of the US experienced
below-average temperatures and higher precipitation than usual, the
northern Midwest took the brunt of the winter weather, experiencing
snowstorm after snowstorm and unusually cold temperatures.
With extreme weather comes extreme challenges. Record-breaking
temperatures canceled flights and closed schools, businesses, and roads
across the country. Local government agencies dealt with water main
breaks, power outages, increased snow plowing needs, and much more.
Fortunately, organizations equipped with Cityworks were a step ahead
in managing these issues.
At Cityworks–Azteca Systems, we kept in close contact with our
clients during the Polar Vortex and throughout the winter, and asked
them to give us updates along the way. We asked a handful of users to
share how winter weather conditions affected their communities, and
how Cityworks helped sustain their communities throughout the crisis.
12
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Comments by Alexandria Baszler, Cityworks
System Administrator
VO
W
LAR
PO
Cityworks Helps Communities
with Extreme Winter Season
In mid-January the Grand Rapids Public
Services Department started to run out of space
downtown to store the plowed snow, forcing them
to haul the excess to parking lots and parks around
the city. As the snow continued to accumulate, on-street
parking became more congested, making it difficult to plow
streets to their full width and preventing emergency vehicles
from accessing certain corridors. The department used Cityworks public-initiated snowplow requests to determine which streets had been missed by the plows. By
comparing the snow plowing requests with other types of requests,
like missed refuse or recycling, the department could see that the
unplowed streets were preventing city service vehicles from accessing
customers in those areas.
Based on the service requests and additional information provided
by the police and fire departments, the city’s 311 Call Center was able
to prepare various messages to alert residents of what actions to take
in those areas. The city utilized the heat maps and clustered event layers in Cityworks to visually identify high priority areas that needed to
be addressed in order to provide adequate street access for service and
emergency vehicles.
During the two-week period of the Polar Vortex, we had 517 total
ice and snow requests compared to 69 total requests in 2013—a
R
AR V
X
E
T
R
O
TE
X! PO
L
R
L
750% increase. The utilization of Cityworks
provided an enhanced understanding of the
compounded issues that arose as a result of
the extreme weather.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Comments by Marion Storey, Information
Services Director
Philadelphia experienced significantly more
snowfall this winter than usual. We experienced 17 different events, whereas in a typical
winter season we normally see 10, with a previous maximum of 12. There were over 4,400 requests for follow-up salting and plowing during
the season. Over 20,000 pothole repairs were
completed during the first quarter of 2014.
Cityworks managed the requests coming
in from 311, Streets Department call takers,
the Philadelphia 311 mobile app, the department’s website, and Twitter. We also used
Cityworks to route pothole requests and track
repairs. Cityworks allowed us to keep track
of requests, close them out in a timely matter, and provide status updates to 311 and
citizens about their requests.
The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks has
been beneficial because it allows the requests
to be routed to the correct unit based on
the geographic responsibility and road classification. This was done using a map layer in
User Community
Cityworks that indicated the snow
route for each street and whether
a street was maintained by the
city or the state.
St. Johns County,
Florida
Comments by Rocky
Agbunag, Information
Systems Coordinator
The 2014 winter season
was the wettest St. Johns
County has seen in 20 years.
In previous years we would
primarily work on preventive maintenance during
the winter, but this year’s
substantial wet weather
caused a lot of storm drainage
work activities we typically do
not see. Our roadways showed
more deterioration than usual due to
the wet weather, including many more
pothole repairs than in previous years. The
higher number of drainage work orders increased the demand for equipment use, which
led to increased maintenance and costs.
Using Cityworks to track service requests
resulting from the rainfall assisted in identifying where the problem areas were and
reallocating work activities accordingly.
Cityworks helped us track the trends on work
orders and the asset inventory definitely assisted in identifying what needed to be fixed.
Additionally, the Cityworks budget tool has
been very useful in analyzing our planned
expenses versus actual expenditures.
Waterford Township, Michigan
Comments by Frank Fisher, DPW Engineering
Superintendent
Immediately before the Polar Vortex, southeastern Michigan endured a heavy snowstorm
that dropped more than a foot of snow. The
subsequent onset of the Polar Vortex complicated the situation severely. Not only did
Waterford have to deal with the extreme colds
of the Polar Vortex, but the record-breaking
cold was setting in just as the cleanup of the
snowfall event was under way.
While accustomed to dealing with winter
weather conditions, the combination of
unusually heavy snow and severe cold took
an increased toll on both equipment and infrastructure. The increased depth of the frost
caused a spike in the number of broken water
mains and services. Subzero conditions caused
increased fatigue for staff and they had to take
extra measures to limit their exposure to the
Old Man Winter’s Impact — 2013–14
• On January 7, all 50 states saw
freezing temperatures
• Grand Rapids, Michigan: Within
two weeks, there were 517 total ice
and snow requests compared to 69
requests in 2013—a 750% increase.
• Philadelphia: Over 20,000 pothole
repairs within first three months
of 2014
• St. John’s County: The wettest St.
Johns County has seen in 20 years.
• Waterford Township: Subzero
conditions caused increased fatigue
for staff, and they had to take extra
measures to limit their exposure to
the elements.
• Coon Rapids: In mid-March 2014 the
frost in the ground remained six to
nine feet deep
• Holland Board of Public Works,
Michigan: Wind gusts between 30 and
60 mph produced wind chills reaching
-30° F during daylight hours.
elements. Waterford Township Department of
Public Works staff did an exceptional job working through the adverse conditions to provide
continued services to citizens.
Cityworks was critical in the organization and recording of work activities during
the Polar Vortex and the period afterward.
Cityworks was the key engine providing data
for analysis of total costs of the events. This
data was used to determine how much this
event impacted our operational budget.
The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks was
key for us in handling the storm. We developed
data models to track work order costs against
not only water and sewer assets, but also facilities and grounds. The flexibility to leverage
Cityworks against varied GIS datasets is one
of the characteristics that make Cityworks a
powerful tool for scheduling, tracking, and
analyzing the cost of our operations.
Coon Rapids, Minnesota
Comments by Cindy Hintze, GIS Specialist
Because of the Polar Vortex, we had a number
of calls for frozen water pipes. We had instances
where home furnaces went out, causing citizen’s
water meters to freeze and forcing the residents
to evacuate. We had several water main breaks
as well, which are always difficult in cold weather
because the roads become iced very quickly and
salt does not work in extreme cold.
13
The Polar Vortex was just the beginning of a long and extreme winter
at Coon Rapids and we will continue to feel its effects for quite some
time. In mid-March the frost in the ground remained six to nine feet
deep, and unusually cold temperatures persisted. We anticipated increased water main breaks—when the frost finally started to come out
of the ground—as well as a higher number of water service lines that
would leak.
In 2008 we started turning water off at vacant properties because gas
and electric utilities were disconnected, which resulted in severe damage
due to burst water pipes. Tracking this vacant property information in
Cityworks is vital because it allows both code enforcement and public
works to see and share the information in a timely manner. Our vacant
property work orders are attached to address points, and public works
uses water layers to attach their work orders. We track tasks within the
vacant property work order, including the water situation (whether it’s
on or off) and issues with curb stops. Our situation throughout the winter was challenging, but without the help of Cityworks we literally would
not have been able to keep up with our work.
Holland Board of Public Works, Michigan
Comments by Peter Schneider, GIS/CAD Specialist
During the Polar Vortex, we experienced below-average temperatures,
with daily highs in the single digits and overnight lows in the negative
teens. We also received a considerable amount of freezing rain, which
coated everything in ice. Wind
gusts between 30 and 60
mph produced wind chills
reaching -30° F during
daylight hours.
Winter storms
during the Polar
Vortex caused considerable power outages for
residential, commercial, and
industrial customers, as well as
sanitary sewer lift stations. This
led to bypass pumping to avoid sanitary sewer overflows. We also ran into
broken water mains and customer water
services freezing, both indoors and outdoors.
We used Cityworks to manage water main
breaks and investigations into frozen water service
pipes. Cityworks allowed us to easily determine the total costs that the
extreme weather caused. The GIS-centric capabilities are a plus because
oftentimes we remember main breaks geographically rather than by
individual address. Keeping work order information tied to GIS data is
paramount for efficient maintenance practices.
Congratulations to the
2014 Cityworks Exemplary User Award Recipients
General Mitchell International Airport – Tim
Pearson, GIS Coordinator
City of Troy, Michigan – Alex Bellak,
GIS Administrator, and Kurt Bovensiep,
Superintendent
St. Johns County, Florida – Karen Fullerton,
Utilities Dept., James Boergers, Public
Works Dept., and Rocky Agbunag, Public
Works Dept.
14
InPrint Summer
Summer 2014
2014 cityworks.com
cityworks.com
City of Highland Village, Texas – Sunny
Lindsey, GIS Administrator
City of Hesperia, California – Jeremy
McDonald, Public Works, Mark Blair, Water
Distribution Supervisor, and Eric Greene,
GIS Manager
Partner Community
Cityworks Partner Community:
An Essential Component
By Kaye Ryser, Managing Editor
C
ityworks business partners are a critical part of our Cityworks
community. Within the partner program, three distinct groups,
Implementation Business Partners, Strategic Development Business
Partners, and International Business Partners help us extend, deliver,
and deploy Cityworks. We believe partnering is good business, and
we actively seek to align with firms that have earned strong reputations for their knowledge, capability, experience, and trustworthiness. Combining the Cityworks GIS-centric platform for public asset
management with their capabilities produces an unparalleled and
cost-effective solution.
Our multi-faceted partner program is aimed at achieving successful
implementations, leveraging the benefits of related products, and meeting customer needs around the world. This requires strong commitment,
trusting relationships, great software, and unsurpassed services.
Implementation Partners have an established professional services
practice, or center of excellence, and utilize Cityworks software, data,
or services on a project basis. These partners use industry and domain
expertise to implement Cityworks software and services, optimize business processes, and provide strategic business consultation to support
the user community.
A growing number of offerings from our Strategic Development
Partners further enhance Cityworks and Esri’s ArcGIS to deliver focused
capabilities. Highly customized, case-specific applications to integrated
data retrieval, analysis, and modeling systems help ensure organizations
meet their asset management goals. And with a common commitment
to excellence, customer service is enhanced as we work together for the
benefit of our clients.
Cityworks supports a network of International Distribution Partners
to promote, deliver, and support the Cityworks GIS-centric platform
to customers around the world. Our international distributors are fully
enabled and empowered to market and sell Cityworks, provide implementation services and technical support, and provide extended products and
services. Many have localized the software to meet users’ needs, adhere to
regulatory requirements, or simply embrace the predominant language.
Together with our business partners, we are committed to serve our
user community as we strive to provide high-quality solutions and services to our common clients. We will work determinedly to improve the
implementation process, offer best-in-class customer service for all our
clients, and continually improve our product. We will continue to provide
new and innovative solutions, enhanced by the GIS-centric platform, by
continued corroboration with Cityworks partners everywhere.
15
Freeance Mobile
Gives Highland
Village Upper Hand
By Patrick Foose, Marketing Producer, Freeance
R
unning Highland Village’s Parks and
Recreation Department used to include
a lot of guesswork and anecdotes. However,
now decisions start with solid data since
the town implemented Freeance Mobile for
Cityworks, says Sunny Lindsey, GIS applications and development administrator. In
December, Parks Department managers and
crew leaders started using Freeance Mobile on
Samsung 10–inch tablets for everything from
scheduling restroom cleanings to recording
the locations of ball fields.
Lindsey says the goal of the project was to
make operations more efficient by helping
managers better understand how financial and
labor resources were being used. “It started
out just for documentation, and now we’re
trying to segue it into more of a management
tool,” Lindsay says. “Instead of just capturing
what we’ve already done, we’re looking to use
Cityworks and Freeance together to . . . actually project how much work they will be doing
throughout the week.” Lindsey says it is too
early in the process to see concrete cost savings, which she believes “will come in time.” As
for now, Lindsey thinks it was “a documenting
issue. If the Parks Department wanted to come
back to the city council and say, ‘We need another person; we’re slammed all the time,’ there
wasn’t adequate documentation saying where
the labor costs were being spent. For example,
there’s a water line in the Corps Park. And the
Parks Department has been complaining for
years that the water line needs to be replaced
because they are constantly repairing it. Now
16
we can actually say if we’ve spent more money
fixing it than we would have replacing it.”
Assistant city manager Ken Heerman said
the use of Freeance Mobile for Cityworks has
brought a new level of professionalism to the
way the Parks Department is run. “I see this
project as a turning point for parks management,” Heerman says. “They are beginning to
see their tasks and jobs in terms of priorities
and preplanning instead of the more common
reactionary mode.”
Lindsey said the city’s resource management
efforts endured some false starts before finding Freeance Mobile. Attempts to use Excel
spreadsheets and, later, Cityworks on Netbook
computers both failed. “With the Netbooks,
you’re looking at your Cityworks Server and
there’s a lot to scroll through,” she states. “The
Netbooks have a very small screen. . . . [Users]
were spending more time writing up the work
orders than actually doing the work. It was only
through [Freeance Mobile] that I was able to
call this project a success.”
For Lindsey, it is easy to create and modify
Freeance Mobile work order templates using
Windows Form Designer; and it was just as
easy to train the managers and crew leaders
on how to use Freeance Mobile. “You had
some that were younger that were used to
smartphones and tablet devices and they took
to learning it very quickly,” Lindsey said. “You
had others who weren’t as familiar with computers or that type of technology. And they
took a little bit longer.”
To help new users get used to the new
tablets, Lindsey said each user was assigned
their own tablet a week before Freeance Mobile
was loaded. Finally, there was a day of training
dedicated to Freeance Mobile using an easyto-set-up test database. “We had the training
on a Thursday or a Friday, and then we went
live with it the following Wednesday. I pulled
a report 24 hours later, and there were four or
five work orders available,’’ she says.
In the field, crew leader Joey Hardin says
the new technology has changed the way his
team looks at their work. “This has forced me
to think about our projects in terms of labor
and cost, and I am now thinking of ways to find
savings,” he adds.
Lindsey says the Public Works Department
is looking forward to trading their Netbooks
for tablets that will include Freeance Mobile
this summer. “Finance and city management
have been really pleased in knowing that we
rely heavily on the equipment, labor, and
materials components of Freeance. Having to
actually document the hours, labor, and equipment has really put hard numbers into it.”
About Freeance
Freeance® Mobile is the complete solution for smartphones and tablets. Easily
open, close and edit Cityworks® work
orders, service requests and inspections
in the field.
Partner Community
Baxter & Woodman Help
Wood Dale Build with Cityworks
W
ork management and GIS have made
a powerful collaboration at the city of
Wood Dale, Illinois. From an enhanced geodatabase to boosted interdepartmental communication, the city is experiencing numerous
benefits from implementing Cityworks.
Since 2010, Baxter & Woodman, Inc. has
been an implementation business partner with
Cityworks–Azteca Systems, and they continue
to assist local government agencies in implementing and configuring Cityworks software.
A city with a population of about 13,900,
Wood Dale went live with Cityworks in mid2013 after a successful implementation carried
out by Baxter & Woodman. Wood Dale currently uses Cityworks Server AMS for streets,
water, wastewater, and storm sewer.
GIS Focus
The GIS-centric nature of Cityworks ties in
with the workflow of Wood Dale’s GIS. The
city uses server-based GIS and focuses on a
geo-centric approach, meaning all GIS data
is stored in a centralized repository for use
in multiple systems, including desktop, web,
and mobile solutions. Cityworks ties directly
into this geo-centric system, taking advantage
of the city’s single data source. The benefit of
this design is that, when centralized data is
updated, all applications have instant access
to that change. Therefore, referenced data is
never out-of-date or needlessly duplicated,
eliminating redundancy and confusion.
“Implementing Cityworks has helped bring
focus to Wood Dale’s investment in GIS,” says
Peter Ferretti, GIS coordinator/developer at
Baxter & Woodman. “The ability to utilize
existing GIS data as a basis for generating work
orders creates a powerful relationship between
the two. This connection brings a wealth of
information to the fingertips of supervisors
and field crew.”
Planning and Analysis
Utilizing Cityworks has decreased paperwork
and helped create an ongoing record of the
work activities documented in the system. The
ability to retrieve information down the road
for planning and analysis is a major driving
force behind using the program. The historical
data will help the city make more informed
decisions and future plans, as well as help
with budgeting purposes.
About Baxter & Woodman
Baxter & Woodman specializes in
municipal engineering, transportation
services, water and wastewater management, construction services, storm water
management and GIS.
Enhanced Communication
As a cloud-based system, Server AMS has unified departments, providing a means for otherwise separate departments to be more closely
integrated. This has increased interdepartmental communication and made departments
more aware of what is going on throughout
the city. Due to satisfaction with the solution,
Wood Dale plans to implement Cityworks for
tree maintenance in the near future.
17
White House Utility District
Think GIS-centric: Act Globally
By Peter Godfrey, RLA and AICP, POWER Engineers, Senior Consultant and Project Manager; Regina Gaddis, White House Utility District
Special Project Manager; Bill Thompson, General Manager, White House Utility District; David Wachal, Solutions Manager, Esri Global Water
Utility Practice
I
n 2011, the White House Utility District (WHUD) reached out to Esri’s
top executives in Redlands, California, to explore the possibility of forming a partnership with the goal of creating a true GIS-centric environment
for all of the district’s operations-it was time to take GIS “global.”
David Wachal, solutions manager of Esri’s Global Water Utility
Practice, made an initial on-site visit over three days to gather information and assess the merit of such a partnership. One thing was very clear
to Wachal during his visit: “WHUD was totally committed to their vision
of creating a true GIS-centric environment because of the importance
they place on spatial information,” Wachal stated. “Their vision was
straightforward: WHUD wanted all their systems and business practices
to center around GIS. They were adamant that, where possible, every
system should leverage GIS.”
For WHUD the meaning of all systems was truly that—all systems,
including CIS, financial, asset management, work orders, inventory,
vehicle tracking, SCADA, real-time hydraulic modeling, meter reading,
leak detection, security, IVR, and document management.
This approach required a complete evaluation of current processes and
business practices as well as a reengineering plan that blended industrystandard best practices with the district’s core business methodology.
For this effort, WHUD and Esri turned to POWER Engineers. WHUD
wanted a well-established, long-term partner—much like Esri—who had
the resources and expertise to work with WHUD over the next five years
to ensure continuity of the vision.
POWER conducted a series of on-site workshops over a fourteenmonth period, each workshop lasting four days out of each month. The
purpose of these workshops was to document the existing processes,
refine the vision, and define a direction forward.
Working together through this process, POWER and WHUD identified Cityworks as the key system with the potential to serve the organization as it progresses. WHUD has used Cityworks since 2004 and feels
the product has served them well. Because Cityworks is directly built on
the Esri platform, WHUD continues to move forward with migrating
their entire organization to Cityworks Server AMS.
Peter Godfrey, senior consultant at POWER Engineers, says, “The
commitment by WHUD management and operational staff and our collaborative approach together with the strong support and efforts of Esri
is resulting in a truly integrated Cityworks system for best practices in asset management. Involvement with all levels of the organization—from
the general manager to field crews—has made the current deployment a
Field crews and meter readers work together
to demonstrate service request and work order
processing during POWER-led training sessions.
18
Partner Community
“EVERY SYSTEM
SHOULD LEVERAGE GIS.”
Cityworks Field and
ArcGIS Online Imagery
success. We look forward to working closely with both WHUD and Esri
on the multiple efforts ahead.”
POWER and WHUD chose to take a two-tiered approach to implementing Server AMS. The first phase included moving the entire organization from Cityworks Desktop to Server AMS using the district’s
current business practices with some minor configuration modifications.
Concurrently, Esri is supporting WHUD in modernizing their data
model and workflows, configuring the integration of their GIS with AVL
using Geoevent Processor, and deploying ArcGIS Online maps and applications to the entire organization. During this phase, the entire field
operations group moved to using iPads. The second phase—scheduled
to begin in March 2014—will include the implementation of new reengineered business practices and procedures as well as the initial phase of
integrating GIS, Cityworks, and WHUD’s new CIS, NorthStar.
WHUD’s adoption of a GIS-centric approach has spelled success by
taking small steps towards meeting a larger vision. Bill Thompson, general manager at WHUD, states, “We consider Esri and POWER Engineers
part of our family. They have been as committed and as excited as we
are in making our vision of a totally GIS-centric environment come to
life.” With WHUD’s commitment, POWER’s technical and management
teams, and Esri’s foundational GIS, these first efforts clearly show the
benefits of people and systems working together in making a shared
vision a reality.
– David Wachal, solutions
manager Esri’s Global Water
Utility Practice
About Whitehouse Utility District (WHUD)
One of the largest water and sewer utilities in Tennessee, White
House Utility District serves a population of 90,000 with over
30,000 water and sewer connections in a 600-square-mile area.
About POWER Engineers
POWER Engineers is a global consulting engineering firm that
offers complete multidiscipline engineering and program management services. POWER’s Geospatial and Asset Management
Solutions group specializes in industry-leading technologies and
a wide range of solutions for electric, gas, and water utilities and
local governments, including ArcGIS and Cityworks. For more
information, please visit www.powereng.com.
About Esri
Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the
power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS,
Esri software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States,
most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500
companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. Esri applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the
world’s mapping and spatial analysis. Esri is the only vendor that
provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server,
and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.
WHUD field crew train on iPad devices.
19
Philadelphia Water Department
Water Security Initiative
By Rami Raad, Principal Project Manager, CH2M HILL, and Becky Tamashasky, Industry Practices Manager
I
n 2005 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed
the Contamination Warning System (CWS) Demonstration Pilot
Program under the Water Security Initiative in response to Homeland
Security Presidential Directive 9. The objective of the CWS is to promote
early and rapid detection of water contamination events in the distribution system to minimize public health and economic consequences.
Integration of data from multiple surveillance systems is a fundamental
and essential task to meeting this objective. The initiative was divided
into three phases with the second phase consisting of evaluating water
quality surveillance and response systems through pilots at drinking
water utilities and municipalities. Pilots were deployed at five metropolitan utilities across the United States, including the Philadelphia Water
Department (PWD). The CWS project had seven major components:
• Online Water Quality Monitoring (OWQM)
• Sampling and Analysis (S&A)
• Enhanced Security Monitoring (ESM)
• Customer Complaint Surveillance (CCS)
• Public Health Surveillance (PHS)
• System Engineering (SE)
• Consequence Management (CM)
The PWD team partnered with CH2M HILL to design and implement the CWS project, which was completed in 2013. PWD had previously selected Cityworks as its field operations call center, work
order, and asset management system and used it as the basis for the
Customer Complaint Surveillance (CCS) component of the CWS. CCS
provides a critical source of timely information about the drinking water distribution system for rapid indication of potential water quality
contamination. Monitoring call frequency, categorizing and analyzing
complaints, applying GIS tools for analysis, and responding to calls
20
effectively can expedite the detection of and response to contamination events.
In conjunction with CH2M HILL, PWD developed an extensive CWS by
integrating various applications and data streams, including Cityworks as
the core CCS application. Per EPA, CWS had six design objectives:
• Contaminant coverage to detect a broad spectrum of contaminant classes
• Spatial coverage of the entire distribution system
• Timeliness of detection to identify contamination in sufficient
time for effective response
• Operational reliability to maintain a functional system that
generates complete and accurate data
• Alert occurrence to indicate a contamination incident with
minimum number of false positives
• A sustainable architecture to monitor distribution system water
quality
Several of the CWS tracking features are core Cityworks components,
such as the GIS-centric platform, customer complaint tracking, work
order tracking, open architecture, and mapping for spatial analysis.
These functions built the groundwork needed for the additional analysis
of the data to support the event detection process. Figures 1 & 2 show the
complaint-tracking fields and process implemented by PWD.
The next step involved the development of Event Detection Algorithms
(EDA). In order to develop the EDAs, PWD established complaint rate
thresholds to generate CCS system alerts on a CWS dashboard (which
was also built as a component of CWS implementation). The final EDAs
covered a variety of metrics, including spatial buffers, complaint types,
and frequency. For example, two cloudy-water complaints in a two-day
window in the same pressure district will generate an alert.
Partner Community
Figure 1
Figures 1 & 2 show
the complaint-tracking
fields and process
implemented by PWD.
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figures 3 & 4
show the final
dashboard
solution.
With the establishment of the EDAs, PWD
and CH2M HILL built a dashboard to combine
the various components of the CWS program.
The CWS dashboard integrates the CCS alerts,
work activities, online water quality monitoring information, and other data streams onto
a single web-based platform. This serves as a
single interface for users to investigate and determine the status of the overall water quality,
and identify any potential threats throughout
the distribution system. Figures 3 & 4 show the
final dashboard solution.
Having completed the pilot stage in 2013,
PWD provided several recommendations for
further development of the CWS:
• Early in the CCS implementation,
involvement of all potential organizations within a utility is crucial to
understand workflows and identify roles
and responsibilities (i.e. call takers, field
maintenance, executives, etc.).
• Historical trends should be analyzed to
establish initial CCS alert thresholds.
This analysis will provide a baseline to
assist organizations with development
of the alert thresholds.
• Review and evaluation metrics should be
developed to refine complaint response
procedures.
• Periodic data quality reviews should
be conducted to reduce the number of
alerts generated on the CWS Dashboard.
• Data integrity analysis should be
performed and quality control reports
should be developed to promote close
attention to the quality of data logged to
reduce the number of false alerts.
With the completion of the Phase II pilots,
the EPA has entered Phase III of the program.
Phase III involves the development of guidance
materials and tools to assist with national acceptance of water quality surveillance systems.
One specific tool currently under development
is a software application based on the information gathered from the pilot utilities.
About CH2M HILL
CH2M HILL is a full-service engineering,
program and construction management,
consulting and operations firm with
specialized expertise in GIS, asset management and CMMS services.
Figure 4
21
Esri Canada Accessing
Automated Vehicle Location Data
By Barry Kelly, Public Works Industry Manager, Esri Canada, and Rob Santos, Infrastructure Solutions Practice Manager, Esri Canada
M
anaging field operations is a big challenge for many municipalities.
During the winter, a municipality needs to track snow removal
activities and ensure that their snow plows clear roads based on the municipality’s minimum maintenance standards or service level. They must
also ensure that only the right amount of salt or sand is spread on the
roads to minimize the impact on lakes, streams, and the environment. In
the summer, municipalities must have an efficient way of tracking field
activities including side-road mowing, tree pruning, and road repairs.
The Esri Canada Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) solution improves
the productivity and safety of field operations. It allows organizations to
track fleet vehicles in real time and easily create route status reports.
It also provides historical playback tools that are particularly useful for
investigating incidents and damage claims.
Built on the ArcGIS platform, the Esri Canada AVL solution integrates
seamlessly with existing geographic information systems (GIS) so
municipalities can centrally manage their operational processes. It integrates real-time data from numerous sources and in different formats
with their GIS, and makes the data accessible via browser-based, mobile,
and desktop applications. This allows municipalities to share valuable
information quickly and efficiently throughout their organization for
making better decisions.
22
The playback tools pull location information from data archives, allowing them to identify where a vehicle was located at a specific point
in time. To enhance analysis and planning, the AVL generates a number
of standard reports with details on key metrics including spreading
rate and volume, vehicle speed and direction, stops made, and distance
covered. Not only does the AVL solution assist winter and summer maintenance vehicles but the solution can also be configured to track other
types of vehicles, including utility trucks, transit buses, police cars, and
fire trucks.
Esri Canada understands how important access to real-time data in
an asset management system is to municipalities, so an AVL map plug-in
was specifically created for Cityworks. A web service provides access to
all vehicle location and related data from the Esri Canada AVL solution.
Deploying the plug-in is easy. To start, a municipality should place a
Microsoft Silverlight application file in their Cityworks ClientBin folder
and make an entry in the ClientMap.xml to make the AVL application
accessible in their Cityworks map Tools drop-down menu.
From the map in Cityworks Server, users can access vehicle and maintenance activity locations by configuring the event layers. Vehicle status
and types can also be symbolized when configuring the event layers.
Partner Community
Using the AVL plug-in, a user can also assign a vehicle to an existing work order in the Cityworks
database. This capability uses the Cityworks Server AMS web service to create equipment usage
records (actual or estimated).
The Esri Canada AVL is a hosted and managed Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution available
to Canadian organizations on an annual subscription basis. It runs on hardware provided by
Ontario-based Tach West Technologies, a leading supplier of in-vehicle data collection equipment
and customized integration solutions. To receive the AVL plug-in for Cityworks, contact your local
Esri Canada office.
About Esri Canada
Founded in 1984, Esri Canada provides
enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments, and educational
institutions to make timely, informed,
and mission-critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography. The company distributes the world’s leading GIS
software from Esri, along with a comprehensive portfolio of complementary GIS
products and services. Headquartered
in Toronto, the company serves over
10,000 customers from 16 regional
offices across Canada. Esri Canada is a
2012 winner of Canada’s Best Managed
Companies program and has also been
named to the Branham Group’s Top
250 Canadian IT Companies and Top
25 IT Professional Services Providers
in Canada, as well as Computer Dealer
News’ Top 100 IT Solution Providers
in Canada lists. Information about Esri
Canada can be found at esri.ca. Follow
Esri Canada on Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube, and LinkedIn.
A pop-up box can be configured in Cityworks to provide information from the Esri Canada AVL
solution. Data such as vehicle ID, speed, heading, and timestamp can be displayed when the
user points their mouse cursor to a vehicle on the Cityworks map.
23
Cityworks 2014 User Conference
Marked with Success
O
n May 20–22, more than 750 people from around the world attended the Cityworks 2014 User Conference at the Salt Palace
Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake City. Attendees shared a
wealth of experience and exchanged useful information and knowledge
while networking with Cityworks users, business partners, and staff.
Mike Dagle, GIS business analyst for Oakland County, Michigan, enjoyed his time at the conference, saying, “I felt the conference was a very
informative and beneficial event to attend. I was quite impressed to hear
Cityworks company-wide testing strategy detailed at the conference.” The
new Cityworks software testing implementation not only involves each
member of the company, but as Dagle stated, “The dedication Cityworks
has to their clients shows, and the conference was no exception. I’ve found
that no matter which Cityworks staff member I’m talking to, there is an
easily recognizable familiarity with the functionality of the software.”
The conference began Tuesday morning with the plenary session, in
which president and CEO Brian Haslam shared details regarding the company’s significant growth in 2013 and continuing trend for 2014. Haslam
spoke about the commitment Cityworks has to superior customer support
as well as the company’s strong partner program and solid relationship
with Esri. He went on to share insights about sustainable communities, public asset management, and the Cityworks GIS-centric platform
as an authoritative data and system of record for assets. Presentations
from the Cityworks development team followed, showcasing exciting
24
InPrint Summer
Summer 2014
2014 cityworks.com
cityworks.com
enhancements in Cityworks Server AMS and PLL and new functionality in
Cityworks mobile technology.
Informative breakout sessions hosted by Cityworks users, business
partners, and staff commenced Tuesday afternoon, continued all day
on Wednesday, and convened on Thursday morning. On Wednesday
evening, conference attendees were treated to the Cityworks User
Appreciation Social for an evening of food and entertainment featuring
Rock With You live karaoke band and the 5050 BMX freestyle and action
sports cyclist stunt team.
The conference concluded on Thursday with an exciting wrap up session, where Haslam announced the Cityworks 2014 Exemplary User
Award winners. Attendees heard a closing presentation given by distinguished guest David Totman, public works, AEC, and survey industry
manager at Esri, who spoke about ArcGIS as a platform for local government and the strong relationship between Esri and Cityworks.
The Cityworks Expo Hall was the town center for the event where
Cityworks users, business partners, exhibitors, and staff gathered
daily to share knowledge, ideas, and conversations. Business partners
showcased their services and solutions in the exhibit hall within the
Cityworks Expo and were readily available to answer questions and discuss solutions. More than 90 members of Cityworks staff were present at
the conference, hosting and attending sessions, answering questions in
the Cityworks Showcase solutions center and demo stations, and meeting with clients and partners.
25
Cityworks at the
Esri EPC and Developer Summit
I
n March of this year, sixteen Cityworks executives, sales and marketing representatives, and developers traveled to Palm Springs,
California, to attend the Esri Partner Conference and the Esri International Developer Summit. Cityworks is an Esri Platinumlevel partner, and these events provide valuable opportunities to liaise with Esri, learn about future developments in Esri products,
and ensure Cityworks products continue to provide seamless GIS-centric solutions.
Implementation Made Easy!
Using Cityworks® Server, our experienced team of
implementers provide innovative solutions and customized
user training to maximize your software investment. This
includes the use of custom mobile computing to bring
the office to the field, utilization of Cityworks® Server PLL
for Planning, Permitting and Engineering projects, and
the integration of third-party systems to create seamless
workflows across the enterprise.
Services Provided
•
•
•
•
•
Asset Management RoadMap/HealthCheck
Cityworks® Server AMS and PLL Configuration
Customer Billing and Financial Integration
Enterprise System Deployment
Custom Mobile Solutions
To learn more about our service offerings or to check out
our upcoming webinars, visit www.timmonsgis.com.
26
Partner Community
We are
Freeance_PLL_ad.pdf
reeance Mobile for Cityworks
Ad for next issue of InPrint Magazine.
.5 inches by 5.5 inches
Created by Patrick Foose
pfoose@freeance.com
What goes up
must come down.
On March 8, 2014,
Lars Backhans,
managing director
of Esri Sweden,
poses with a sign
before making the
long descent back
into Palm Springs,
California, by way
of Highway 74.
Vice President for Marketing
Chuck Bridgman
cbrigman@freeance.com
(937) 260-3494
Showing their support, Freeance staff sport Cityworks hats.
PLL
MOBILE
with Freeance
for Cityworks 2014
R
Request information by scanning this code
or by emailing information@freeance.com
freeance
R
27
Corporate Community
SMALL COMPANY
BIG REPUTATI N!
By Tom Palizzi, VP of Marketing
A
little less than thirty years ago in Salt Lake City, a small company with
just a few people was updating federal government maps. At first
the end result was a paper map, but it was not very long before the end
result was a computer map or geographic data that could be viewed, manipulated, and analyzed on a computer screen. Geographic Information
Systems quickly captivated the attention of public organizations with
their ability to model the complex relationships of various infrastructure
on a map view. What separated this small company from the rest was how
they understood the application of GIS to infrastructure management.
Recognizing the GIS as an authoritative data and system of record for assets, the company believed that by combining the ArcGIS
Platform (Esri) with the patterns of infrastructure and land management, organizations could leverage the investment in their GIS across
common business applications. In 1996, that small company, Azteca
Systems Inc., introduced Cityworks®, the GIS-centric asset management system. A community of users grew, and a network of partners
developed as the GIS-centric asset management approach was quickly
adopted, making Cityworks a recognized name. The small company
became better known as Cityworks.
Philosophy
It is not surprising that an innovative idea like Cityworks would come
from this small company. Rather than a mission statement and rules,
the company was founded on the principles of honesty, integrity, and
respect, and stands firm on three fundamental pillars: a software company committed to developing GIS-centric solutions with the belief
that its customers deserve the best possible care and attention.
From a business perspective, maintaining a solid financial posture is
important. Carefully managing growth with zero debt provides tremendous stability in today’s uncertain economy. Having no private equity
or venture capital allows the freedom to choose the best path to remain
viable, achieve goals, and carefully manage risk.
Providing dependable and reliable solutions to a broad community of
users and partners requires dedicated focus and the sincere intention
to listen and understand the community’s needs. The ArcGIS platform
produces and maintains a powerful database, and though maps offer an
intuitive perspective, the geodatabase can be used to support key business applications that go well beyond the map.
Ensuring customers receive the best possible care and attention demands the same kind of commitment and not just a toll-free number.
Like any community, Cityworks customers, partners, and staff share
common intent, preferences, resources, needs, and other conditions
that draw the group together—both virtually at MyCityworks.com and
annually at the Cityworks User Conference.
Community
The Cityworks community includes an ever-growing array of organizations and agencies that care for the public infrastructure we take for
granted—local government, public works, transportation, water and
wastewater utilities, electric, natural gas, and more. Unique among
asset management systems, Cityworks is a GIS-centric platform that
can be used to manage whatever assets the user might care for. In essence, anything that can be modeled in the GIS can be managed with
Cityworks. As a result, transportation specialists, emergency responders and facilities managers in airports, public safety officials, and building maintenance personnel around the world are also using Cityworks.
A network of diverse business partners makes up a significant part
of the Cityworks community, providing implementation and integration
services and products that extend the platform. Representing the most
capable engineering and technology, our partner network provides products that extend our GIS-centric platform. Internationally, Esri Canada,
Esri Sweden, Esri Jordan, and others represent Cityworks in their part
of the world.
Big Reputation
From the very beginning, our small company has shared a strong,
dedicated relationship with Esri, the leading GIS platform supplier.
Extending the ArcGIS platform to empower GIS for asset management
has proven to be a reliable,
dependable
for User
hundreds
of organiCityworks
booth atsolution
Esri 2014
Conference
zations. Cityworks is an award-winning Platinum Business Partner and
continues to work closely with Esri to create responsible and sustainable GIS-centric solutions.
Enduring the test of time, Cityworks is Empowering GIS® for a
community of customers, partners, and staff around the world. With
thousands of users at hundreds of organizations, this small company has
earned a big reputation as Cityworks—the genuine GIS-centric innovator and recognized leader in asset management.
28
Working to Serve You!
By Audrey E. Blake, Technical Writer
W
hile Cityworks works efficiently to maintain assets in your communities and organizations, the team behind Cityworks diligently
works to serve you from the start of your purchase to each step thereafter. We truly believe that our customers deserve the best in customer
service, which is why customer service has been one of the pillars of
our business model for over 18 years. Members from our Sales, Client
Relations, Customer Support, and Educational Services Departments
enjoy and are devoted to helping you succeed with Cityworks.
Your first encounter with Cityworks may have started with the Sales
Department. While their primary focus is to sell our software, Brent
Wilson, vice president of sales, sees it as more than just selling software:
“We educate people on how Cityworks works. We are educating them on
what the software can do and how it can benefit their organization. We
don’t want them to feel forced or pressured to buy our software. We want
to make sure they are getting the tools they need to effectively run their
organizations.” Serving as an education group, the Sales Department values creating professional relationships with organizations. Wilson’s first
client, Gulfport, Mississippi, implemented Cityworks thirteen years ago,
and he has maintained contact with them through the years. He recalls
the devastation that Gulfport experienced when Hurricane Katrina hit
the area in 2005. “I had become close to the public works director and
assistant director over the years. I got
to know them pretty well. I was on the
phone with them within a week of the
hurricane hitting. They still didn’t have
power, so we were on cell phones.”
Wilson says that what he really enjoys
about his job is that “you have your
clients and then they
also become friends
over the years. You
get to know people at a
more personal level.” That
level of commitment really sets the
Sales team apart. You can count on them to
see you through the sales process and beyond.
Once your organization has purchased
Cityworks, the Client Relations Department
steps in to ensure a quality experience with Cityworks. Wayne
Hill, vice president
of client relations, says that they are more than just account managers:
“We are focused as a team; the customers are our main focus.” When
clients want to externalize their systems, they receive help in achieving
their goals with the Client Relations team, which works closely with
the IT Department to assist with technical needs. The Client Relations’
Department helps clients succeed with Cityworks and holds a 99% retention rate—an excellent testament to how well they support our clients.
Another important group that serves our clients is the Customer
Support Department. Steve Thomas, executive director of customer
support, says, “We are here to answer any technical questions about
Cityworks.” Sometimes those technical questions might lead to the
client needing help from another department, such as the Educational
Services Department or the Project Management Department. Thomas
likens our Customer Support Department to a compass—they are there
to help the clients and, if needed, point them in the right direction for
more assistance. The Cityworks Help Desk provides another avenue for
clients to contact the Customer Support Department. Thomas says,
“We’ve always had a goal of getting back to clients within four hours
of the initial contact. Our biggest challenge now is the time it takes to
close out those cases. Help Desk allows us to close them out quickly.” The
Customer Support Department works hard to shorten the amount of
time that cases are open. Open cases are
regularly reviewed and can be escalated
if they are not closed within a certain
number of days.
If a client needs assistance beyond
the Customer Support Department,
they may decide to attend training. The
Educational Services
Department offers several training options,
including
in-person
training at our offices in Sandy,
Utah, DeSoto, Texas, and West Bend,
Wisconsin, as well as online training and on-site training
at client sites. The technical trainers work hard to provide
a relaxed and friendly training environment. John Jarnagin,
educational services manager, explains, “We want training
attendees to feel comfortable enough to ask any question that
comes up during training.” The technical trainers also work very hard
to present the technical content in such a way that attendees, whether
they are new to Cityworks or have been using our products for years, can
understand it. Jarnagin adds, “We focus on efficient workflows and best
practices to follow and offer training attendees the most efficient steps
to take to accomplish their work accurately and efficiently.”
Collectively, departments at Cityworks work together to better serve
you no matter what your questions or experience level may be. From the
Sales and Client Relations Departments to the Customer Support and
Educational Services Departments, we are here to serve you!
29
CITYWORKS TEAMS
BEHIND THE SCENES
By Ryan Harris, Project Manager
A
t Cityworks we believe that our success comes from within. From
our executives to our interns, each Cityworks team member plays
a vital role in our mission of Empowering GIS® for asset management,
permitting, licensing, and more. While the developers are the innovators and main source of brainpower behind each of our products, other
departments at Cityworks work diligently to ensure our products are the
best, leading GIS-centric solution for cities, counties, and organizations
around the world.
In your integration with Cityworks, you may have formed a business
relationship with sales representatives, project managers, technical
support staff, customer support representatives, trainers, or our executives. There are many, however, who work behind the scenes. Take our
request for proposal (RFP) technician, Russell Shino, for instance. He is
here day after day, working in partnership with sales representatives to
produce documents that go out to potential clients who are seeking bids
on maintenance management software. RFPs include complex matrices
which require a strong skill-set from a good RFP technician, and ours is
one of the best. Without his efforts, Cityworks would be hard-pressed to
remain successful.
RFPs are important documents as is the detailed documentation for
our software, which is written by the Documentation Department. Our
team of technical writers and specialists work away each day, constantly
updating the documentation in order to keep up with the evolution of
Cityworks software. When users and staff have software usage questions,
we turn to documentation to show us the way. They work diligently with
software developers to incorporate the most important information and
details into each software manual. Other company departments turn to
documentation when they need to know what is new in each release and
what issues were addressed so our clients can make informed decisions
30
about upgrading to the latest service pack. Our writers keep up with new
functionality and update or write Knowledge Base articles and installation guides. With a wealth of knowledge, our unsung heroes from the
Documentation Department make sure we as a company stay updated
on the ins and outs of Cityworks.
As the developers and the Documentation Department know about
the complexities and significant details of Cityworks, our IT Department
ensures that the company works smoothly as they maintain our servers
and computers. The IT group works to setup and maintain the Cityworks
demo VMs and AMIs. With all of this technology and our dependence on
it working properly, a top-shelf IT Department is critical; and the one at
Cityworks is as good as it gets. They are behind our successful training
sessions, our successful phone conferences, and our successful user conferences and trade shows. Without our IT Department, the Cityworks
machine would come to a screeching halt.
And we can’t overlook the gallant testers from the Testing
Department. Software testing is absolutely critical in software development, and our testing team has raised the quality of software testing
almost to an art form. They ensure that our users have a great Cityworks
experience. When a supervisor needs to add labor to a work order and
then close it out and get a report to the department head, Cityworks has
to perform as expected. Enter the Testing Department—these intrepid
sleuths ensure that supervisor looks good to the department head, and
that Cityworks is doing what it is designed to do.
So the next time you are working with Cityworks, successfully maintaining your infrastructure and making the citizens in your city, district,
or county happy, don’t forget the people who work backstage to guarantee
that happens. Cityworks is a big team, and all of its members contribute
to a great product and to the success of our users. They are irreplaceable
cogs in the smooth-running, successful Cityworks machine.
Corporate Community
Regional User Group Meetings Connect
Cityworks Communities
W
ith a higher turnout than ever before, the
2013 Cityworks Regional User Group
(RUG) meetings connected the Cityworks user,
partner, and corporate communities, strengthening the GIS-centric community across North
America. Cityworks staff, business partners,
and users were in attendance, sharing ideas,
experience, and knowledge for a successful
series of events. A total of seventeen meetings were held across the United States from
September through December. Overall, close
to 850 individuals attended.
The theme of the 2013 Cityworks RUG
meetings, Elevate, focused on how users can
elevate Cityworks within their organizations.
Presentations addressed four areas of Elevate:
engagement, mobility, extensibility, and accountability. Discussions and demos showed
Cityworks users how to achieve these four focus
areas through Cityworks and with the help
of Cityworks business partners. For example,
when examining mobility, Cityworks staff demonstrated the Field, Mobile, iOS, and Android
Cityworks solutions, as well as shared how
Cityworks business partners have developed
mobile solutions that incorporate Cityworks.
“Taking our user group meetings on the
road provides us with the unique opportunity
of connecting the three Cityworks communities we value so highly—our users, our partners, and our staff,” stated Wayne Hill, vice
president of client relations. “Connecting these
communities and learning from each other
strengthens our relationships and knowledge
in the use of Cityworks and GIS. New and
exciting usages of Cityworks were discussed as
well as ways to strengthen and maximize the
solution.” Hill also thanks all those who were
involved in successful 2013 RUG meetings,
“from our valued clients to our RUG meeting
sponsors to our Cityworks staff, for joining
together to make these meetings a success.”
2014 REGIONAL USER GROUP MEETINGS
Sept. 4: Utah/Idaho
Oct. 9: Georgia/Tennessee
Salt Lake City Department of Public Utilities,
1530 South West Temple, Salt Lake City,
Utah
Fulton Environmental Education Center,
Johns Creek Environmental Campus, 8100
Holcomb Bridge Road, Alpharetta, Georgia
Sept. 10: Missouri
Oct. 21: Michigan
Truman Memorial Building, Presidential Hall
C, 416 W. Maple Ave., Independence, Missouri
City of Troy Community Center, 3179
Livernois, Troy, Michigan
Sept. 11: Ohio/Indiana
Oct. 22: Illinois/Wisconsin
Montgomery County Environmental Services,
1850 Spaulding Rd., Kettering, Ohio
Sept. 17: Washington/Oregon
Burien City Hall, Multipurpose Room 1st
Floor, 400 SW 152nd St., Burien, Washington
Sept. 24: Virginia/Maryland
City of Alexandria, Transportation &
Environmental Services, Operations Center,
2900-B Business Center Dr., Alexandria,
Virginia
Azteca Systems Inc., 2021 South 18th Ave.,
Suite #102, West Bend, Wisconsin
Nov. 5: Northern California
Orange Memorial Park, Jim Fernekes
Building, 781 Tennis Drive, South San
Francisco, California
Nov. 6: Southern California
City Hall, Mitchell Room, 201 N. Broadway,
Escondido, California
Nov. 6: Vancouver, Canada
Sept. 25: North Carolina/South Carolina
TBA
Neuse River WWTP Training Facility, 8717
Battle Bridge Road, Raleigh, North Carolina
Nov. 13: Texas/Oklahoma/Arkansas
Oct. 8: Florida
Valley View Municipal Complex, 333 Valley
View Lane, Irving, Texas
4747 N. Main St., Gainesville, Florida
Nov. 20: Colorado
Oct. 8: Toronto, Canada
Loveland Police & Courts Building, 810 E.
10th St., Loveland, Colorado
TBA
Register & Learn More
Register at mycityworks.com. Find more information about 2014 RUG meetings on the
Cityworks Event app at cityworksevents.com.
31
Corporate Community
Serving Our Communities With a Purpose
By Audrey E. Blake, Technical Writer
A
t Cityworks, giving back to our communities is an essential principle that we hold with great pride. We believe that by contributing
our time and our resources to organizations, events, and universities we
help our communities and our hearts grow. Our employees around the
United States stay very involved in their communities, and as a company
we look for ways we can extend our hands in service to the needs of our
communities and our employees.
has helped us, and others, with the opportunity to take advantage of a
life-changing opportunity for Sarah that traditional therapy could not
do. It’s a blessing.”
Providing Lifechanging Opportunities
One organization we reach out to is The Jackson Center for Conductive
Education in Mooresville, Indiana. A 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, the Jackson Center provides a system of learning that improves
motor skills for children with motor disorders resulting from damage
to the nervous system. Sarah, a student at the Jackson Center, is the
daughter of Cityworks employee Steven Sushka, a senior technical
support representative. She has a rare brain disorder that limits her
motor skills. Sarah attends the Jackson Center twice a week where she
learns basic things like “life skills, eating, and going to the bathroom,”
says Sushka. “She also works with a one-on-one aide and a conductor in a three-hour block of a therapy session opposed to the traditional one-hour therapy session.” The Jackson Center receives funding
through fundraising, personal pay, and insurance. “The Walking for
Dreams fund raiser, which Azteca Systems has helped with, is one of
three main fundraising events the center does each year. The donation
Sarah Sushka
32
Trichotillomania Learning Center
An organization at the forefront of Cityworks is the Trichotillomania
Learning Center (TLC) which provides education, outreach, and
research support into the causes and treatments of Body-focused
Repetitive Behaviors (BRFBs). Brian Haslam, president and CEO of
Cityworks, serves on the TLC Board of Directors in support of his
daughter who successfully manages her condition.
Caring for Kids
We also support events that encourage children to have fun and be
active. In the last two years, we have joined forces with CH2M HILL,
one of our business partners, to sponsor the Bikes for Kids Charitable
Fundraiser, which seeks to purchase bikes and helmets for underprivileged children around Philadelphia and Lancaster, Pennsylvania;
Camden, New Jersey; and Wilmington, Delaware. We are also a proud
sponsor of the FitKids Triathlon held in Herriman, Utah, and our West
Bend, Wisconsin, office is sponsoring a Dirty Ninja Mud Run for kids
ages 4–14 in August.
Despite being a new location, the staff at our DeSoto, Texas, office
have already jumpstarted their service by participating in a bowling fundraiser last December that donated money to provide gifts for children
in the Dallas area for the holidays. During the same time, Cityworks staff
at the headquarters in Sandy, Utah, organized a fundraiser for the Utah
Food Bank to help with the holiday demands for those in need.
Huntsman 140 benefiting cancer research
at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
Organizations supported
• University of Utah, Department of Geography
• Brigham Young University, Amanda J. Hardin
Endowment Scholarship Fund
• Tour of Utah
• Parkinson’s Unity Walk
• Salt Lake Valley Firefighters Association Children’s Burn
Camp
• J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School
• Veterans of Foreign Wars of Utah
• Girl Scouts of Utah
• Porcupine Cycling Club
• Herriman High School a capella group
• City of Huntsville, Texas, charity bowling event
• Salt Lake Police Annual “Shop with a Cop” program
• Judge Memorial Catholic High School
• LoToJa Classic
• The Gary Ludlow Memorial Ride, supporting National
Alliance on Mental Illness
• The Huntsman 140 Cycling Event, supporting research at
the Huntsman Cancer Institue in Salt Lake City, Utah
Jeannette and Tom Palizzi
Parkinson’s Disease Foundation
and Parkinson’s Unity Walk
Cityworks has been a major contributor to the Parkinson’s Unity Walk
through their support of the PDF Pacers, a team comprised of people
living with Parkinson’s, their families, care partners, friends and associates with the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation (PDF). The PDF Pacers,
lead by Cityworks’ Executive Vice President, Tom Palizzi has raised
more than $100,000 since joining the effort, funding critical research
towards finding a cure for Parkinson’s. Tom has served on the People
with Parkinson’s Advisory Council (PPAC) since 2011 as a member and
chairman, and a member of the foundations Board of Directors.
While there are many other organizations or causes that Cityworks
staff are involved with, these are just a few examples. Our surrounding
communities and organizations share common purposes in promoting
wellness, education, support, and progression, and we are grateful for
the opportunities we have to continue to give back.
33
Ryan Curletti
Ryan is a software
analyst in our Client
Relations Department.
He is currently a
student at Salt Lake
Community College
and plans to transfer to
Utah Valley University
this fall to study
business management. Ryan likes to ski and
wakeboard, and he is the lead singer and
violinist for La Barba, a Latino band.
Danielle Edwards
Danielle is a technical
writer in our Documentation Department.
She graduated with a
BA in organizational
communication and an
institutional certificate
in professional and
technical writing from
Weber State University. She was previously
contracted with L-3 Communications as an
instructional designer, and has done freelance
work for ITPlus. She volunteers as a merit
badge counselor and a Wood Badge trainer for
the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts
of America. When she has free time, she loves
to read, write, work on beadwork, and go
four-wheeling.
Jessica Lindsey
Jessica joined the Documentation Department
as a technical writer. She
is in her senior year at
Utah Valley University
pursuing a BS degree
in English and creative
writing. Before joining
our team, Jessica worked
as a technical writer at JP Morgan Chase and
Spillman Technologies. She has been married
for eight years and has two children. She enjoys
backpacking, reading, writing, and soccer.
34
Derek Nelson
Derek is a software
analyst in our Client
Relations Department.
He attends Utah Valley
University and has
previously worked in
cleaning, maintenance,
landscaping, disaster
relief, and as a factory
worker and warehouse worker. He has read
Pride and Prejudice and says he “actually
enjoyed it.”
Dan Puerling
Dan is an intern in
our Customer Support
Department and
works at our West
Bend, Wisconsin,
office. He graduated from
University of Wisconsin
in December with a
double major in geography and history. He enjoys reading, hiking,
camping, and fishing, and he is a huge fan of
the Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers.
Ryen Tarbet
Ryen is an asset
management specialist
in our Client Relations
Department. He
has a BS degree in
biology and an MS
degree in geography
from University of
California, Davis. Ryen
has previously worked in the permitting
software business and has also worked in the
public sector implementing and directing
an extensive asset management and capital
planning program. Ryen says he loves to
nerd out on GIS and asset management,
but also enjoys skiing, mountain biking,
camping, and spending time with his wife
and six-year-old daughter.
Corporate Community
Cityworks Opens Regional Offices
in Texas and Wisconsin
C
ityworks customers in the United States
are benefiting from the expansion of
Cityworks regional office locations. In the
Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, a new
Cityworks regional office recently opened in
DeSoto, Texas. Additionally, the existing West
Bend, Wisconsin, Cityworks regional office is
expanding soon.
DeSoto, Texas
Strategically placed within a high concentration of customers and remote staff, the DeSoto
location opened in January 2014, providing a
common location for customer support, sales,
services, and training. The office provides services to Cityworks clients located not only in
the greater Dallas metropolitan area of Texas,
but also along the southern region of the US.
Cityworks expects operational efficiencies as
a result of the expansion among the many
other benefits of having a location close to its
strong user base in Texas.
West Bend, Wisconsin
The West Bend office was recently expanded
to more than double its original space. The
expansion, completed in June 2014, will accommodate future staff growth and a new
regional Cityworks training center to support high concentration of customers in this
region.
DeSoto, Texas, Office
Training is Bigger in Texas!
We held the first Server AMS Administration training at our new DeSoto, Texas, office,
located in the Dallas area, February 24–28, 2014, with attendees from different areas of the
country participating.
The Texas training facility is awesome! The large room—which can hold up to 40 attendees—has a projector, large screen monitors, and even an Apple TV. It’s true that everything
is bigger in Texas! The room can also be expanded to hold more computers based on training
demands at this location. We use the same cloud server environments and training documents that are used at our training headquarters in Sandy, Utah.
With clients’ limited travel budgets, we recognize the need to bring Cityworks training options closer to home. We have planned several training courses at the Texas office throughout the coming year and well into the future. Please feel free to check the Cityworks Campus
website to see what other courses are scheduled at our Texas location: www.mycityworks.
com/cityworkscampus. We hope to see y’all soon in the Lonestar State!
West Bend, Wisconsin, Office
35
Technology
Cityworks Mobile
C
ityworks Mobile, one of the latest developments by Cityworks, gives users the ability
to leverage the full power and capabilities of
Cityworks via mobile devices. With solutions
available on a variety of devices for both
connected and disconnected use, Cityworks
provides a variety of options to fit an organization’s needs.
In the area of disconnected use, Cityworks
Mobile offers apps for iOS, Android, and
HTML5 (in version 2014). Built using Esri’s
mobile Software Development Kits (SDKs),
Cityworks Mobile apps are optimized for
processing specialized workflows even when a
persistent connection is not available, giving
36
field users the ability to complete their work
quickly without sacrificing valuable information used for analysis. In the area of connected
use, there is Cityworks Field Mode. Optimized
for browsers on tablet devices and leveraging
Esri’s Javascript API, field users have access to
the full power of Cityworks while in the field.
Cityworks Mobile apps do not require the setup
and maintenance of a secondary database, and
the variety of app options ensures that organizations can deploy the right solution for their
unique needs.
“Mobile access to information and technology is no longer the way of the future—it’s the
way of today,” says Brian Haslam, president
and CEO of Cityworks–Azteca Systems. “We
recognize the need for our users to have full
access to Cityworks on their mobile devices on
the go, anytime, anywhere, in connected or disconnected modes. That is why we have put such
a huge focus on the development of Cityworks
Mobile, which offers our users a variety of
options to satisfy the mobile needs of their
agencies. We are excited to see our users take
the full capabilities of Cityworks on handheld
devices and run with it, enabling even greater
connectivity and flexibly using this remarkable
GIS-centric solution for public asset management on the go.”
2015 User Conference | Salt Palace Convention Center | Salt Lake City, Utah
37
Cityworks 2014–2015 Release Model
By Carl Horton, Chief Technology Officer
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 improving on the release
model presented at the 2013 Cityworks User
Conference. Cityworks 2013 was 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 those issues will be made.
To date, three service packs were released for
Cityworks 2013. We have no plans of ending
support of 2013 for at least two more years,
and will continue support beyond that date if
it is needed.
At the 2013 Cityworks User Conference,
we presented a new release plan in which
we would have one annual corporate release
followed by revisions. We followed the release
of Cityworks 2013 with three revisions. The
term 2013 “Revision” was confusing to a
number of users, so we’ve changed the naming for the 2014 release. The 2014 Corporate
Release will be followed by 2015 Previews.
Previews are preliminary versions of the 2015
Corporate Release. Each preview will have
targeted enhancements 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 preview. Cityworks 2015 will
represent all the new software released
in the 2015 Previews, with more substantial levels of automated and manual
testing, client-site-specific script testing, release candidates, and so forth,
for the 2015 Corporate Release.
Cityworks 2014 was highlighted
at the Cityworks 2014 User Conference
and will be a long-term supported product
38
with service packs released as needed, likely
on a bimonthly schedule at first. The largest enhancement in Cityworks 2014 is the
ability to perform all functions within the
browser environment, specifically Designer
and Storeroom. These applications will no
longer run as separate standalone desktop
applications. At the 2014 User Conference, we
presented some of the software expected to be
in Cityworks 2015, and the expected preview
release schedule.
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,
Q1 2015
2015 Preview 2
Q3 2014
• iOS Inspection App
• Android Inspection App
• Misc Enhancements
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.
P
Corporate Release Testing
•
•
•
•
•
Iterations of automated and manual testing
Documentation testing
Client-site specific script testing
Release candidates
Project specific testing
2014
2014 SP
2014 Service Packs
Service Packs will be released as
needed. No additional
enhancements or functional
changes will be added.
Preview Testing
• Iterations of automated
and manual testing
• Documentation testing
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 previews.
While normal testing procedures will be in
place for each revision, normal bug fixes will
be addressed in the next preview—which will
also include new enhancements.
For us at Azteca Systems, the release schedule and product reliability become the main
development drivers, allowing features that
can’t make the scheduled release cycle to be
P2
Technology
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
short time frames, usually bi-monthly, larger
initiatives will cross release boundaries, requiring us to structure these large initiatives
into smaller, more manageable pieces.
UC 2015
2015
P1
A heavily tested and quality controlled
version of Cityworks 2015 Previews.
Q4 2014
2015 Preview 1
•
•
•
•
Esri Collector App
Other Esri App Integration
FEMA Reporting
Misc Enhancements
P3
Q2 2015
2015 Preview 3
•
•
•
•
•
Cityworks Analytics
Asset Analytics
Misc Enhancements
ELM
Equipment Manager
39
Deploying Cityworks
PLL with AMS
By Matt Harman, Regional Sales Manager
AMS
C
ityworks Server AMS and Server PLL
provide an enterprise solution designed
to manage the business processes and workflows that span across local government
departments. This enterprise deployment of
Cityworks is referred to as GIS-centric Public
Asset Management. Organizations that deploy
the Cityworks Public Asset Management
system see tremendous benefits compared to
using multiple systems.
Advantages of one system versus multiple systems can be divided into three categories representing the perspective of the
Cityworks user:
• End user processes and workflow
• Reporting and other higher level
benefits
• IT departments
Processes and Workflow
Core end user processes are the day-to-day
activities Cityworks manages. For asset
management, these include service requests,
40
work orders, and inspections; for permitting
and licensing, they include permits, inspections, license renewals, planning and zoning
activities, and more. All of these activities
can be stored, managed, and tracked in the
Cityworks application.
For example, utilizing Server AMS, end users at an agency might:
• Create work orders to manage the
preventive and reactive maintenance of
their assets.
• Track labor, material, and equipment
costs on work activities.
• Log calls and complaints with service
requests.
• Inspect assets and calculate a condition
score.
Using Server PLL, users may:
• Manage development applications,
projects, and permits.
• Manage building permits and
inspections.
PLL
• Track city-sponsored or privatelyfunded construction projects.
• Manage code enforcement cases and
violations.
• Track business licenses and renewals.
Cityworks Server AMS and PLL manage
all of these items, and if needed, any of these
activities could also be linked together. In other
words, the workflow of a given process can
span both Server AMS and PLL.
Potential users sometimes ask, “Why would
a user need to create a work order from a
permit or vice versa?” While the majority of
core end-user processes may not require both
a work order and a permit, there are certain
events on a permit or case that may require a
work order, or certain work orders may need
a permit.
For example, code enforcement cases often
require public works crews to abate past-due
violations such as weed overgrowth or snow
removal. In this case, the workflow for the code
Technology
enforcement case may include creating a work order and establishing a
link between the two.
A residential construction permit may use a service request to get a
water meter installation associated to the new home. Moreover, the service request would ultimately be associated to a work order performed by
the water department. All three of these items would be linked together,
and one could be accessed from another.
Service requests can be used to log violation complaints, or even requests for permit applications. The service request can be routed to the
appropriate user and a case or permit may be created as a result.
These are just a few simple examples that promote greater communication across departments and increases overall efficiency.
Higher Level Benefits
A key advantage of deploying both Cityworks Server AMS and PLL
together is the ability to share information. Cityworks makes it is easy
to summarize the data across the enterprise using event layers, the
inbox, searches, and reports. As such, planners can view open work
orders that may affect a project. Public works staff can view new
permits or development applications coming down the pipeline. City
administrators can export a report that combines expenditures from
Server AMS and revenues from Server PLL. Cityworks takes all of this
information and empowers its various users with the information each
of them needs.
City administrative staff, council members, planning commission
members, and others could even log in to the system and access an
inbox, dashboard, map, or report that summarizes historic, current,
and future activities. Cityworks stores all this information and more,
with no need for interfaces. In addition, Cityworks tracks a significant portion of the financial transactions for an organization—all
expenditures (labor, material, and equipment costs for work order
activities), as well as revenue from permit fees, application fees, and
code enforcement invoicing. This can help simplify monthly and
yearly reporting because the data is all stored in Cityworks, rather
than spread across multiple systems.
At the core of both systems is Cityworks’ GIS-centric approach to asset and community development management. Information from the
GIS can be imported directly into Cityworks via attached work orders
and permits or cases. The map allows users to visually track activities
occurring throughout the various departments. This eliminates the
need to replicate data—in particular parcel and assessor data—across
two (or more) systems. This saves significant amounts of time for many
staff members.
IT Department Savings
Another significant advantage of having a combined system is the savings for the organization’s IT expenses. Two (or more) systems result in
two sets of system requirements, which may require unique hardware
and software components. As a web-based system, Cityworks is one
application requiring one set of system requirements. This results in
fewer software updates, fewer applications to support, less user training, less dedicated hardware to purchase, less time managing interfaces
between different systems, fewer vendors to contract and work with,
and so on. Cityworks eliminates many complications and saves an
organization and its IT staff a significant amount of time and money.
Many agencies that run multiple systems often encounter compatibility issues where one application doesn’t yet support a third-party system
(e.g., ArcGIS, MS Office, Windows, etc.), but the other system requires
it in order to upgrade. Thus, many times an organization gets “stuck”
on older software. Using one system like Cityworks doesn’t completely
eliminate this, but it does reduce the instances significantly. Reducing
these issues streamlines upgrades and allows users to take advantage of
new features sooner.
In Conclusion
Cityworks is unique in its ability to share information easily and efficiently across multiple departments and disciplines in local governments. While both Server AMS and PLL can stand alone as an efficient
solution, organizations that utilize both systems see a greater return
on investment and efficiency by improving communication, combining
workflows, leveraging GIS and reporting, and maximizing IT savings.
For more information on how incorporating Cityworks Server PLL
can enhance your organization’s Cityworks usage, contact Matt Harman
at mharman@cityworks.com.
41
Technology
I
n January of this year, Cityworks instigated
a new company-wide effort to increase the
stability and quality assurance of Cityworks
software. Referred to as the Cityworks
test blitz and managed by software testing
lead Jeff Gerke, the event brings together
Cityworks employees from each department
to test future software and provide useful
feedback about the software formatting, bugs
found in the system, or other items that need
attention. Through the test blitz, Cityworks
software is thoroughly tested by employees
each Friday of the month. Sheldon Bagley, lead manager of software
development, remarks that the test blitz is
“very beneficial because we leverage the expertise of every group in the company and utilize
Cityworks staff participating in the test blitz.
42
many specific client scenarios to thoroughly
test future releases of Cityworks.” Before
integrating the test blitz, the quality assurance group tested and verified each software
release. Bagley says that with the test blitzes,
“in addition to the quality assurance group,
all employees now help find areas in need of
attention and our entire staff becomes more
familiar with the intricacies of the software.” The first week of the test blitz spanned five
days, and 290 items were logged for resolution
or attention. Out of the 290 items logged, the
quality assurance group created about 75 work
orders to follow up. Some items were duplicates
and were combined into a single work order.
Some items turned out not to be actual bugs,
and other items were suggestions for future
releases. Through the process, quality assurance
confirmed the bugs detected and made a list of
enhancement ideas for future software releases.
As compared to December 2013 when 38 bugs
were fixed, 93 bugs were resolved in January.
The January test blitz resulted in more frequent test blitzes implemented into the regular
software development cycle. Bagley states, “We
feel confident this new effort will elevate our
software to a new level of reliability and quality. We also believe this effort sets us apart as
a company that cares to provide quality to our
users—to the point that we take time out of
our individual roles, from the administrative
staff to the managerial staff, to dig into the
software and uncover issues, ultimately ensuring our users are pleased with our products.”
The Differences Between
Condition and Maintenance Scores
Tools & Tips
By Greg Walters, Office Manager | Technical Support Manager
T
wo scores, the condition score and the maintenance score, determine the current condition of an asset and the cumulative amount of work
applied to the asset over time. The numbers representing the two scores stem from the configurations set in Designer. The condition score
is generated from custom inspections and the maintenance score is generated from work orders. While both scores are valuable to each asset
on the map, it is important to understand the distinct differences between the two.
Cond i ti o n Sc o r e
Generated from custom inspections, the condition score relates to the actual condition of
an asset based on a field inspection. When a
custom inspection is configured in Designer,
the administrator assigns weights to each
observation. The higher the weight number,
the more important that observation is. Data
gathered during the inspection along with
the weight and score are used to calculate the
condition score. The condition score allows
you to visually display trouble spots on the
map and helps determine where to allocate
maintenance money most effectively.
In regards to the weight number, while any
number can be used when assigning weights,
the final calculated condition score is a normalized value between 0 and 100.
Observations tab of a custom inspection template in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014
(bottom). Weights can be easily applied to various questions.
43
43
The administrator also sets up the types of
answers for each question and assigns a score
in Designer. This number is used to calculate a
condition score for the asset. Typically, a lower
number indicates a worse condition.
The results of the Custom Inspection Templates in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014
(bottom) allow for various scores to be applied to questions based on which answer is
provided.
44
Once an inspection is completed and recorded in Server AMS, the scores are calculated
using an algorithm. The maximum total score is
calculated by multiplying the sum of the weight
by the maximum score of each question. A total
score is calculated by multiplying the sum of the
weight by the score of each question. The condition score is calculated by dividing the total
score by the maximum total score, multiplied
by 100. As an example, let’s say the following
weights and scores were assigned.
Weight
Question 1
Score
Question 2
Score
Question 1
20
Answer 1
2
Answer 1
10
Question 2
10
Answer 2
1
Answer 2
5
Answer 3
0
Answer 3
0
The weights and scores are used to calculate the condition score.
The inspection shows Answer 3 was selected
for Question 1, and Answer 2 selected for
Question 2. The following calculations take
place to determine the condition score:
• Maximum total score: (20 × 2) + (10 ×
10) = 140
• Total score: (20 × 0) + (10 × 5) = 50
• Condition score: (50 ÷ 140) × 100 = 36
The condition score is accessed in Server
AMS by opening the Condition tool on the
map. The user selects the layer, determines
the desired area on the map, and clicks the
Condition Score option.
The user selects the layer, the desired area on the map, and the Condition Score option.
After clicking Load, the map provides a
detailed view of the scores and the locations
of the assets. You can adjust the selections on
the Condition tool to view various condition
scores. Note that the inspection date must be
populated on the inspection and the inspection
must be closed for it to display on the map.
(Figure 5)
The map displays a detailed view of the scores and locations of the assets.
45
Main te n a n c e S c o r e
Like the condition score, the maintenance
score provides valuable information about assets to workers and administrators. The maintenance score represents the amount of work
performed on an asset through its lifecycle.
Every time a work order is completed for an
asset, the maintenance score accumulates.
This creates a historical maintenance record
for the asset.
When work order templates are created in
Designer, the administrator assigns a maintenance score to each template. A lower score
may suggest that the work is less urgent than
work with a higher score, which is more urgent.
For example, inspecting a sewer manhole
might have a maintenance score of 50 while an
emergency repair might have a score of 80.
The maintenance score assigned to the work order template in Designer 2013 (top) and Designer 2014 (bottom).
In Server AMS, the Condition tool on the
map has an option to view the maintenance
scores for assets. The user selects the layer,
determines the desired area on the map, and
clicks the Maintenance Score option.
The user selects the layer, the desired area on the map, and the Maintenance Score option.
46
After clicking Load, the map provides a
detailed view of the maintenance scores and
the locations of the assets. You can adjust
the selections on the Condition tool to view
various maintenance scores. Note that the
maintenance score for the asset is calculated
when the actual finish date is populated on the
work order.
Condition scores and maintenance scores
are powerful tools—but it is important to
understand the differences between them. The
condition score represents the actual condition
of the asset based on inspections. The maintenance score represents the amount of work
done on an asset throughout its lifecycle and
is based on work orders. Both are used to visually create an assessment of your infrastructure
which can then be used to make maintenance
decisions and long-term plans.
The map displays a detailed view of the scores and locations of the assets.
47
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Sandy, UT 84070
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