Case Studies

City of Houston

Beginning in the Spring of 1999, The City of Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering (PW&E) undertook a $3.6 million, two-year project to design and develop a GIS-based Maintenance Management System for water distribution, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer facilities management. ESRI was asked to be the prime contractor with Azteca Systems, Inc., Berger & Co., EMA Services, Inc., Digital Consulting Software Services, Inc., and ESOR Consulting Engineers as subcontractors.

Today, the system is fully functional and demonstrates that the Cityworks GIS-based Maintenance Management approach can be successful for any size organisation. The system is built upon the established ArcInfo-based Geographic Information Management System (GIMS)that has been serving the mapping and information needs of several departments for several years. Cityworks integrated with the existing GIMS, "dramatically improves in many ways the manner in which the City conducts its business," says Wayne Dessens, chief engineer, City of Houston. The system allows the City to better utilise and track its resources, resulting in reduced costs to taxpayers. At the same time, the system provides significantly better services. The system is built on the premise that customer calls, inventory data, current work activities, and historical information can be best integrated geographically, providing the best possible tool for improved customer service.

The core of the system features ESRI's Spatial Database Engine (SDE) technology with Oracle Enterprise Server as the DBMS. The main database server is a cluster of DEC AlphaServer 4100 computers serving upwards of 200 client connections. In addition, the system features the Cityworks ArcView GIS and MapObjects-based software suite to support call taking, service request investigation, work order generation, dispatching, physical inspection and test activities, and incorporates mobile computing to provide improved use of information and efficiency of operations throughout the department. Cityworks is installed on multiple Citrix Servers.

The City receives approximately 1,000 calls daily for sewer, water, and other public services problems. Call handling and request creation is managed through the City's Customer Response Center (CRC) using the Cityworks Call Center application. Each request generated by the CRC is automatically geocoded and located. The request is automatically assigned to a field investigator and dispatched via CDPD (cell modem) to the inspector's truck-mounted computer.

Field investigators have the ability to browse requests, download and upload while performing other work, full field mapping view capabilities, and the ability to notify repair crews of any additional work that might be needed. Radio transmissions are greatly reduced and are now needed less frequently. For most calls, investigators can receive call information, travel to the incident location, evaluate the problem, and close out the request without any radio traffic.

For services requests that require additional work, the flow of information and coordination are handled by the Central Operations Section (COS). Using the GIS, service requests are pre-assigned to a "quadrant." COS staff are easily able to access detailed asset inventory data, network connectivity, current work activities and previous work histories, all from within the GIS environment. Additional work requests can be created including the linking of work orders to service request. Information from the field is sent back to COS by radio transmission. The data is entered into the system and available to all of the organisation on a nearly real-time basis, including the Call Center for follow up and return calls.

Work Orders, Inspections and Tests are explicitly linked to assets in the GIS. As the work is completed, linked service requests and calls are closed. The work histories are maintained as an attribute of the asset and the assets are maintained as an attribute of the work order. The database design allows reports to be generated for criteria based on spatial and non-spatial attributes. A unique task flow manager manages workflow. Tasks are associated to a work order, are sequenced and can be associated to resource utilisation.

The City of Houston PW&E proves Cityworks robust enough for mega-sized organisations like PW&E. However, most Cityworks organisations are not the size of Houston. Our users range in size from PW&E to Holland Water Board. With Cityworks you have the assurance that your system is scalable and appropriate for any size organisation.

For more information, contact gViz;
e: assets@gviz.com.au
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