Tag Archives: Public Works

Using ESRI for GIS-Based Asset and Work Order Management Software in Government and Utilities

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Recently I did a quick search on ESRI’s website for “work order software” and was surprised by the result: a couple of outdated articles from 2006 about Grand Prarie Texas and the City of Philadelphia.

ESRI Work Order Search Result

Search Results for "Work Order Software" on ESRI's Website

A search for “asset management software” returned more up-to-date results, but still not quite what I was looking for.

Search Results for "Asset Management Software" on ESRI's Website

If you’re looking to integrate your ESRI GIS data with asset and work order management here are some things to consider.

Full GIS Integration

Elements Management Software (www.novotx.com) provides a comprehensive set of GIS-based asset and work management tools in a single, standalone application giving utilities and municipalities the ability to:

  • Manage work orders, permits, licenses, inspections and other important data in a GIS-based environment using GIS data from any industry standard application including ESRI, MapInfo, Manifold, Autodesk, and more
  • Maintain assets and critical infrastructure in a GIS-based environment without requiring third-party GIS licenses
  • Tie work history and asset management data to any GIS asset
  • Associate asset and work management data to non-customer related assets and accounts
  • Take advantage of GIS-based asset and work management without incurring additional GIS expenses
  • Visualize work history and asset locations on GIS maps
  • Visualize geographic areas containing high concentrations of work orders and other data
  • Effectively distribute capital improvement funds by quickly finding problem areas and assets with high failure rates
  • Maximize existing GIS investments
  • Use GIS data from any source or application to manage assets and infrastructure in a visual, geographical environment
  • Powerful GIS Tools In a Standalone Application

Asset, Work Order Management, and GIS Data in a Single Application

Maintaining all of your data in a single, standalone application enhances the overall user experience and reduces implementation time.

  • Reduce costs and minimize the learning curve
  • All information, including GIS data, is accessible in a single application
  • Full GIS integration is provided without requiring third-party GIS licenses
  • Reduced learning curve; third-party GIS applications are eliminated
  • Reduced maintenance and overhead for support staff
  • Quicker overall implementation

Industry Standard Compatibility

Elements Management Software also allows municipalities and utilities to maximize their GIS investment, regardless of which GIS technologies are currently being used by the organization.

  • Full GIS support for any industry standard GIS application including ESRI, MapInfo, Manifold, Autodesk, and others
  • Organizations with little or no GIS can use Elements to take advantage of GIS-based asset and work management by obtaining GIS data from resources such as counties, state, and local governments then using that data with Elements
  • GIS data from varying sources and multiple applications can be used together to manage assets and infrastructure

Elements Management Software integrates with ESRI and other GIS applications to provide GIS-based asset and work management tools for utilities and government. To learn more about Elements and related products offered by novotX visist www.novotx.com .

Homer Simpson & GIS-Based Asset Management Software

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In a memorable episode of The Simpsons (Season 2, ‘O Brother, Where art Thou?’), Homer discovers his long lost brother Herb (who owns a car manufacturing plant). Homer and Herb bond while Homer gets the chance to design his own car (which he ultimately names “The Homer”).

At the end of the episode, “The Homer” turns out to be a monstrosity – a complete disaster to say the least. The car is green, with rocket-like fins, the horn plays “La Cucaracha,” and the price tag is north of $200,000.

What does this have to do with GIS-based work order and asset management software? A lot.

When searching for a GIS-based asset and/or work order management package it’s easy to fall into a trap searching for the do-everything-system that has every bell and whistle known to man in an effort to get the most bang for your buck. The problem herein lies. We’ve seen too many people end up with a budget nightmare that is too complicated for the staff to learn, far too difficult to use, and impossible to support in future years. In summary, they end up with “The Homer.”

We’ve seen too many people end up with a budget nightmare that is too complicated for the staff to learn, far too difficult to use, and impossible to support in future years. In summary, they end up with “The Homer.”

When searching for GIS-based management software, take a minute to step back, think about the true needs of your organization, and remember that in some cases, less is definitely more.

Read an article in Public Works Magazine about the original presentation here.

Watch this episode of The Simpsons here.

GIS, Work Orders, and Asset Management

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First, a few thoughts on GIS in general.
In the United States, the words GIS and ESRI are often times used in the same sentence. Why? Because according to Wikipedia, ESRI products (particularly ArcGIS Desktop) have one-third of the global market share, and are used by nearly 80 percent of GIS users worldwide from all professions.

However, GIS and ESRI are not the same thing. ESRI provides GIS software, and there are multiple other vendors who do the same (MapInfo, TatukGIS, and Manifold to name a few). While we are huge fans of ESRI, we are also huge fans of other GIS vendors and applications for various reasons.

With that in mind, we have built Elements Management Software to be 100% compatible not only with ESRI products, but with other GIS applications as well.

Part of our thinking is that not everybody uses ESRI – a lot of people do, but some don’t. The other part of our thinking is that some day you may want to (gulp) switch from your existing GIS software to something else. I know, it’s a stretch – not likely, right? Well the good news is it really doesn’t matter to us what you use for your GIS – whatever it is you use, Elements will work for you.

Another reason we did not build Elements exclusively on one particular GIS platform, is because we’ve seen a lot of problems with asset management (and other) vendors trying to keep their software up to par with the GIS vendors. For example – let’s say we were built exclusively on “Platform A“ when “Platform A” makes a change we have to make that change in our software, like it or not. And that ultimately means that “Platform A” is now controlling our software – which is a strange concept to think about.

On Asset Management
I wish I could count how many times I’ve asked a municipal authority if they had some sort of asset management in place and their answer was “Yes, we’ve already got that – it’s uhh.. Arc-something”
“ESRI you mean? For your GIS?”
“Yes, that’s it!”

Earlier in this post I mentioned that GIS is not ESRI. Well GIS is not asset management either. Although GIS helps with asset management, and we use GIS together with asset management data, GIS in and of itself is not asset management. GIS specifically relates to geographic information. Asset management consists detailed information such as repair history, work orders, maintenance schedules, inventory control, asset lifecycle evaluation, cost information, and much more. The key is to combine your GIS data with a solid asset management package for a powerful combination of GIS-centric asset management.

In conclusion, a few thoughts on work orders.
A common data management method we’ve found among smaller utilities and municipalities is the good old “write it, stack it, can it” method. What’s that? That’s when you write something down on a sticky note or napkin, put it in a stack on the desk, and when the stack gets big enough, you move it to the can.

Another common practice is to use spreadsheets and Microsoft Word to keep track of work history information. While this is certainly a step up from the “write it, stack it, can it” method, there is still room for improvement.

After all – with Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, Open Office, and everything else that’s out there you should be able to come up with something to manage your work orders at pretty much no cost, right? The short answer is yes, you can probably use some combination of these programs to come up with something that will appear to do the job. The question is, when you need to find work orders that relate to a specific asset (a section of pipe, or valve, for example) will you find yourself searching through folders, opening and closing spreadsheets trying to find what you’re looking for? Or when you need to determine the expected lifecycle of an asset (based on repair history) can you do it? When you need to see the locations of all work orders that were completed last year, can you find the data?

The fact is you can light your house with candles and cook with a brick oven if you don’t want to pay your utility bill, but I’d rather pay the bill and use a light switch!