INSIGHT
Helping to Sustain Our Utilities and Municipalities

Terry Brueck President and CEO

As EMA marks the 35th anniversary of its founding, we cannot help but recognize it is in your success that we find our success. Our commitment to you remains our highest priority, delivering innovative solutions and superior service that keeps you informed, ahead of the curve, and equipped to succeed for the long term.

What we’re talking about is sustainability – meeting day-to-day demands while considering your organization’s long-term outlook. Reflecting on our first 35 years in the industry, we must continue to ask ourselves: “What will sustain our clients’ success in the long run?”

Stories of Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of this issue of Communicator. Each story shows different ways that utilities and municipalities have improved efficiency, cut costs, employed best practices, and incorporated new technologies to become more sustainable organizations.

Our Foresight column shows how the assessment process and development of a strategic plan establishes a strong foundation that helps you understand where you are now and provides a strategy going forward. In the case of the City of Longmont, Colorado’s Water/Wastewater Department, recommendations reached in an organizational assessment helped in the development of a strategic plan that delivered significant results.

One of the keys in any sustainable business is improvement of customer interaction and service. Our feature story on Saint Paul Regional Water Services illustrates how the implementation of key strategies supports a more sustainable organization.
Our Q&A column takes different look at sustainability and asks utility leaders from across the country to share their thoughts about sustainability and how it pertains to their organizations. Their insights show how different drivers require different strategies and highlight some of the more pressing issues our utilities face in the coming years.

Meaningful performance measures also support our efforts to become more sustainable organizations. In our Efluent column, we feature the City of Doral, Florida, an organization committed to continuous improvement through the use of meaningful performance metrics. Using its new dashboard technology, Doral exemplifies how both utilities and municipalities can use performance measures to improve, increase efficiency, save money, and achieve their goals.

Sustainable Solutions

As I said earlier, in your success we find our success. This has been the case for the past 35 years and will continue to be the case as we move forward. We will continue to work with you to deliver solutions in areas that include:

• Asset Management
• Automation (Process Control and SCADA)
• Technology Implementation and Integration
• Assessment and Strategic Planning
• IT Master Planning
• Operations Optimization
• Energy Management
• Performance Management
• Process Improvement
• Workforce Development (leadership development, recruitment, succession planning, knowledge retention, training)

This issue of Communicator takes you full circle – from assessment and strategic planning all the way to performance measurement – and includes some of those projects that happen in between. These stories demonstrate that regardless of what issues you face or where you are in your process, we are committed to supporting you in your sustainability efforts.

BACK TO TOP

 

FORESIGHT
The Value of an Assessment:
Ctitical to Your Strategic plan

Melanie Rettie Vice President

In 1999, the City of Longmont, Colorado’s Water/Wastewater Department (Longmont) committed to developing a new strategic plan to guide their organization into the future.

Working with EMA, Longmont began the process with an assessment of its current organization, practices, and technologies. The assessment was critical, helping Longmont identify their strengths and weaknesses and better understand their overall needs. Information obtained in the assessment was used to develop Longmont’s strategic plan, which contained specific strategies to improve work practices, technology, and overall organization; increase efficiency and effectiveness; cut costs; and better prepare the utilities for the future.

“Greater emphasis and expectation must be placed on innovation,” said Dale Rademacher, Director, Public Works & Natural Resources at Longmont. “Otherwise we risk becoming irrelevant in the eyes of the public and losing trust and legitimacy in a changing environment. We must be strategic, pay attention to this issue, and allow for change. We can’t be satisfied with status quo.”

The Assessment Process at Longmont

Table 1: The six strategies Longmont developed based on best practices to compete.

Chart 1: Reduction in workforce realized at Longmont was accomplished via attrition and without layoffs.

For today’s water sector utilities, sustainability is the name of the game. Utility leaders continue to face challenges (both within and beyond their control) which demand a strategic approach toward both the day-to-day operations as well as the future viability of the organization.

Recently we asked water and wastewater utility leaders across the United States to share how they define sustainability within their respective organizations and to talk about key issues they face relative to sustainability.

Ted Henifin,
General Manager
Hampton Roads Sanitation District

Sustainability allows future generations to treat wastewater at least as effectively as we do today, paying a similar percentage of their income toward wastewater conveyance and treatment. It is hard to imagine our current business model, that depends on regular rate increases to cover ever-increasing costs, is sustainable.

KEY ISSUES: The combined costs of meeting ever-increasing regulatory demands while replacing/renewing aging infrastructure. We must be careful not to burden future generations with so much debt that they are unable to continue operating cost effectively, nor can we let them inherit infrastructure on the brink of failure. In my opinion, our industry is not sustainable in its current form. A fundamental change in how we convey and treat wastewater is needed if we (the wastewater industry) are going to be sustainable.

Alan Garcia,
Director
Broward County Water and Wastewater Services

Sustainability is the ability to meet the future water and wastewater demands of your customers in a safe, cost effective, reliable, and environmentally responsible manner.

KEY ISSUES: Meeting future water demands with alternative water supply sources due to limited Biscayne Aquifer withdrawal capability. Sea level rise and climate change are also key issues for our sustainability, as well as carbon emissions reduction, future effluent disposal, and the use of reclaimed water.

Mark Premo,
General Manager
Anchorage Water & Wastewater Utility

Sustainability is making sure your utility is realistically planning for and creates a culture that supports:

• the future for both the development of resources necessary for infrastructure expansion and maintenance of assets necessary to continue to provide reliable, quality services to customers;
• the investment in the utility staff, starting with the hiring of professionals in all areas of utility functions and the investment in training for continuous improvement;
• having a system in place for knowledge retention as staff members advance in their respective careers; and
• working with your governing council or board to create and fund a long-range financial plan to accomplish these goals.

KEY ISSUES: Creating a realistic picture of the financial requirements for the future (20+ years) in order to meet the definition of sustainability, and gain council or Board and ratepayer support of that vision.

David Modeer,
General Manager
Central Arizona Project (CAP)

CAP has four different levels of sustainability that must be recognized and maintained:

Water Supply. CAP provides renewable Colorado River water to municipalities, agricultural users, and Native American communities in central and southern Arizona. For some, CAP is their only water supply. CAP must ensure it provides a long-term, reliable supply of high-quality water for these customers.

Energy. energy iCAP must ensure a reliable and affordable supply of baseload electrical s available to meet its obligations.

Financial. CAP must ensure it has the financial resources required to reliably operate, maintain, and replace the infrastructure necessary to deliver more than 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually. We require recurring revenues to meet regular operating and capital costs and cash reserves to respond to unanticipated circumstances.

Organizational. Much of CAP’s workforce is nearing retirement. We must maintain and enhance the specialized skills necessary to maintain and operate the system and preserve the legal and institutional knowledge so critical in the complex regulatory environment in which we operate.

KEY ISSUES: Water Supply. CAP has a junior priority on the Lower Colorado River. As Upper Basin uses increase and a decade-long drought continues to impact river flows, the threat to CAP’s entitlement increases.

CAP is storing millions of acre-feet of water underground to use during shortages. We also are pursuing leases of higher priority water, investigating desalination of brackish groundwater and ocean water, discussing business arrangements with agricultural users such as dry year leases, and seeking other water supplies.

Energy. CAP’s pumps are powered by the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station, which faces an uncertain future due to concerns over greenhouse gas emissions and other constituents. Even without these challenges, this station will eventually reach the end of its useful life, requiring the development of a replacement power source – a large baseload generation facility that is both environmentally sustainable and affordable to customers.

Financial. Significant maintenance and operation costs and massive infrastructure costs will require the ability to fund large capital projects. To do this, we will need to demonstrate to our Board and customers that we are aggressively managing costs and improving organizational efficiency.

Organizational. Upcoming staffing needs are unprecedented. We already are challenged to find qualified recruits in the crafts and trades professions. Succession planning in engineering, financial, and administrative areas also will be critical.

George S. Hawkins,
General Manager
District of Columbia Water & Sewer Authority (DC Water)

As I like to point out, we are the ultimate recycler. At DC Water, we not only distribute the drinking water for the District of Columbia, but when that water is used and enters the sewer system, and runoff enters the combined sewer system, we clean it at Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant and return it to the environment (the Potomac River).

“Sustainability” in service means we maintain, upgrade, and expand the infrastructure that makes up our systems. We also invest in technology that protects the environment for a sustainable future. This means considering the value of newer technologies through the lens of their potential environmental benefits.

Within our operations, “sustainability” means employing, training, and motivating a talented team – what I call “Team Blue” – to maintain and operate our vast systems. Our personnel are in the field in the cold, in the heat, at all hours of the day and night performing hard work to maintain critical service.

KEY ISSUES: There are many issues to face to achieve sustainability in the water/wastewater industry. The most pressing are cost, time, and policy. Cost is, head and shoulders, the greatest barrier. Consider this from the EPA:

• The nation needs nearly $300 billion to fund capital replacements and improvements for sewer and stormwater systems. Washington, DC leads that need at $4,315 per capita.
• For water systems nationwide, an additional $263 billion will be needed over the next 20 years.

Our 10-year capital spending plan totals $3.8 billion. Most of that only covers wastewater treatment improvements to satisfy more stringent regulatory requirements. The irony is that federal funding is falling when federal mandates are increasing.

Our infrastructure is old (including mains installed during the Civil War). Line breaks are more frequent and more severe. Repairing pipes can seem futile, as the next crack may be just a few yards away on the same line. Imagine the time and money we’d save by replacing older lines sooner instead of performing constant patches. Even at an “accelerated” replacement rate of 1% per year, it will take us more than 100 years to replace our water distribution system!

When it comes to environmental sustainability, policy decisions have a huge effect. Here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, much is made of regulating nutrients in effluent at wastewater treatment plants to protect the Bay. But these plants contribute far less nutrients than agricultural runoff. Suburban and urban runoff is also a major source of contaminants. Until there is a policy push to strongly regulate non-point source dischargers of nitrogen and phosphorous, the Bay will not be restored.

Tony Parrott,
Director
Greater Cincinnati Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD)

We are at the heart of our communities’ sustainability. Our industry provides the services and infrastructure that are the very frontlines of protection for public and environmental health. Sustainability is important, because its triple bottom line perspective offers a useful and effective framework for making decisions and investments that result in innovative solutions and support best possible outcomes for people, the environment, and financial considerations for generations to come.

KEY ISSUES: At MSD, we have to strike a balance between our mandated mission to reduce Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) by 85% over the next 20 years and bringing value to our communities and upholding our fiscal responsibility. Current challenges were brought on by decisions made over 100 years ago. We have to make better decisions. Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking that we used when we created them.” New thinking, new solutions, new partnerships, new processes – that’s how we’re thinking at MSD.

Asset Condition & Purpose. We’ve inherited a system of aging infrastructure, necessitating significant costs in replacements and upgrades. We must reduce CSOs and eliminate sanitary sewer overflows as we maintain, replace, and improve our other assets.

Economic Downturn. The downturn has created challenges. Our customer base has grown slower than the rise in operating costs. We are doing more with less and with greater efficiency.

We must create new opportunities that integrate infrastructure projects and deliver community value. People can’t see a buried tunnel that stores and conveys overflow, but they could use a day-lighted urban stream that launches a group of reinvestment projects. We could integrate our improvements with federal projects to create economic synergies. We are working on this.

Internal Change. We must prepare staff, consultants, and contractors for this change, which includes training, development, and reorganization, to ensure the next generation is interested in coming to work for us or water resources management.

Marsi Steirer,
Deputy Director, Water Policy & Strategic Planning
City of San Diego Water Department

Our mission is “to ensure the quality, reliability, and sustainability of water and wastewater services for the benefit of the ratepayers and citizens served. ”Our department secures imported water for over 1.3 million city residents and manages a wastewater system that serves 2.2 million county residents.

Our sustainable practices range from energy conservation, renewable energy generation, biosolids/waste management, water conservation/reuse to protecting the environment, long-range planning, asset management, and greater transparency.

KEY ISSUES: Local Water Availability. San Diego imports about 85% of its water from Northern California and the Colorado River. As a result, San Diego and other local water distributors formed the San Diego County Water Authority to purchase Colorado River water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and convey it to San Diego County. We also seek alternative local water supplies, such as potential groundwater development and expansion of recycled water use, and continue our water conservation program.

Energy Management. A comprehensive energy and greenhouse gas management plan guides our activities around energy consumption, production, and control of emissions. We have also been generating renewable energy with turbines burning digester gas since 1978. Challenges with these systems include: capital cost requirement, tax credit limitations, increased maintenance, and developing and maintaining productive long-term partnerships with City departments and private partners.

Ray Hanson,
Director, Utilities Department
Orange County Utilities

Sustainability for us is managing our utility today to ensure the essential needs of our community will be met for generations to come. Our utility provides water, wastewater, reclaimed water, and solid waste services to over 500,000 residents. Providing these services is essential to ensure that Orange County continues to be a desirable and vibrant community.

KEY ISSUES: Central Florida’s economy has suffered considerably due to the downturn in the housing market. Abundant, cheap, and seemingly limitless groundwater ensured Central Florida’s rapid growth since the debut of Walt Disney World in 1971. The downturn has hit this area hard, with growth rates near zero and home values nearly half those of 2007.

We also are nearing the sustainable limit of our groundwater resources. Future supplies must be developed from expanded use of reclaimed wastewater, which requires expensive retrofitting, and alternate supplies, such as surface water or desalinization of sea water, which will require costly treatment processes and extensive transmission systems.

Water supply needs and the need to fund an expanding rehabilitation and replacement program means our capital funding needs are increasing inversely with our ability to generate capital from fees/charges generated by growth. Developing a financial plan that generates additional revenue from user fees is needed, but increasing fees during an economic downturn is challenging.

We have streamlined operations to be as efficient as possible to minimize rate increases. We have maximized technology as a business strategy. SCADA, CMMS, GIS, and CIS are fully integrated within our business model to maximize unattended operation and more efficiently expedite daily operation. A career program for plant and field specialists improves our efficiency by fostering the skills necessary to meet our expanded use of technology and is a sustainable solution to the problem of a workforce rapidly being depleted by retirement.

Richard Lanyon,
Executive Director
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD)

The MWRD was founded on the basis of sustainability. In the late 1800s, the city was polluting its water source as it tried to grow and develop with an increasingly offensive river. The MWRD was formed to help the city be sustainable by separating the source of water from the location where wastewater was disposed.

Implementation of wastewater collection and treatment and the system of canals to effect drainage has also become a sustainable means of commercial and recreational navigation and reuse of water for cooling and industrial processes. We also use methane gas produced in the digestion of solid residuals to supply about one-third of our energy needs. Biosolids are applied on farm fields, used as top cover on turf grass, and as final landfill cover. Thus sustainability is not a new concept for us.

We continually seek improvements for economy, environmental protection, and betterment in public health and welfare.

KEY ISSUES: Our current sustainability issues are:

• Becoming less dependent on non-renewable energy sources
• Finding ways to be more efficient in energy use
• Increasing use of treated wastewater for in-plant water needs
• Seeking ways to re-use wastewater in the community
• Using native vegetation to reduce landscaping maintenance
• Using natural systems to manage in-plant stormwater
• Streamlining business processes to reduce paper, save time
• Adapting sustainable designs for capital improvement projects
• Encouraging our staff to recycle waste materials or reduce use
• Using biosolids in landscaping District facilities
• Beneficially using 100% of biosolids production
  

Greg DiLoreto,
Chief Executive Officer
Tualatin Valley Water District (TVWD)

Our definition of sustainability has always followed the triple bottom line. Using the triple bottom line, TVWD has incorporated sustainability into everything we do, from the ranking of our capital improvement projects to the performance review of our employees.

Our headquarters building was one of the first in Oregon to achieve LEED certification. TVWD has received a number of awards for our efforts to incorporate sustainability into the operations of the utility. Our commitment to sustainability has been cited by job applicants as one of the most important reasons that they are considering a position with TVWD.

KEY ISSUES: Electricity is the number one contributor to our carbon footprint. Today we offset 100% of our electrical usage with renewable purchases. Solar power provides 20% of the electrical energy at our headquarters. Our goal is to continue to find alternative means of electrical power generation.

Karen Pallansch,
Director
Alexandria Sanitation Authority

Our vision really speaks to our concept of sustainability: “Environment and People – the Best of Both.” Putting our vision into practice means we need to be an industry leader that recognizes the value in giving back to the environment more than we have taken from it.

Being sustainable not only means being good environmental stewards, but making sure that we follow sound financial practices and demonstrate people practices that reflect the times and our present culture. We look at our bottom line constantly to find ways to optimize our processes, our performance, our budgeting, and financial management to help us establish our value and viability into the future.

KEY ISSUES: Requirements are still “silo-driven.” The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and other regulations, often top down without looking at a multi-media approach or impact, minimize our ability to be flexible, to take the time to find the best, most holistic (sustainable) solution. When solutions are looked at in a media-independent manner, wastewater treatment plants must then invest and install capital-intensive, equipment-intensive, and energy-intensive solutions that often return little net benefit to local water quality.

If we turn the focus from high-capital costs to more realistic life-cycle costs, we often find the initial investment in a new idea or technology, even something as simple as energy audits, can appear to have higher up-front costs. Instead, we must teach our consultants, engineering students, and public that the better way to measure is to focus on what it costs over its useful life. Make decisions based upon that useful life and length of service costs.

Engraining sustainability as a part of the engineering/consulting culture is key. We must stop the “it’s a project defined by a task order” mindset. It simply doesn’t work that way. Sustainability is a way of questioning existing beliefs and potential designs on ways not just to do it cheaper, but to make it last while minimizing or eliminating new natural resources.

There aren’t enough research dollars or facilities to make new sustainable solutions part of our everyday life and as affordable and as easy to use as getting into our cars or as comforting as taking a long shower. Sustainability must fit within the bounds of who we are as a culture and society so that we leverage it into the generations that follow – allowing it to grow and our world to be more successful.

Company Overview: Serves more than 417,000 customers Provides retail water services to six cities; wholesale services to two municipalities Manages 96,000 commercial and residential accounts Provides billing services for sanitary sewer charges and other municipal fees to five of the six cities to which it provides water Produces 420,000 bills annually; Handles 12,000 calls per month Max. Treatment Capacity: 144 mgd Annual Revenue: More than $40 million General Statistics: 1,119 miles of water mains 150,000 assets 9,470 fire hydrants 7,500 CMMS work orders/year 12,000 CMMS water service requests/year

IMPLEMENTATION
Committed to Success: Implementing a New CIS

Steve Schneider General Manager

Moving to a new CIS was significant for Saint Paul. The utility had a lot riding on its successful implementation. Detailed planning, careful thought about functional requirements, and staff involvement from all areas of the utility and at all points of the process, supported the project’s success.

“The failure rate for these types of projects is high,” said Steve Schneider, General Manager at Saint Paul. “That was not an option for us. We were committed to this process from the start.”

Following its five-year information technology roadmap, Saint Paul began the process to replace its existing billing system. They selected EMA to help prepare for the new system. But at first, the direction Saint Paul would take was not completely clear. One large question loomed.

Replace or Upgrade?

The notion of replacing Saint Paul’s billing system generated much thought and discussion. The decision was critical. The utility’s CIS technology needs were extensive, and the CIS touched every customer. Strong arguments were made to keep the existing Unisys proprietary system, which was both familiar and functional. Still, as older technology, it had capability limitations and potential long-term maintenance support issues. And there were compelling reasons to move to a new system.

Assessing Needs

Saint Paul worked with EMA to develop a needs assessment that outlined initial project goals and objectives and identified business, customer, and stakeholder needs. EMA also provided an analysis of alternatives and defined the utility’s functional and technical requirements.

“The assessment was very well done,” Schneider said. “It helped us understand what we needed and what we really wanted out of the system.”

Saint Paul took a comprehensive look at its “meter-to-cash” business process. Issues reviewed included workflow management, productivity opportunities, technology support, staff development, and all facets of customer service (i.e. managing customer account data, reading meters, calculating and recording consumption, preparing/mailing bills, recording payments, managing credit and collections, and analyzing revenue data). Other issues, such as integrating with CMMS, were also considered.

It became clear that increased capability was necessary. Saint Paul determined it would move ahead with plans to replace the existing system.

Preparing for a New CIS

Saint Paul took the requisite preparatory steps and became informed. The utility talked with peers and vendors. Staff attended conferences to gain additional knowledge. Saint Paul also participated in the AwwaRF (now WaterRF) CIS project, “Tailored Collaboration: Effective Practices to Select, Acquire, and Implement a Utility CIS.” Saint Paul then developed an RFP for a consultant and selected EMA to help prepare the organization for CIS selection and implementation.

During this process, the utility reviewed its work processes and practices and made improvements, identifying 17 interfaces for the new CIS along the way. Improvements Saint Paul made led to “quick wins” that the utility realized even prior to selecting a CIS. (See “Quick Wins” sidebar)

Defining Process, Determining Goals

Staff participation was critical to the project’s success. Saint Paul established clear roles and responsibilities for both staff and stakeholders and organized into three major groups:

• Steering Committee (decision making, executive guidance)
• Core Team Members (project coordination)
• Subject Matter Experts (additional perspective)

Information Services also actively participated, attending workshops and interviews and providing input on technology and analysis on interface and integration matters.

Following a balanced scorecard approach, the Steering Team established overall project goals. Core Team Members refined the goals and developed more than 90 associated measures. The final five project goals were:

1. Improve Services to Customer
2. Create Efficiencies with Improved Work Processes
3. Maintain Efficiencies of Current System
4. Acquire Appropriate and User-friendly Technology
5. Use Successful Project Management Practices

Selecting the Vendor

Together, Saint Paul and EMA developed an RFP for the new CIS. After narrowing the field down to three vendor candidates, system demonstrations were held at the utility, where Saint Paul staff evaluated the capabilities of each system. Ultimately, Saint Paul selected the Infinity CIS by Advanced Utility Systems (AUS).

Implementing the System

Marie Weinhandl Customer Service Supervisor

Following a well-defined timeline, Saint Paul worked with EMA and the CIS vendor on key components of the project, including: process design, technical configuration, interface development, data conversion, training, and system documentation.

An Implementation Team of utility staffers was created to work closely with AUS on all facets of implementation. System testing was extensive, according to Marie Weinhandl, Saint Paul’s Customer Service Supervisor and member of the Implementation Team. “The system had to support how we do our business,” she explained. “We were in the Testing Center every day testing processes in the new system, figuring out how to do what we needed to do and making sure the system was working correctly.”

Saint Paul’s newsletters kept staff informed about the CIS implementation.

CIS training, both in class and on-the-job, has been significant as well, covering everything from project team training, technical training and management training to end-user training.

Recognizing the value of internal communications, Saint Paul also instituted a newsletter entitled, “From Here to Infinity,” to keep staff informed about the implementation.

Realizing the Benefits

In November 2009, Saint Paul’s new CIS went “live.”

“The big win is that we have an extremely stable and reliable billing and customer service system that has expanded capabilities,” Schneider said.

The new system is much easier to use, according to Weinhandl, who works daily with the system. “We do much more in much less time,” she said, “and offer better service to our customers.”

In addition to the “quick wins” Saint Paul realized early on, there are other big benefits:

• Better customer service (more payment options; expanded billing capability; webbased self-service and complaint tracking coming soon)
• Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capability (project accelerated and in place prior to CIS go-live)
• Detailed account/customer data on one screen
• Enhanced analysis and decision support capabilities
• Greater efficiency in addressing applications for new services
• Integration opportunities between CIS, GIS, and CMMS
• More efficient work practices
• Stronger business process improvement mindset
• Consolidation of customer contacts to the call center for first-contact resolution

Today, Saint Paul staff members are very engaged with their work. The project has fostered strong alignment amongst work colleagues.

INTEGRATION
Building Excellence: Integrating CIS and CMMS Technologies

Steve Gleason Business Division Manager

Christine Meyer Information Services Manager

• Automatically initiate a CMMS service request/work order from a service order created in CIS
• Track hydrant meter assignments to provide a record for computation of charges
• Update CMMS asset history when customer assets receive action (i.e. valve turn on, turn off)
• Update CIS or CMMS with changes made in the other system
• Place completion notes from CIS into CMMS
• Transfer CMMS work order completion information to the CIS, keeping CSRs informed

Figure 1. A view of how the interfaces work between the systems.

Saint Paul followed a rigorous timeline for the implementation and integration projects

1. Elimination of double entry of data; CIS and CMMS synchronize in near real time
2. Improved data quality
3. Hydrant meter billing that is now automatically generated by CIS at season end
4. Up-to-date data improves final billing process (now completed in hours versus days), which improves cash flow
5. Easy retrieval of customer account/billing reports
6. Greater efficiency of work processes that saves time, money
7. Automatic generation of delinquent account service orders
8. More efficient work practices
9. Near-immediate access to field data gives CSRs a better understanding of what is going on in the field
10. Less hard copy documentation due to electronic storage
11. Robust searching capabilities on client account information includes a historical record of any activity on a client record

• Mobile GIS functionality in the field that integrates with CIS and CMMS will put more information out in the field, capture more work and asset data and ultimately eliminate hard copy maps.
• Filtering capability in CIS will enable large-scale mass updating in CMMS.
• GIS-CIS integration will enable the utility to map customer service calls, identify service- or safety-related events that arise, and improve response times and service.

Craig Yokopenic Executive Vice President

A common problem for utilities and municipalities that actively manage their performance is that there is often so much data available, it is difficult to determine what information is actually needed and how best to use it.

Simply reporting numbers is not the solution. Having the right measures and knowing how to use these metrics is what brings meaningful change and improvement.

The City of Doral, Florida (Doral) has learned this firsthand, as the City recently launched a web-based information dashboard that integrates data from various City departments into one system. The dashboard provides easy access to performance measures that are helping Doral improve effectiveness and save money.

Measuring Outcomes, Not Outputs

Doral partnered with EMA to implement a concept that allows the City to consolidate data from several different enterprise systems and present this data in a dashboard view. Metrics presented on the dashboard are displayed in a variety of formats (i.e., tabular, graphing, email notification, or even exception reporting) and reflect more than “just numbers.” The dashboard presents measurements of outcomes that help the City better understand if it is reaching its objectives and truly improving. It is this type of reporting that is helping the City realize true improvement and cost savings.

Different data has different value to different people. Doral’s dashboard recognizes this, and provides the right data in the right format to the right people, enabling all parties (City departments, managers, staff, even citizens) to become more informed and make smarter decisions.

Meaningful measures have helped the City of Doral reduce the number of re-inspections through education.

Smarter Metrics, Smarter Decisions

The outcomes-based dashboard has brought big benefits to the City because the type of data presented shows how the City is improving and increasing efficiency.

Two areas where outcome reporting is now used are in the City’s inspection process and the Police Department. For inspections, instead of a report listing the number of inspections performed in a week (that data is available) the more helpful metric shows the total number of weekly re-inspections due to failed initial inspections. High numbers of re-inspections alert the City of the need to further educate developers in the community.

For Doral’s Police Department, instead of simply reporting how many tickets are issued, the more useful metrics show whether the number of tickets issued is reducing accidents and optimizing traffic flow. Outcome reporting helps the Police make informed decisions about how to manage traffic and enforce safe driving. The right metrics show if a police presence and ticketing effect change in hot spot areas. Finally, it helps the department make more efficient staffing decisions.

For citizens, the benefits of the dashboard data are information and empowerment. The dashboard educates citizens about City government and community issues. Citizens also become part of the City’s improvement process by reporting issues (such accidents or potholes) as they are encountered.

Doral’s success demonstrates that outcomes-based measures, presented in a dashboard, not only keep everyone informed, but have the potential to help both utilities and municipalities realize meaningful improvement through strategic use of metrics.