The Solution
During the discovery process, the city realized they already had the technology they needed to become more efficient. “The common theme as we worked to eliminate applications was GIS. It’s the middle man that brings all of these systems together,” says Riggs.
The department wasn’t surprised that GIS was key to uniting its technology—they had considered it a potential solution for years. But they were surprised by the power of OpenGov to do so much more than they were using it for.
“We’re using the power of each system to do what it does best.”
“The power of what GIS can do is pretty known. Where we start talking about integrations, and pushing and pulling data—that’s not as widely known,” says Riggs. “And that’s where we’ve seen the biggest bang for our buck.”
Riggs says more employees are using OpenGov’s work order management software now than ever. “We were able to move functions and data and processes out of other systems into OpenGov.”
He points to an ongoing project in Washington state to identify potential lead in water mains. Cities are being called upon to identify installation dates, material types, size, and more. Engineering staff was capturing the information in ArcGIS Online until the IT department realized it would be more efficient to publish the basemap in OpenGov and track the asset data there. “We’re using the power of each system to do what it does best,” adds Riggs.
The Results
The department kicked off its three-year strategic plan in 2016 and is seeing increased efficiencies across the board.
Budget Planning. Auburn eliminated StreetSaver in favor of OpenGov infrastructure planning software. The tool allows them to do more than track an asset. The staff uses it to justify budget requests to city council. “We’re in a budget season right now,” Riggs explains. “So we ran scenarios like: if the goal is to increase overall network condition by 10%, here’s what it would cost you. Or, if we don’tchange anything, this is how the condition of our pavement would decrease.”
“Now that we’re making data-driven decisions, it’s easier, but it’s something we’ve never had before,” says Riggs. “It’s eye-opening and powerful information. These scenarios served as conversation starters. They opened up the door to important questions: Are we doing this the right way? Are we picking the right streets? Do we have the right amount of money?” Riggs says these are difficult discussions—but now, they can collaboratively set budgets and define goals in a whole new way.
OpenGov + Esri. It may seem simple, but Auburn’s IT department is celebrating the single sign-on between OpenGov and ArcGIS Online. “The golden handshake between OpenGov and Esri has really made our lives a whole lot easier,” says Riggs.
The capabilities of this integration go beyond simply pushing data between two systems. “We’re starting to open up the power of the two together in one environment,” Riggs explains. “It’s like having ArcGIS Online within OpenGov. We can publish a basemap with data—like parcel lines—that may have nothing to do with the data in OpenGov, but are huge for the guys in the field who need to know: ‘Whose parcel is this? Am I crossing a line?’ Having that data in OpenGov is huge.”
Smart Projects. The City of Auburn has replaced all of its water meters with smart meters and now gets instant updates when an asset needs maintenance. This is just one example of how they’re using smart data to leverage assets and make decisions on other smart investments.
Now they’re diving into other siloed areas—such as traffic accident data and asset restoration. They are tracking funds, monitoring compliance issues on ADA ramps and sidewalks, and more. Overall, the department is building bridges to bring people and processes together through shared data.
“Being a smart city has different meaning to different people,” says Riggs. “To me, its leveraging what we have now and making it better—not going out and buying things people won’t use. We have lots of talented people and lots of apps that are doing really good things. And we have tons of data. Our focus is on leveraging all three more efficiently to make better decisions and to provide transparency to both citizens and staff.”
