Colorado Springs, CO Drives $2.5M ROI With OpenGov Asset Management

The Solution

After implementing OpenGov, the traffic engineering department began using data-driven technology to track infrastructure assets that had been badly damaged during disasters. This allowed them to justify costs to FEMA, and bring restitution back into their city funding.

“Without the technology, it’s almost impossible to power all of that information,” says Richter.

Beyond restoration, the department wanted to take its public works asset management a step further. Richter saw an opportunity to increase productivity by combining asset data with work requests—to utilize one smart, efficient system that regulated itself.

“We really wanted to blend in the requests and create an ‘electronic thread’ through the process of maintenance activities, and have it tied directly to the asset,” he says.

“We’re going wireless in the field and taking the paper process out of the equation.”

Between automation and linear referencing systems the department could now look at assets with the use of base maps, meaning each crew no longer needed an electronic device to track GPS coordinates. The traffic department set up a citizen-facing program called “Cone Zones” to alert citizens of public roadwork in their area. They fed data from these zones directly into ArcGIS Online, populating a map for citizens to view online.

“We’re going wireless in the field and taking the paper process out of the equation,” says Richter.

The Results

As OpenGov’s capabilities spread through public works, the team realized there was something contagious about their high-performance data. Soon, other divisions noticed increased efficiencies and sought to replicate them.

“Once we implemented the product, we had other divisions say, ‘You know, we’re in the same situation,’” says Richter. “’We really want to move away from a paper environment and go more electronic.’”

Additional divisions began adopting similar asset management processes, including the forestry department, and parks and recreation. Today, 10 out of 17 public works departments in Colorado Springs use OpenGov, and they’ve seen large efficiencies across the board.

“We’re looking at nearly $2.5 million in ROI over the last ten years of using OpenGov,” says Richter. “Prior to OpenGov, we were lucky if we were able to recoup $1,000 in sign damage for the entire year. After implementing OpenGov, we’ve been able to see a $70,000 return for the first quarter of 2016.”

Specifically, they’ve been able to eliminate steps in workflow processes—just one example of how Colorado Spring uses OpenGov to become a high-performance government. In the traffic engineering workflow alone, they’ve utilized digitized data and asset reporting to remove five inefficient steps and increase productivity.

Now, Richter and his department can’t imagine running the city without OpenGov OMS: “Utilizing OpenGov and Esri’s ArcGIS online has opened brand new doors to us that we never thought about before.”