South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks Starts Their High-Performance Journey
We’re excited to announce that South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (SDGFP) is using OpenGov work and asset management software on their journey to building high-performance government!
SDGFP oversees parks, fisheries, wildlife, and all related assets across the state. With 7.2 million visitors, the century-old organization has a wide purview, managing campgrounds, recreation areas, water access, buildings, and education facilities. The agency is responsible for a mountain of infrastructure and is beginning to capture all that asset data with OpenGov.
The agency’s asset management story began in early 2018, when the assistant director of SDGFP spoke with team members across multiple parks to see how they were managing and documenting their assets. Quickly realizing each park district was doing things differently depending on the region and who was running it, the SDGFP team set out to create one unified system.
“The big goal now is to have one system in place that drives their business processes and eliminates surprises,” says Dawn Frommelt, senior project manager at OpenGov.
“Each park district was doing things differently depending on the region and who was running it.”
The South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks team piloted two parks at the outset. Their OpenGov implementation team counseled them in best practices, including how to set and achieve goals with reporting, asset management, and five-year budget planning. OpenGov also set up reports and gadgets to track usage of the system, partnering with SDGFP Engineer Kailey Selby, the agency’s designated OpenGov Champion.
SDGFP quickly saw value in the ability to access on-the-field information, and decided to expand into four more parks that made sense to fit into the overarching plan.
So far SDGFP has created over 55 asset libraries in OpenGov across six parks, boat ramps, and an outdoor campus. Many of these were custom assets, such as campsites, power pedestals, utility lines, and septic tanks. OpenGov worked with the agency to strategize which assets should be added; namely those that degrade, have specific and measurable data points, and need repairs over time.
SOUTH DAKOTA GAME, FISH, AND PARKS BY THE NUMBERS:
As of April 2019, the agency has:
The training allowed SDGFP to capture all data points relevant to their large asset library. They are excited to be self-sufficient in their ability to to scale asset management, add new asset types at their own pace, and eventually expand throughout the state.
The team is now scouring their parks using iPads to capture data on individual assets. They’re leveraging the productized integration with ArcGIS, using the Esri Collector app to quickly and accurately gather data in both systems.
Once all the data is collected, SDGFP will use OpenGov mobile apps to manage their daily work and drive decisions up and down the departmental chain.
“The team will have budget justification for data and technology decision-making. It’s a critical step in their capital improvement plan: transitioning from a guessing game to a standardized, data-driven system,” says Frommelt. “The agency will analyze, capture and repair from the field all the way up to the management level. They’re excited to have fewer moments hitting them by surprise.”
About OpenGov
OpenGov is the leader in modern cloud software for our nation’s cities, counties, and state agencies. With a mission to power more effective and accountable government, OpenGov serves more than 1,600 agencies across the U.S. and is built exclusively for the unique budgeting, procurement, asset management, and citizen services needs of the public sector. The OpenGov Cloud makes organizations more collaborative and efficient and enables best-in-class communication with stakeholders and community.
Published: May 25, 2019