Excerpt:
Sacramento County’s Department of Water Resources upgraded their wastewater management system with NEXGEN’s innovative wastewater management software – a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) solution. This powerful software streamlined data migration, facilitated comprehensive asset management across a vast area, and seamlessly integrated with existing systems. The result? Faster field operations, improved communication, and data-driven decision-making for optimal wastewater management.
Sacramento County Department of Water Resources is upgrading its asset management system, undergoing a digital transformation that enables them to better serve their customers.
A new CMMS from NEXGEN is making it possible with an industry-leading software solution that powers organization-wide efficiencies, boosted productivity, and smarter, data-driven decision-making.
Sacramento County’s legacy CMMS was somewhat complicated, not very easy to manage, maintain, and remain in compliance with. The future launch of a new mobile technologybased initiative compelled major stakeholders to evaluate new asset management software solutions that could support their growth and evolution towards a fully digital system.
NEXGEN presented an attractive alternative that checked many of the boxes that the previous system did not—with its proven end-to-end implementation and change management approach.
01. Challenge.
Sacramento County Department of Water Resources needed to migrate their historical work order data from their legacy system into NEXGEN’s CMMS. And they needed to meet an aggressive timeframe for the project. 14 months, to be exact.
Some of the core challenges that needed to be overcome by NEXGEN’s team included the following:
- Efficiently mapping a significant volume of asset data from a vastly different software solution. Both divisions contain different horizontal and vertical asset inventories requiring uniquely diverse workflows and requirements.
- Configuring and deploying a new comprehensive AM system that could manage all assets and maintenance operations spanning over 1,000 square miles, servicing over 1.6 Million people.
- Seamlessly integrating all historical asset data within Sacramento County’s geographic information system (GIS), 311 services, financial system, billing system, CCTV, and 811 digital alert system, amongst other system integrations.
“WE HAVE A LOT OF SECTIONS IN THE DEPARTMENT THAT DIDN’T USE OUR PREVIOUS CMMS SYSTEM. SO, IT WASN’T JUST A CHANGE IN SYSTEMS BUT IT [INVOLVED] AUTOMATION IN GENERAL. DISCONTINUING A PAPER FORM [WORKFLOW] AND DOING IT ON A TABLET OR COMPUTER SCREEN, WHICH IS A CHANGE ALSO FOR US,” SAYS NEIL PHABY, SUPERVISING IT ANALYST, SACRAMENTO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES.
02. Why NEXGEN?
Sacramento County recognized that NEXGEN’s team could take on the challenge and get the job done—on time and budget—implementing a new CMMS that would transform previous challenges into powerful technological advantages.
Decision-makers understood that NEXGEN’s advanced functionalities would enable them to easily configure the new CMMS to fit their business processes and requirements. NEXGEN’s user-friendly, intuitive user interface and mobile maintenance applications, available anytime, from anywhere, were simply game-changers.
“[WE] FOUND THAT NEXGEN’S SOFTWARE PROGRAM WAS EASIER TO ADMINISTER AND USE THAN ANY OTHERS…[DUE TO] THE ASSET MANAGEMENT PLANNING EXPERTISE DEMONSTRATED BY NEXGEN’S MANAGEMENT AND CLIENT SUCCESS TEAM,” SAYS PHABY.
Sacramento County is utilizing NEXGEN’s team-based model for the project, which has a proven track record of success, to help spearhead and strategically guide the implementation process.
Clearly defined executive, asset management, project management, and administrative teams are helping drive coordination and alignment, inter-department communication and open channels for input and feedback, and coordination of the ongoing training NEXGEN provides. This has been fundamental to gaining support and buy-in across the organization.
“OUR ADMINISTRATION TEAM IS MADE UP OF IT, CUSTOMER SERVICE, AND ADMIN SUPPORT. WE MEET FREQUENTLY AND HOST WORKSHOPS WITH THE [COUNTY’S] END-USERS. WE ARE BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER AND ENHANCING OUR WORKING RELATIONSHIP. THIS HAS REALLY [GENERATED] A HUGE BUY-IN FROM OUR END-USERS,” SAYS VICKI BRENNAN, ASSET MANAGEMENT ADMINISTRATOR, SACRAMENTO COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES.
NEXGEN’s subject matter experts are leveraging their deep experience and advanced tools and technology to successfully configure and deploy the CMMS that fits the Department of Water Resources’ asset management goals.
3. Results.
NEXGEN’s implementation and change management model is helping to lay the groundwork not only for a successful deployment, but a sustainable software solution that is enabling the department to provide the very best service to its customers.
“NEXGEN’S ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITIES ARE ALLOWING US TO CONFIGURE THE SYSTEM TO FIT OUR BUSINESS PROCESSES, WORKFLOWS, AND USER REQUIREMENTS,” SAYS PHABY. “THEIR PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE SUPPORTS [OUR] LONG TERM ASSET MANAGEMENT GOALS WITH ASSET LIFECYCLE PLANNING, FUNDING FORECASTS, RISK ANALYSIS, AND CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (CIP) SCENARIO PLANNING. THESE TOOLS AID IN CRITICAL DECISION-MAKING FOR MAINTENANCE, REHABILITATION, AND REPLACEMENT OF OUR DRAINAGE AND WATER SUPPLY ASSETS.”
All service requests, work orders, and preventive maintenance functionalities are up and running in Sacramento County’s CMMS—on schedule and budget.
The Department of Water Resources’ field personnel are utilizing NEXGEN Mobile technology and GIS mapping capabilities available on their smart devices, to complete their work faster and smarter. This new mobile functionality enables them to view and more efficiently manage assets and maintenance operations across over 1,000 square miles of service area.
“WE’RE ELIMINATING A LOT OF PAPER AND GAINING EFFICIENCIES IN MANY AREAS. THROUGH THE MOBILE PLATFORM, WE’RE SEEING IMPROVED COMMUNICATION BETWEEN OUR SECTIONS, WHICH IS A NICE THING. WE’RE ALSO USING GIS TO MAKE CORRECTIONS TO OUR ASSETS THROUGH NEXGEN, WHICH IS A WONDERFUL TOOL,” SAYS BRENNAN.
NEXGEN’s implementation, training, and client success teams are working hand-in-hand with
Sacramento County’s stakeholders. Providing customizable training, continued learning opportunities, and 24/7 support serves as the building blocks for a collaborative relationship that will continue to blossom into the future.
