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BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Five Ways to Justify Your Software Investment

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BUILDING A BUSINESS CASE FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENTWhether you’re looking to implement an operations management system for the first time or

working to replace legacy technology that no longer fits your needs, you’re likely going to need to

justify the investment to your leader, council, commission—and possibly your taxpayers.

This guide covers five key areas to build a business case for operations management software

in your community. These tips are intended to help you articulate the benefits of the investment,

calculate the value of usage, and finalize your proposal so you can get the green light and move

forward in your efforts to become better stewards of your buildings and infrastructure. Money

talks, so let’s get this conversation started.

1. REVENUE REPLACEMENTWhen every dollar matters, what are you doing to get money back in your budget? Maybe you’re

dealing with an unexpected hit to your budget from disaster response or you’re wondering

if there’s a way to recoup some of those pesky costs that add up throughout the year from

damaged infrastructure or cross-department billing. Here are four common ways an operations

management system helps put money back in your budget:

FASTER, MORE COMPLETE FEMA REIMBURSEMENTThe key to securing funds after a disaster is accurate,

comprehensive data. Use Cartegraph to track the cost

of recovery while it’s unfolding, saving you weeks—even

months—of paperwork when it comes time to compile

reporting. Keep tabs on how many people are responding,

what equipment they’re using, how many hours are spent

on which activities, what materials are used, and other

required data points. Set up FEMA rates in your Cartegraph

operations management system, then run a standard

report to quickly calculate the cost of your response and

send the required data to FEMA—ensuring you’ll get your

money faster and you won’t be leaving any reimbursement

dollars on the table.

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RECOUPING THE COST OF DAMAGED ASSETSWhen a driver veers off the road and knocks over a traffic sign, who picks up the bill? In most

municipalities, this becomes an unpredictable—but unavoidable—cost of managing infrastructure.

A city in Colorado started using Cartegraph with ArcGIS to change that. By tracking damaged

infrastructure in relation to accident reports and billing the appropriate parties for damage, they

were able to recoup $70,000 for damaged guardrails, signs, and signal damage in just three months.

THE COST OF SHARED SERVICESThe nature of local government is to offer service and support where needed. Sometimes that’s

a public works department setting up barricades for an upcoming marathon organized by the

parks and recreation division. Sometimes it’s a county offering specialized services to cities and

villages without access to those resources. Do you quantify the amount of that work today? And

are you able to charge it back efficiently and effectively, securing the revenue back into your

department budget?

GETTING GRANT DOLLARSThe key to securing grants is data. You’ll need data for the application and for the outputs to prove

how you’re using the capital when you receive it. If your infrastructure data lives in filing cabinets,

this reporting can be a daunting—and sometimes impossible—task. With Cartegraph’s operations

management system, you’ll spend less time digging around to find the information you’re looking

for and more time writing an awesome grant that’s delivered ahead of schedule.

PRO TIP: Use a work order to track the true cost

of a special event. Then use that data to

determine the cost of the use permit in

the future.

One city recouped $70,000 for damaged assets in just 3 months with the

help of Cartegraph and ArcGIS.

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2. COST AVOIDANCEUnexpected expenses are frustrating, especially when they can be avoided. What are you doing to

protect yourself from these common pitfalls? From negligence to personal injury, lawsuits against

local government agencies are more common than you may think. Reduce your liability with

reliable data.

When you can prove that you did the required work or that your crews weren’t in the area of an

alleged incident, you will save your municipality thousands of dollars in damages—and hundreds

of hours in legal battles. Here are three examples of lawsuits that Cartegraph customers can nip in

the bud with a simple report:

• Trip Hazards. By tracking and identifying trip hazards along sidewalks, your municipality can

make sure crews grind those hazards and keep the sidewalk safe for your residents. Time-

stamped work orders will demonstrate when the work was complete.

• Tree Inspections. When a storm blew down a city tree and caused property damage, the

City of Dyersville, IA was threatened with a lawsuit. After sharing time-stamped inspection

reports proving the tree wasn’t a hazard, the resident dropped all legal action.

• Downed signs. A downed stop sign in a busy intersection can be dangerous. One Colorado city

was in the midst of repairing the damage when a car entered the intersection without yielding

and collided with another vehicle. With time-stamped work orders proving when the incident

happened, when the crew was dispatched, and when the work was complete, the city pulled

a report in a few minutes and shut down a $250,000 negligence lawsuit.

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MORE COST AVOIDANCE CONSIDERATIONS

CROSS-DEPARTMENT VISIBILIT YHas your city ever torn up a newly-paved street to replace an aging water main? It’s frustrating for

crews and residents alike. Avoid costly issues with a central system to coordinate maintenance

plans across divisions.

COMPLIANCE AND MANDATESWhen your state rolls out a new mandate related to asset management or infrastructure safety,

do you have the data to demonstrate that you’re in good standing? With Cartegraph, the City of

Newcastle, WA was able to shore up their stormwater data in 6 months and avoid costly fines.

CONTRACTOR WARRANTIESDo you contract out pavement work in your community? If so, how do you ensure quality? The

City of New Braunfels, TX uses Cartegraph and ArcGIS to track their 2-year bond warranties with

local contractors. The system reminds them to do mid-warranty inspections and request any

needed corrections before they officially accept a street.

With Cartegraph, the City of Newcastle, WA was able to shore up their

stormwater data in 6 months and avoid costly fines for violations.

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3. THE VALUE OF EFFICIENCY

ELIMINATE DAILY MEETINGSWith a mobile-first operations management system, you no longer need to gather your staff for

a daily standup. No more handing out hard copies of work orders or maps. Instead, all tasks and

work assignments are available on smartphones and tablets—ready to go from anywhere.

Here’s a simple calculation of the potential value:

Let’s say you have a crew of 10 and your daily assignment meeting is 30 minutes long. That’s 25

hours a week that your crew can spend doing work (instead of talking about doing work). Apply an

average labor cost to put a price tag on the efficiency gain.

Fill in the equation below to determine the value of your efficiency gain:

[ ] X [ ] X [ ] =

[ ] X [ ] = $

STOP WASTING MONEY ON PAPERWORKHow long does it take you to create and print your work orders today? How long does it take a crew

member to write down all the information on the form or for your office staff to enter that data into

the system? How many work orders get lost, left in trucks, or pile up on your desk before they get

filed? How much time does it take to pull the information you need for budget season?

These may seem like insignificant questions, but there’s a real cost associated with running your

operation on paper. For example, Kingsport, TN estimates that Cartegraph saves them 30 minutes

a day per crew member.

Fill out the right side of the table below to estimate the value you can gain from using a mobile-

first operations management system.

VALUE GAINED REPLACING PAPER WITH DIGITAL YOU TRY

a. How many workers will use the system?

b. On average, how much time do they spend on paperwork?

c. How many work days are in a year?

d. What is your average hourly rate for field workers? $

e. Additional value gained per worker per year $

f. Total value gained from time savings per year $

To find the value of “e” multiply “b*c*d=e”. To find the value of “f” multiply “a*e=f”.

Length of daily meeting in hours Number of days in a work week Number of crew members Hours saved per week

Average labor rate ($/hr)Hours saved per week Value of efficiency gain

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USE AUTOMATIONS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVIT YSet Cartegraph up to do some of the work for you. Every time you cut down a tree, you know

you need to grind the stump. When you complete a repair, you know a follow-up inspection is

needed. By automating repeatable actions, you reduce human error and, most importantly, put

more time back in your day. Clay County Utility Authority estimates a savings of $110,000 dollars

annually by automating steps in their hydrant inspection program. They use automations to

generate maintenance tasks based on deficiency and deactivate out-of-service hydrants in their

ArcGIS database.

4. CONTINUITY OF OPERATIONSWhen you’re taking care of buildings and infrastructure, there is always work that needs to be

done—regardless of budget constraints or unexpected circumstances. How will you maximize

your resources? In addition to the clear benefit of being able to work from anywhere to keep things

moving, here are three smart ways that agencies are able to use their data to do more with less.

PROGRAM-BASED BUDGETINGEver wondered whether it made sense to outsource certain tasks? When is it smarter to do the

work in-house and when is it more cost-effective to hire a third-party contractor? The data will

tell you. With Cartegraph, you can quickly see the total cost of any given program. Compare that

with contractor bids and the path forward will be clear. This is helpful for street sweeping, snow

plowing, mowing, and more.

How much do you spend on street sweeping each year? $_________________

How much do you spend on snow plowing each year? $_________________

How much do you spend on mowing each year? $_________________

With this data, you’ll also be able to determine how much of a service you can afford to provide at a

given budget level. If your budget is reduced by $500,000, do you need to reduce frequency of street

sweeping or mowing? Do you need to adjust your criteria for sending the plows out? Once you have

program-based budgeting, you can do priority-based budgeting and keep your efforts focused on

the work that matters most.

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CONDITION-BASED MAINTENANCEWhat if you could do maintenance at the right time to extend the life of your infrastructure? Instead

of footing the bill for a costly repair when something breaks down (reactive maintenance) or doing

unnecessary work on a strictly time-based preventative maintenance schedule, you can rely on

condition information from inspected assets to determine what work to do at the right time. This

helps ensure that your assets stay in reliable working condition, minimizing breakdowns and

downtime of critical equipment—and cutting costs.

DATA-DRIVEN ADJUSTMENTSWhere can you uncover efficiencies in your workflow? Are there routine tasks that you can revisit

and put on a new cadence to free your crews up to do other things? Are you using a material that

may seem less expensive at first, but requires more frequent application, so it ends up costing

more in the long run? Using the data in Cartegraph, you can identify areas to make adjustments,

giving you more time to be productive.

For example, the City of Arlington, TX Parks Department put their Cartegraph OMS data to work

and discovered their smaller, less-used parks could be cleaned once or twice a week (instead of

daily) without affecting visitor satisfaction. The team put a new, data-driven schedule into action

that helped them save 3,300 hours—or $60,000 in labor costs—in less than a year.

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5. SMARTER BUDGETINGBudget season can be a time-consuming and overwhelming process. Where does your money

go? What are the top activities and costs of your organization? Are there areas for improvement?

This information requires pulling data from several sources—unless you have it organized in

Cartegraph. Here are three pro tips to guide your budget preparations and presentations:

• Use data to back up your budget requests. This is particularly beneficial when it comes to

pavement budgeting. If your council and residents have expectations of maintaining your

street network at a certain level, you can run reports to show what it will cost to keep it

that way.

The City of West Des Moines Public Works department hasn’t seen a budget cut since 1994.

“When you go in with a report that says here’s how much I need, here’s why and here’s what I

will do with it, it’s more powerful,” says Joe Cory, deputy public works director.

“Our budget doesn’t get cut,” says Cory. “The reason it doesn’t get cut is because our council

has a lot of confidence in the numbers. If Cartegraph says we need $4 million to maintain

our OCI, then the council says, ‘That’s what it has to be.’ They understand we can’t have

brand-new streets covering the city, but they also understand the value of keeping our

streets in good condition to save money down the road.”

BUILD TRUST WITH RESIDENTS, TOOGain community member trust by using data and being objective. Set them at ease

by answering their questions quickly, correctly, and consistently. If you ever need to

increase taxes to help fund infrastructure work, you have the data to back it up. When

residents can clearly see and understand the impact on their infrastructure, they’re

more likely to vote in your favor.

JOE CORY, DEPUTY PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR City of West Des Moines, IA

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Be prepared to discuss the impact of budget cuts to any particular program—and use visual

aids when you can. For example, you can use Cartegraph with ArcGIS to show the condition

of your pavement network three ways: current condition, projected condition based on your

budget request, and projected condition based on proposed cuts (e.g. if you cut $2 million

from our pavement program this year, here’s what our roads will look like in 5 years)

• Plan ahead by determining a condition-based replacement schedule for every asset. Use

Cartegraph’s OCI tool to identify when an asset needs to be replaced. With visibility on

your entire network of assets, you can request appropriate funding to replace benches,

mowers, playground sets, trucks, hydrants, and more.

• Identify maintenance costs for anything you want to build. Let’s say you’re planning to

build a new park. Look beyond the initial cost of design and construction. Include projected

maintenance costs based on similar assets in your network to provide a comprehensive

proposal to the council or commission.

NEXT STEPSIf you’re looking for more information on the benefits of operations management, struggling to get

buy-in at your organization, or wondering how Cartegraph can help your community, drop us a line

at success@cartegraph.com. We’re always happy to help!

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IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT YOU’LL LIKE THESE RESOURCES:

ABOUT CARTEGRAPHCartegraph builds safer, more resilient and sustainable communities through better stewardship

of buildings and infrastructure. They offer powerful, intuitive SaaS solutions that help government

agencies, higher education institutions, and private companies manage their physical assets and

associated operations. With Cartegraph software, users optimize the life of their infrastructure,

deploy maintenance resources efficiently, and increase productivity to drive high-performance

operations. For more information, visit cartegraph.com.