Complete Guide to Municipal Asset Management Software

What is Asset Management?

An integrated approach to monitoring, operating, maintaining, upgrading, and disposing of assets cost-effectively, while maintaining a desired level of service and is intended for improving the overall business performance.

What is Municipal Asset Management Software?

A municipal asset management software helps to optimize municipal operations and ensure the smooth functioning of city systems and city activities. It is a software application that automates the asset management functions of the government so that city managers can effectively and economically manage a wide swath of city operations, including capital assets inventory, analysis, and planning.

Benefits of Municipal Asset Management Software

Asset management software is used to efficiently manage all equipment assets (fixed, semi fixed and mobile assets), to track their location, and monitor their usage. Although asset management software is available for single-business organizations, the widespread use of it is in the public sector, where it can be used for managing public assets such as property, or infrastructure. Three main benefits of an asset management system include:

Cost savings and increased efficiency
Improved data accuracy
Decrease in equipment downtime.

The most widely used use for an asset management system is for fleet, and fleet management software is a branch of asset management system just for fleet management. By using software a fleet manager can schedule vehicle maintenance more efficiently, reduce the total amount of fleet vehicle downtime, and lower the costs of vehicle maintenance.

Four Types Of Municipal Assets

When it comes to managing equipment assets for municipalities, there are basically four types of them:

Infrastructure
Vehicles
Equipment
Intellectual assets (business and financial systems)

In the United States infrastructure includes public construction and public property. In the United Kingdom the definition of infrastructure is similar to the US definition, but with additional emphasis on transport, access (to buildings and facilities), utility services (water, electricity and telecommunication), and education. In both countries, infrastructure is funded from general tax revenues and charging users directly.

Asset Management Tools
Asset Management Software
Asset Management Systems
Asset Tracking Software
Deployment of Asset Management Systems

Asset Management Implementation

Municipal initiatives are being implemented in various states and cities including: California, Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Maryland. Leading municipalities such as Los Angeles, Kansas City and Chicago are reaping the financial control and service benefits of this software.

Municipal asset management software solutions—like SCADA, AMS (Automated Meter Reading), and computers, mobile devices and other tools—help cities and towns achieve a range of operational and financial benefits—including increased fuel and water conservation, reduced truck fleet maintenance costs, increased capacity of on-demand services, and higher productivity and efficiency in service delivery.

Most municipalities operate fleets of fire trucks, police cars and garbage trucks. Municipal leaders can also act politically to reduce congestion and pollution in cities by deploying more fuel-efficient vehicles such as hybrid vehicles, cars with alternative fuels and electric vehicles. Municipal fleet management software is a tool that improves the efficiency of fleet operations and services.

Asset management software can help government agencies to better understand the condition of their assets and equipment. Asset management tools include:

A complete suite of field service software for government departments.

Asset management software, helps the city to effectively plan and optimize the maintenance, repair, and replacement of assets thereby maximizing the return on investment.

Properly place and manage assets using field service software.

Facilitate asset and vehicle sharing within departments, regions, and municipalities.

Improve the efficiency of field service operations, such as managing travel, field officers and other assets, and driver and equipment utilization. This allows government agencies to focus on tasks that make them most effective and responsive to citizens and businesses.

In the public sector, asset management software is an important asset management tool that not only reduces costs and improves services but also becomes an important service quality checklist. This is because by using an asset management system you can steadily increase service quality, asset by asset.

Asset management software is designed to work within an existing organizational structure, such as a municipal government. It is helpful to view the municipal asset management software as an overlay of processes and information on top of existing structures. This allows the users of the asset management system to continue with the current workflow processes, while at the same time allows for a richer and broader view of the operations. The information flow between the current and the operational structure is traditional paper-based and informal.

Common municipal asset management software tools include:

Service Requests

Although hardware components of asset management systems provide necessary information about city assets, it is infrequently updated or is not updated automatically. For instance, an asset tracking system may monitor the vehicle’s location and status, but it is difficult to link the vehicle’s current utilization to a planned maintenance schedule or allocations of city funds. In a manually managed environment, a city employee must update the asset management system manually with detailed (but seldom up-to-date) information such as an information on the vehicle’s maintenance schedule or whether the plow in the city’s snow removal fleet has been taken into the City garage for repairs.

Asset management software enables government agencies to improve the accuracy of information used in decision-making. They can use asset management systems to update the software with newer information more frequently and in a “push” manner, as opposed to the current “pull” manner, by which government employees manually update asset management systems with only the data they want to collect. For example, a city might want to update an asset management system’s software with a particular vehicle’s condition or maintenance history. This data is collected and entered into the software by a mobile device or laptop computer and is updated in the asset management software when the vehicle’s location is identified by a vehicle tracking system.

Asset management systems generally use two types of software systems:

Enterprise Asset Management
Field Service Management Systems

One of the major challenges faced by municipalities in utilizing IT solutions is the complexity of traditional, manual systems used for managing their assets. A number of software applications are used to support assets management; however, each application focuses on a specific area of asset management. Without a holistic approach to solving asset management challenges, municipalities are unable to take full advantage of technology.

Enterprise asset management software enables government agencies to take a holistic approach to managing their assets, focusing on user and process requirements. Enterprise asset management software enables government agencies to better monitor and control their capital assets across the business and enhance collaboration by providing common workspaces. This software also improves management of service delivery.

As municipalities increasingly look to utilize more than just traditional asset management tools, a growing number of organizations are developing field service software to help governments manage their everyday maintenance functions and achieve a higher level of service.

Field service software is also called as work order management software or asset management software because it helps municipal government agencies to manage activities in the field, such as construction quality control or snow plow routing. It is used for complex and diverse municipal operations in a variety of sectors and provides the visibility and reporting needed to optimize overall performance while providing a single view of operations.

The field service software solution enables government agencies to collect and manage the information necessary to buy and maintain equipment, plan city services, and to plan for future maintenance schedules. A field service software solution allows government agencies to see the relationship between their assets and the services they provide.

In addition to providing a holistic approach to asset management, enterprise asset management software also provides powerful and secure web-based tools for scheduling, estimating, work and service orders, and project management that can lead to more efficiency, lower costs, increased accountability, and overall improved services.

IT Strategies or Roadmap

Asset management software can make major improvements in service delivery performance. A well-executed asset management system will give public agencies, municipalities and service providers a more complete and accurate view of the current state of the assets/assets being maintained, making it possible to make better and more informed decisions about future repair or replacement. It also gives government agencies the information they need to optimize the operations, increase service quality, reduce costs, and improve workflows.

For example, an asset management system can help a municipality plan with more certainty when to replace the thousands of miles of streets and thousands of overhead utility lines.

Asset management software also can make it easier to find better ways to reduce costs and improve service delivery, making monitoring and control of capital assets crucial first steps in a government agency’s overall IT strategy.

Metrics

The benefit of adopting asset management software is to “identify areas and metrics to measure. This makes it easier for depolyees to identify areas to improve and better serve the citizenry. While initial return on investment can be challenging, ultimately the payback can be tremendous. Improved service delivery and reduced costs.

Use of GIS or other utilities

Asset management needs to be an integral part of any municipality’s IT strategy.

A more complete and accurate view of the current state of the assets makes it possible to make better and more informed decisions about future repair or replacement. It also gives government agencies the information they need to optimize the operations, increase service quality, reduce cost, and improve the workflows of government services.

For example, an asset management system can help a municipality plan with more certainty when to replace the thousands of miles of streets and thousands of overhead utility lines.

In addition to requiring government agencies to get a complete and accurate view of the current state of the assets. It also gives government agencies the information they need to optimize the operations, increase service quality, reduce cost, and improve the workflows of government services.

For example, an asset management system can help a municipality plan with more certainty when to replace the thousands of miles of streets and thousands of overhead utility lines.

In addition to requiring government agencies to get a complete and accurate view of the current state of the assets, it also gives government agencies the information they need to optimize the operations, increase service quality, reduce cost, and improve the workflows of government services.

For example, an asset management system can help a municipality plan with more certainty when to replace the thousands of miles of streets and thousands of overhead utility lines.

What to look for when picking out your Municipal Asset Management Software?

An array of software options exists to help public-sector organizations track their assets. An effective software solution for municipalities must have multiple functions that allow officials to track, manage and reduce their capital assets. Here are some of the leading features and functions to look for when shopping for city asset management software:

Municipal asset management software helps you manage assets with greater accuracy and efficiency

Businesses and institutions with a large number of assets need an easy way to manage and keep track of what they own. Budgeting and financial modeling becomes more feasible and transparent when you have a clear understanding of your possessions. An efficient asset management system provides accurate, up-to-date information about your hardware and physical assets. This information is key for effective asset management and planning of purchases.

City asset management software must provide some way of communicating with asset owners

Asset managers need to be able to communicate with the asset owners and advise them about specific equipment needs. Managers can update owners on the need for maintenance and scheduled replacement for any asset that is on the borderline of usability. This means that owner contacts must be automated and they must be easily accessible and easy to use.

When choosing a city asset management software, you may prefer a program that runs on your existing database

If you already have an existing database of files and your asset management system is currently a manual system, you will want to choose software that runs in conjunction with your existing database. This will reduce the time spent re-entering local data sets into the asset management system.

Meanwhile, certain professionals who do not have experience doing this type of information management will benefit from a city asset management software program that runs on its own database. These databases frequently allow users to retrieve, analyze and compare information in a way that is difficult or impossible using an attached database.

There are many municipal asset management software options available to you, no matter what your preferences are. When you are comparing programs, you should take the time to list out the exact features and functions that you require for your asset management system. That way, you can be sure that your chosen software has everything you need, and nothing you don’t.

Municipal Asset Management Announcements

Government agencies to get a complete and accurate view of the current state of the assets, it also gives government agencies the information they need to optimize the operations, increase service quality, reduce cost, and improve the workflows of government services.

For example, an asset management system can help a municipality plan with more certainty when to replace the thousands of miles of streets and thousands of overhead utility lines.