How technology is the forgotten hero in asset management

Technology can save the day

Technology is the forgotten hero in asset management, coming to the rescue by making asset management simple, efficient and effective. It can help councils both on a strategic level, and by simplifying the day-to-day lives of staff.

Capturing the full picture of asset information in one integrated database gives local government organisations complete visibility over every asset. It makes it easy to measure, improve performance, and enhance maintenance strategies.

Moving from paper-based manual processes to a single source of truth ensures councils’ valuable assets are accounted for, deployed, maintained, upgraded, and disposed of when needed, underpinning growth with a solid digital core.

By combining human know-how with technology, data, and analytics, local councils can make informed decisions, reduce risk, predict potential failures, and prioritise maintenance.

Council field staff’s day-to-day jobs can be simplified by providing them with the technology they need to manage everything from regular inspections to routine and reactive maintenance. Staff need to stay connected whether they’re in the office or out in the field, especially for efficiency and productivity, and it's also vital for them to capture asset data from any device, anywhere, at any time.

Speed up response times

Embracing technology is key to making fast, informed, data-driven decisions about local governments’ assets, speeding up response times and improving customer service delivery.

When ratepayers report incidents to councils, they want things fixed quickly. Using asset management technology, work orders from customer requests and preventative maintenance schedules can be automatically generated and quickly assigned to a team based on the health of the assets, saving precious time and allowing better management of short—and long-term risks.

Clarence Valley Council has seen great efficiency gains in utilising TechnologyOne’s Enterprise Asset Management product Field App to manage and respond to customer requests.

“Their [customers’] requests or their complaints coming into Council are triaged and sent out quickly to staff to respond to graffiti or potholes,” said Matt Davidson, Corporate Systems Coordinator, Clarence Valley Council.

Migrating outdoor staff from manual paper-based timesheets to electronic timesheets and combining all systems into a single source of truth has allowed Clarence Valley Council to complete projects well ahead of schedule.

Their bridge crew completed their whole annual project in 6 months instead of the forecasted 12 months, allowing them to take on more projects internally. This not only meant that the council didn’t have to contract out work, but rate payers also benefited.

“For the local community they’ll see the benefit from these new assets being replaced quicker,” Davidson said.

Spending less time on processing manual paperwork means local council staff can spend more time maintaining and improving the infrastructure that supports the areas' communities live in, laying the foundation for emerging cities to act as powerful cultural and economic stimulants.

TechnologyOne’s Field App addresses everything from short, medium, and long cycle work, such as preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, condition inspections, and construction and renewal activities. It also supports multi-crew, multi-day work activities and can be accessed by internal staff and contractors.

Stop manual field data capture feeling like watching daytime TV with re-runs of the same story over and over again with TechnologyOne’s OneCouncil solution and Enterprise Asset Management product.

Visit here to find out how.