[CANUFNET] Software for asset management and work orders

[Jim Donnelly]

Hello Shelley. Our municipality uses an Operations Management System
called Hansen. We have been running version 7.7 and are in the process
of upgrading to 8.0. It is asset based with the ability to tie work
orders costs to assets, create asset inventories, set pm's, add
photos/video tied to assets, track customer service requests and many
other things. This software is not just tree software abut can be used
for all City assets: sewer, sanitary, sidewalk, street segments, parks,
playgrounds and also trees. Anything you can define and assign a unique
identifier to can be inventoried and associated in the program to other
assets, asset levels etc. The customer service module is searchable
using many fields like name, address, telephone number and provides a
history of calls on any issue or customer depending how it was logged
and searched. Where asset history is important you would retire assets
(like trees removed) rather than delete the asset and create new ones
(like replacement trees) this way there is a record of what trees failed
in what locations .... over and over and ...  or who has called for the
fifteenth time about that ant hill on the City Blvd J

 

Strengths:           

1.       Asset driven with tabs for Assets, WO's, Customer Service, PM's
etc

2.       WO's creation to track costs for jobs, activities etc

3.       Work Groups can be created with defined costs attached for
fleet, labour and sundries

4.       Asset inventory tracking for mapping and reporting etc

5.       Customer service call tracking with history

6.       Reportable

 

 

Weakness:

1.       Our GPS data collection using Trimble equipment and Pathfinder
Office software can't flow directly into the software but must first be
dropped into Access and a custom tool was created by the vendor to allow
this data to be exported to Hansen. Not sure if version 8 is different. 

2.       Hansen doesn't have any  field hardware such as tablets that
can be used on site to log work (like pruning) and then docked for
upload ... again I am not sure if v8 will have anything that easy.

3.       Asset driven not operationally driven so it is set up to tell
you how many trees you have (inventory and attributes)and you can set up
WO's for tree pruning but the link to tell you how much each tree pruned
cost you is not there. Most budget calculations in this system require
you to manually divide the annual cost of a WO (ie: pruning trees) by
the number of trees in the inventory that were pruned (off field notes
as we don't create a new WO for each tree pruned) and manually do the
math. Not a big deal but it could be better. In Hansen everything is a
trade off ~ how much detail do you want to maintain thought-out the year
to provide the numbers that you only need periodically.

 

Basically Hansen is a sound program but you need to plan and think
carefully how you set it up because once you have ten thousand assets in
there you do not want to have to change the structure (what is
associated to what) to better suit your needs. Don't collect anything to
a level of detail you can't maintain over time or its accuracy and
effectiveness as a tool will be nullified. Hope my ramblings have some
value to you. If you require more info feel free to call me and I will
do my best to answer what I can or put you in touch with our specialist
here. Good luck

 

Jim Donnelly

Integrated Pest Management Coordinator

Parks Operations

City of Grande Prairie

Tel:  780-513-5226

Fax: 780-532-7588

Cell: 780-814-3763 

jdonnelly at cityofgp.com   

 

From: canufnet-bounces at list.web.net
[mailto:canufnet-bounces at list.web.net] On Behalf Of
SVescio at thunderbay.ca
Sent: June 2, 2010 4:31 PM
To: canufnet at list.web.net
Subject: [CANUFNET] Software for asset management and work orders

 


Hi, 
I am on a committee that is reviewing the software that our city uses
for asset management and work order tracking.  Each of us has been given
the task of contacting other municipalities to find out what system they
are using and if they are happy with it.  If anyone has a system that
they would recommend or, alternatively not recommend, I sure would
appreciate hearing from you.  Thanks. 

Shelley Vescio 
City Forestry 
Thunder Bay, ON 
(807) 625-2473 

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