As one of the fastest growing cities in the Lower Mainland, the City of Surrey is frequently navigating permit requests from developers. Their Water Meter Process Improvement project aimed to streamline the way developers can request and receive permits by replacing manual workflows with real-time API based updates.
When a developer needs water meters installed, they place a permit request through a platform called AMANDA. The request would go through a series of additional applications, relying on complex database integrations, manual workflows, and nightly data synchronization to get the job done.
The applications all worked great, but the process in which they communicated with each other was not working. As a result, these requests would take weeks or even a month to fulfil – and that time was costly to everyone. The city needed to find a way to remove communication barriers between their systems and enable staff to use their preferred applications.
How they made it possible – using application integration
By embracing an application integration, they could use FME to orchestrate live communication between AMANDA for permitting, Cityworks for Asset Management, and Esri for GIS.
The public can now view meter status before installation, and coordination between inspectors, contractors, city engineers, taxation staff, and surveyors is handled automatically. Once installed, meters are immediately marked as in-service rather than the previous weeks’ delay.
