IMGS delivers innovative FME enterprise web applications for Dublin City Council

Pioneering change in local governance

Dublin City Council (DCC), the largest local council in Ireland, oversees an array of responsibilities from public housing and transportation to urban planning. With over 6,200 staff members, DCC is also the country’s largest landlord, managing around 27,000 social housing dwellings. The council is responsible for maintaining its housing with 300 trade, operations and administrative staff delivering this service.

DCC operates a maintenance system which manages council tenant repair requests. The legacy maintenance system lacked modern digital integrations with other enterprise applications, resulting in time-consuming, manual workflows, causing inefficiencies and errors.

The previous process involved citizens reporting property repair needs via phone, which council staff manually logged into the Housing Management System (OHMS). Service requests were processed, and work was allocated to tradespeople via printed requests. Upon repair completion, paper forms were filled out detailing the job. These were then manually submitted and updated by a foreperson into the system.

As the process was paper-based, it was subject to human error, lengthy delays, and lack of visibility on real-time repair status. The system needed a digital transformation. Safe Software’s partner IMGS was tasked with delivering a modern solution to enable depot forepersons to view, analyze, and issue service requests and tradespeople to view, edit and close service requests.

FME is the backbone of DCC’s data management processes

Key in IMGS’ decision to use FME was the ability to scale rapidly and provide efficient enterprise web applications that facilitate low-code, self-service portals. DCC’s IT department had also been using FME for over 18 years. With these benefits in mind, IMGS created “FiXiT”, a desktop/mobile solution which empowers users to effectively monitor and manage service requests. 

IMGS created two workflows for the OMHS system: one for forepersons to manage maintenance jobs and another for tradespeople to access service requests, tenant details, and GPS directions through a progressive web app. The new system encompassed a Progressive Web App (PWA) for tradespeople and a Web Application for forepersons, with FME workspaces facilitating business logic for both applications.

The shift from the paper-based OMHS system to the dynamic digital FME Flow Apps system has resulted in significant benefits across departments. Administration saves 90 days annually while gathering key insights faster and reducing human error. Tradespeople save 400 hours of time weekly, equivalent to the work of five full-time tradespeople’s per month. The operational team no longer needs to print, fax and drive to depots, while greatly improving operational efficiency with near real-time updates, which are now received hourly rather than weekly.

DCC plans to continuously enhance the FiXiT system with an SMS service for tenant notifications, operational dashboards for more focused resource allocation, and more. This collaboration between DCC, IMGS, and Safe Software showcases the power of digital solutions in local governance, setting a new benchmark for public service efficiency and innovation.