Combining the power of FME with Cityworks to streamline time-consuming processes
The main mission of the City of Naperville’s IT department is to achieve organizational resilience, ensure their IT practices are sustainable, and strategically implement evolving technologies. They want to establish repeatable, improved, and automated business processes, increase efficiency, and eliminate data siloes, and chose FME to help achieve these goals.
Naperville integrated FME with Cityworks to automate their service requests and work orders. In just one year‘s time, they significantly improved the Electric, Public Works, Finance, and Water departments’ processes.
Eliminating hours of manual data entry across departments and gaining time back
Naperville’s first large-scale FME project involved moving their open data platform from Socrata to ArcGIS Open Data. Previously, they used Windows Task Manager jobs to update data to their open datasets and their website. Once they began using FME, they automated 30 open dataset uploads. They then expanded their FME use to automate failed meters into Cityworks service requests for their Electric department. The department submits electric meter requests via an Excel document, and FME processes the information.
Power BI report displaying over 2,000 Cityworks electric meter service requests created by FME since April 2022.
Naperville has since used FME to automate the creation of new meters and the permanent removals of meters in Cityworks, resulting in 2200+ Electric department service requests automated and hours spent on manual entry eliminated. Naperville has also expanded FME into their Public Works department’s ArcGIS Survey123 process. Citizens report via a web form, and FME automatically transforms survey data into service requests for tree trimming, winter forestry operations, damaged mailboxes, and more. Cityworks automations also pull data from Survey123 to create work orders for retirement signs, and the Public Works department also uses a gallery app for loading and treating ordinance permit data. In just a year, the Public Works department has automated 1100+ service requests with FME.
Tree Service Requests are entered in Survey123, and FME creates Service Requests in Cityworks.
Map of all requests created by FME in Cityworks
Naperville’s Finance department is also using FME for their call centre to load data into their reporting database via a gallery app which transforms data into reports. The data is then used for Power BI. Their Water Department is also uploading public utility advisory board data and are looking to upload boards and commissions data.
Danielle DuBose, Database Developer in Naperville’s IT department, is the primary user of FME and has been consolidating and streamlining Naperville’s old processes by recreating them in FME. “Our customer experience has improved and we have reduced department frustration through upgrading business processes with FME. It’s been a game changer for us,” says Danielle.
Improving relationships across departments and with Naperville citizens
Naperville has extended the power of Cityworks with FME without needing to hire an additional team member to implement Cityworks automations. It would also take them considerably longer to perform complex tasks that can be done quickly with FME. The city increased their citizen Public Works-related service request participation with FME by taking Survey123 data and pushing that into Cityworks. Residents now submit information via the online form rather than having to call in or email, with information now tracked more quickly and efficiently. This process has resulted in hours of manual work saved.
Naperville has also reduced cross-department frustration. The IT department previously lacked the resources to act on great ideas and requests from other departments. With FME, the IT department is now saying “yes” and quickly implementing new processes. Working relationships between departments have improved with increased collaboration, and the IT department is seen as “wizards and magicians” at Naperville.
Naperville takes full advantage of FME’s seamless integration with Cityworks. They have only been using FME for one year and have already taken their processes to the next level. Their Finance department is free to focus on value-adding tasks with fewer callers and shorter call times, and the Electric and Public Works Departments save a significant amount of time by automating service requests. FME is doing the work of three programmers with specialized coding skills, freeing staff to focus on high-value tasks and providing the most outstanding customer service possible. They are also saving money by not having to procure external consultants to assist them with implementing processes.
Without FME, many of Naperville’s projects would have been impossible, and the IT department would have been unable to provide the current level of support for their organization. Next, Naperville is looking to integrate FME with Tyler Munis and continue to consolidate and centralize data into a single source of truth.
