February 2011 Newsletter

Welcome to The PubWorks Tracker, a quarterly newsletter providing information for PubWorks users and professionals interested in Public Works management.

In This Issue:

Documenting work and realizing the benefits depends largely on the cooperation of all involved. How can you get real “buy-in” from your employees, your elected officials, AND your citizens? We have some ideas that can help... read more

Welcome New Customers: Serving a customer from a small township is just as important to PubWorks, as serving... read more

EXTRA, EXTRA... Lucy Smythe joins the PubWorks team as the Director of Customer Relations. Lucy brings a wealth of experience and a strong philosophy of... read all about it.

Enhancements: PubWorks enhancements stem from customer inquiry and input. Better search, more detail and... read more

Recommended Reading: Capterra, a leading software buyer’s resource has the Top 10 Questions to Ask References when considering... read more

2011 Event Schedule

Got Buy-In?

IF you have employees who diligently and accurately record their work in your asset and work management program,

AND you have citizens who never lash out or complain to you or your employees,

AND your elected officials gladly allocate all the funding you need to keep to a high level of service, you need read no further. But if not,

please consider this…..

Educate... Educate... Educate.

Educate your workforce:
If you connect the proper recording of the work directly to the success of the department, and further to the job security of all, chances are good that you will get buy-in from the employees that documenting work is worth it. It may be as simple as saying, “help me prove that we are doing everything we can as efficiently as possible, and I will get the citizens AND the elected officials on our side.” Also, keep those atta-boys coming for those who are showing commitment, others will follow.

Share bottom line improvements. Don’t reserve this communication only for those who hold the purse strings. Momentum begets momentum if everyone who contributes to the success shares in the rewards.

Educate your elected officials:
Use maps, graphs, charts and reports to communicate your needs and your accomplishments. Distributing spreadsheets dripping with numbers can be overwhelming and too much statistical data can bog down communication. With PubWorks, you can produce professional documents that will effectively communicate exactly what you want in a way that is easily understood by your audience.

Sometimes the worst-case scenario can be the world’s best persuader. For example, a graph showing the financial consequence of a road left unaddressed can be a powerful tool of persuasion when compared to the costs of properly continuing road-saving maintenance.

Educate your citizens:
The average citizen never thinks about the price of asphalt or the hundreds of miles of road you maintain. Why would they? But if you educate them, you will gain their appreciation for the high expectation, costly materials and your never-ending workload. You need not be a public relations expert, simply produce a report with the information you want to share. Contact your local paper about a weekly short containing a “did you know” section. You can feed one thoughtful idea to your citizenry every week, and eventually gain patience and, more importantly, support when a voter is given the power to provide or not provide funding for your operation.

Toot Your Own Horn. Take every opportunity to point out where your department has saved time, money, equipment and manpower. If you’re documenting work, this will not be hard to do with over 400 ready-to-run PubWorks reports at your fingertips. If you’re not sure which reports will best display your message, or how to frame tidbits for the citizens to consume, we can help. Contact Support@PubWorks.com

Welcome to our Newest Customers

Proof of PubWorks versatility and value is apparent as we welcome new customers from cities, counties, highway departments and townships. Each agency around the country faces unique challenges and changing circumstances.

More and more, directors and commissioners are turning away from the often expensive products that tend to complicate the management process and choosing the ease of use and value found in PubWorks. We look forward to serving these new customers for years to come.

Newest Customers	Products
Newest Customers	Asset Management Core	Service Requests	Work Orders	Fleet Maintenance	GIS MapViewer	GPS Asset Data Collector
Douglas County Stormwater, CO	x	x	x		x
Leavenworth County, KS	x	x		x
Riverside, MO	x	x		x	x
Columbus, MS	x	x	x	x
Fulton County, NY	x	x	x	x
Cayuga County, NY	x	x	x	x
Jay, NC	x	x			x
Somers, NY	x	x
Rye, NH	x	x		x

Enhancements February 2011

Our development team has been carefully listening and working hard to make your ideas and enhancement requests a reality. Below is a summary of the improvements we've added to PubWorks over the past three months.

Asset Management Core Enhancements	Benefit
Asset Search	Users can now search on all attribute and metric fields (both standard and custom) including MUTCD. The found assets can be printed, mapped, bundled into a Work Order or exported to a CSV file for special processing or import into Excel.
Crew Activity with ZERO hours	Crew activities can be created, saved and printed with zero usage hours. This allows a Crew Activity to be created in the morning, printed for a foreman and filled in with the actual hours in the afternoon.
Contractor/Vendor Search	Users can now search for contractors and vendors with the products/services notes field. So, if you use the products/services notes field to store to products or service the contractor provides, it’ll be very easy to find those that provide, say “paving” services.
Route Activities	Now with key stroke validation. Key stroke validation means that when a user types characters into a drop-down box, PubWorks will make sure that what’s being typed is valid and if it is a best possible match will be automatically found and displayed for you. This not only prevents garbage-in but it saves time and effort and provides immediate visual feedback helping to assure that what’s being typed in is correct.
Unique MUTCD codes	Users can now maintain a list of custom MUTCD codes for signs unique to their operation.
Location and Feature Drop-down lists expanded.	More descriptive data is now included, such as type and district. Locations will now be visible along with the type, allowing the user to distinguish between e.g. Grant Street and Grant Street Park.

Service Requests Enhancements	Benefit
Color Coded Status	When using the Service Request Status screen, the status column is now color coded to represent the age and status of each Service Request in the system. This allows to quickly and visually ascertain whether or not a Service Request is open or closed and if open, for how long it has been open.
Flexible Address Search	Users can now see and search for the fully qualified address when viewing and locating Service Requests. This gives a more natural, logical and flexible means to find the data you need.

Work Orders Enhancements	Benefit
Crew Templates	Users can now use a predefined crew template to easily and quickly add resources to a new or existing Work Order. This makes the data entry process easier, faster and will eliminate any guess-work with regard to the employees, equipment and materials needed to complete a Work Order.
Search Assets, Create Work Order	Allows users to search for and bundle a set of assets (on any type or class) into a Work Order directly from the Asset Search screen. It’s a great way to initiate your work flow by locating the assets in need of attention and then packing them into a work order for planned execution.
Copy a Work Order	With the click of a button, users can copy an existing work order creating a new work order instantly. This allows users to make use of existing work orders over and over again for work that is performed over and over again saving time, effort and preventing errors or omission.
More Complete Information on Printed Work Orders	When one or more Service Requests are linked to a Work Order, and that Work Order is printed, key elements of each Service Request are printed along with the details of the Work Order. This gives your people in the field the complete informational picture in a concisely printed format.

Fleet Maintenance Enhancements	Benefit
Fleet Work Orders	Now with key stroke validation. Key stroke validation means that when a user types characters into a drop-down box, PubWorks will make sure that what’s being typed is valid and if it is a best possible match will be automatically found and displayed for you. This not only prevents garbage-in but it saves time and effort and provides immediate visual feedback helping to assure that what’s being typed in is correct.
E-mail Equipment Operator	Instant communication with your vehicle or equipment operator via e-mail message composed automatically by PubWorks either from the Equipment screen or the PM Schedule screen. This makes it easier to alert the driver/keeper of a vehicle that it’s due for an inspection or other important service.
Duplicate Trap on Import	Fuel and Odometer log import detects duplicate fueling transactions and will ignore them. This makes it easier to manage fueling transaction files and will aid in the prevention of miscalculated fuel usage and cost.
Departmentalization	Parts and Materials can now be assigned to their appropriate departments.

Considering a Business Software Purchase? Here are the Top 10 Questions to Ask References

By JP Medved - June 11, 2009

Finding the right software for your business can seem a daunting task. How do you know which solution is the best fit for your company? How do you know which will be the easiest to get up and running and which has extra costs that will only become apparent after installation? If only there were some group of people you could talk to who have had experience with the software.

Luckily, such an assembly exists. Ask the software company you are considering for the contact information of some of their current customers. By contacting these users, you can easily have your questions answered by people whose experiences will, most likely, have been fairly similar to yours.

When asking a prospective software provider for references, stipulate that they should be as similar to your company as possible. You'll want to speak to companies of comparable size with similar business requirements, preferably in your industry and who have worked with the software for at least a year. Ideally, the references you receive will also be located geographically near your company so you can understand the level of customer service offered to your region.

Once you're in touch with the references, it's time to ply them with the important questions that will give you the key points you need to make an informed decision. But which questions should you ask? To help you out, we've put together the top questions to ask a reference once you've got their ear:

1. What was the true cost of the software? i.e. Did installation come in over or under budget? How much is the upkeep and maintenance of the software?

2. What's the quality of the support you receive from the vendor? Is support handled by the vendor themselves or through a third party consulting or tech firm? How often have you contacted the vendor for support? How long did it take for you to get the support you needed?

3. Have you experienced any bugs or problems with the software? How often are updates provided and how are they installed?

4. How smoothly did implementation of the solution go? How long did it take and how helpful was the vendor in getting the software up and running?

5. What system did you use prior to implementing this one? Why did you switch to the current vendor's solution?

6. How has the solution cut costs or improved efficiency (or has it)?

7. Which features of the solution are the most/least helpful?

8. What other software did you look at before settling on this one?

9. What does your company receive from the vendor in return for being a reference?

10. What is your relationship to the vendor?

For more information see www.capterra.com

Events


	Montana Association of County Road Supervisors Annual Conference March 28, 31 2011	More Info Add to Calendar

	Wyoming Technology and Transfer Center Transportation and Safety Congress April 13, 14 2011 Casper, WY	More Info Add to Calendar

	Florida APWA Annual Meeting and Trade Show April 18-22, 2011 Daytona Beach, FL	More Info Add to Calendar

	APWA/CARMA Spring Street Conference April 27-29, 2011 Grand Junction, CO	More Info Add to Calendar
What shows do you attend? We’d love to know and learn more about them with the intention of putting them on our events calendar – please contact Jennifer Burr (970) 379-3061.