In This Issue:

Where Are You on the Asset Management Path?

Part Two in a Series

Using a Wiki for Utility Operations

DC Water Business Practice and Workflow Improvements and the Revival of

Maintenance Operations

Toho Water Authority and City of St. Cloud, Florida Creative Collaboration Leads

to an Innovative, Cost-Effective CIS Solution

www.ema-inc.com Issue 2, 2014

About EMAAs an innovative management and technology consulting firm, EMA develops solutions in anticipation of changing market needs and brings new business concepts to its clients, which include utilities and government organizations.

With offices throughout North America, EMA is headquartered in St. Paul, MN, and has provided clients with solutions since 1975.

EMA publishes the Communicator several times a year. Your comments are always welcome. Please forward them to wwichelt@ema-inc.com.

Terry Brueck............................... President/CEO

Wendy Huber-Wichelt...................Communications Editor

Kelly Meighan................ Senior Creative Specialist

Linden Hickey....................Senior BD Coordinator

EMA, Inc. 2355 Highway 36 West, Suite 200 St. Paul, MN 55113-3819 651.639.5600 651.639.5730 (fax)info@ema-inc.com www.ema-inc.com

©2014 EMA, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A.

Table of Contentsinsight Where Are You on the Asset Management Path? ......................3trends Using a Wiki for Utility Operations ....................................6solutions DC Water Business Practices and Workflow Improvements and the Revival of Maintenance Operations ..............8technology Toho Water Authority and City of St. Cloud, Florida Creative Collaboration Leads to an Innovative, Cost-Effective CIS Solution ......................................10

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Contributors to This Issue(Listed in order of article appearance)

It’s a fairly common scenario. We start a new project with goals, objectives, and mission clearly established. Our intentions are good, but at some point, the pace slows and progress seems difficult to detect. How do we maintain momentum to keep moving toward achieving our goals?

This issue of Communicator features organizations maintaining momentum in varying degrees. Whether it is taking next steps in your asset management program (p. 3), using a wiki to help your utility house and manage critical operational reference materials (p. 6), improving business practices and workflows in maintenance operations (p. 8), or collaborating with a neighboring utility to meet pressing customer service needs (p. 10), the organizations featured in this issue are taking necessary steps – both large and small – to keep the wheels of progress rolling in order to reach their goals and achieve their mission and vision. We hope their stories will help others discover new ways to maintain momentum along the way.

Enjoy this issue of Communicator!

Maintaining Momentum

Craig YokopenicExecutive Vice President

Get Your Communicator ElectronicallyCommunicator magazine is now available in electronic format.

Contact us at info@ema-inc.com if you prefer to receive a PDF of the magazine via email.

Interested in both formats? Contact us, and we will send both to your attention.

John SchieboldClient Services Director

Lynne PowersPractice Group Manager

Darrell ThomasPrincipal Consultant

Brian SchrantzPractice Director

Heather Haskell GIS Consultant

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by Brian Schrantz

Where Are You on the Asset Management Path?

As an “On Your Way” organization, your asset management program is gaining momentum.

You have a plan in place. You’ve collected most, if not all, of your asset data. You also have assessed your organization and systems and may have even made a few of the changes necessary to help you meet your goals.

Now it’s time to look at how work is getting done and explore ways to advance your asset management program …

Now that you’re “On Your Way,” you are moving beyond simply “managing” your work and assets. You are using your data to manage the different aspects of your organization (e.g., people, assets, systems, maintenance, work practices, capital planning, and even asset replacement) more strategically.

You are breaking down siloes of information and integrating systems to leverage your existing data. You are upgrading technology in areas where you require increased functionality and capability. You’re also considering how your organization manages risk as it pertains to your assets – a critical part of any asset management program.

“On Your Way” organizations are asking ques-tions such as:

Second in a three-part series

Are our systems and processes integrated and working together toward a common goal? Organizations that are breaking down information siloes and integrating their asset management system with their other enterprise systems (FIS, HR, GIS, CMMS, SCADA, CRM) are realizing big benefits. Providing valuable access to data between systems helps to improve service, streamline process, and enable staff to do their work more effectively.

How’s our technology? Are you utilizing your system to its fullest potential? Does your present system contain all of your

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assets? Are there ways you can leverage your existing systems to streamline processes? Or is a technology upgrade needed to give you the functionality you need to reach your goals? Simply put, do your technology tools support your asset management program and its development?

Is our data helping us make informed decisions? There’s gold in your data that not only helps you continuously improve but, for example, can help your capital improvement planning process by providing condition and maintenance data to make your case to replace or repair critical assets.

How are we managing risk? Understanding the importance of asset criticality and con-sequence of failure within your asset man-agement program is vital. If a particular asset

is unavailable for an entire week, do you have additional capacity? Have you de-

veloped an asset replacement plan? Issues to consider at this point

include creating a process to estimate asset life and

replacement cost as well as establishing criteria to rank asset criticality to prioritize which

assets need more attention.

Do we need a mobile strategy? Is there benefit in providing your field crews with func-tionality to view assets spatially as well as work order and service request information? How would your overall process improve if crews could assign assets to work orders and make changes to assets electronically with redlining tools while in the field? Your supply chain also can benefit from mobilization to provide in-the-field, real-time views of what you have and where it is.

“On Your Way” organizations are considering:

• Technology updates to increase the system functionality

• Systems integrations to enable greater access to data to improve efficiency, work processes, and decision making – making them truly enterprise systems

• Development of a mobile strategy for work, asset, and material management

• Employing analytics to improve main-tenance efficiency and predictive methodologies

• An enterprise-wide approach to asset management – integrating processes and practices across departmental lines to support the full asset management life cycle

• Risk management and mitigation practices

• Organizational changes that support program goals

For more information, please contact Brian Schrantz at bschrantz@ema-inc.com.

The next page is the story of an “On Your Way” organization.

Key at any point on the pathis recognizing three essential components to your program: Organization, Practices, as well as Technology (O-P-T). It’s an approach we’ve followed for decades that acknowledges best work practices and organizational development as fundamental elements that help you fully leverage your technological capabilities and support the success of your overall plan.

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The City of Grand Rapids Enterprise Services Division

The City of Grand Rapids, Michigan, takes a very proactive approach toward asset management in its Enterprise Services Division. A regional provider of water,

wastewater, storm water, and other public services, Enterprise Services serves a population of 280,000 in an area that stretches more than 137 square miles.

Three areas within Enterprise Services (Water Treatment, Water Distribution, and Environmental Services) and one non-Enterprise Services Department (Facilities Management) – all at different stages in how they manage their assets – are making strides in their respective programs as they come together under one comprehensive work and asset management system (IBM Maximo®).

Establishing a Baseline

The City worked with EMA to complete a competitive assessment and gap analysis of its operations, which were designed to identify opportunities for efficiency improvements. The assessment focused on the organization’s core water and wastewater functions, including Operations & Maintenance (O&M) activities within Water Production, Environmental Services (Wastewater Treatment), and Utility Field Operations.

A key recommendation made during the initial assessment was for all Enterprise Services departments to standardize technology and practices on the same work and asset management system. The Division has taken this to heart, ensuring all departments are able not only to track work, but also better understand the status of work and associated costs.

Progressive Steps

Departments within Water Treatment and Facilities continue to work to implement Maximo, developing their asset registries, tracking work (in some cases for the very first time) and establishing workflows based on those of Environmental Services, which has utilized the work and asset management system for a longer period of time.

Following the recommendations from the recent assessment, Environmental Services has reviewed its current business processes and

workflows to improve efficiency and identified opportunities to use the system to its fullest potential (e.g., planning and scheduling the work backlog in Maximo and starting to track remaining life of assets).

Other progressive steps were taken as well. The Division’s recent upgrade of its Maximo technology increased system functionality. The decision to outsource the hosting, support, and maintenance of its asset management system has reduced the Division’s reliance on internal resources and keeps the departments focused on meeting customer/stakeholder needs.

Benefits to Date

Continued efforts to expand the Division’s program are paying off with benefits that include:

• Improved communication, knowledge sharing, and strong cross-departmental support for managers and staff

• Cost and time savings derived from outsourcing the hosting, support, and maintenance of the City’s Maximo system

• Enhanced system functionality due to recent upgrades

• Greater consistency among departments in how assets are identified and work is performed

• Improved data quality as a result of extensive staff training and improved workflows

• More informed capital planning and decision making because of better work and asset data

• A more enterprise-wide approach emerging toward asset management as more departments come online and use the system

For more information, please contact Heather Haskell at hhaskell@ema-inc.com.

by Heather Haskell

trends

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UTILITY Operations

In our last issue of Communicator, we featured the story of the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, Water Resources Division and its ongoing operations optimization project. (See Communicator Issue 1, 2014.) One aspect of Scottsdale’s project involved finding a way to make all project reference materials accessible for staff to reference and utilize as needed.

Enter the wiki, a web application that gives people the ability to add, modify, or delete content online and in collaboration with others. Scottsdale has started to use the wiki format for its operational reference materials.

We talked with Steve Rot, Water Systems Advisor at Scottsdale, about the wiki’s significance and potential as a repository of information at the utility.

In the past, we’ve done a lot of this work through Word documents stored in an obscure file on a network server; but to be able to take that information and put it into a wiki format that’s now accessible over the web for staff to conveniently access is huge.

What are the advantages of using a wiki for operational information?

The wiki is a living document and with the wiki format there’s an inherent

flexibility and accessibility that you have

FOR

How are you using the wiki format at Scottsdale?

The wiki has been in place a short while. Right now we’re using the wiki

primarily to house all the information that gives us guidance on the various optimization tools we’re using as a result of our ongoing optimization project. But, the potential is there for much more. As our optimization project started, we began formulating what we call our “system reference guide.” Essentially, it’s technical, as well as some operational, or non-technical information associated with each of our sites. We are planning to start putting this information on the wiki.

Steve RotWater Systems Advisor

City of Scottsdale Water Resources Division

Using a

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because it is a web-based tool. So instead of having a couple hundred staff members, each with little tidbits of information, the information they have can be shared in one central location for everyone to access.

We can make the information as open as we want it to be – whether it’s just for our operating group or for the entire organization. From a security standpoint, we also can include authorization limitations to manage who has access to specific information on the wiki and who has the ability to amend it. The flexibility is there.

What are your plans for the wiki?

Looking at using the wiki as a system reference guide, the real strength

of it is that we can plug in information or documents or even links to other documents that have site-specific operational information. It can include all the design specifics and details you want.

Engineering information, such as the number of pumps we have at a site, we can look up anywhere, and that’s important information to have readily accessible. It’s the other operational information, or the system nuances, that we really want to capture on the wiki. It’s the more detailed things that we wouldn’t necessarily know right off, such as “this site has multiple operating modes,” or which mode should be used based on seasonal or other system triggers or “the fill valve at this site should be limited to 35 percent open in order to create enough back pressure to fill the tank at another site.”

That’s really helpful information that we can capture and make available to a wide audience now instead of having it just sit on someone’s Notepad or residing in their memory.

How can the wiki help with knowledge retention efforts at Scottsdale?

The wiki becomes significant from a succession planning and operational

resiliency standpoint, because all of this information is immediately available for the next group of people. It gives us a way to capture all of that site-specific or institutional knowledge that typically walks out the door when more seasoned employees leave. That’s the operational information that’s so important and that we really want to retain.

If we have someone who has been with the utility for 30 years who is retiring, and everything that individual knows is in his or her head, a lot of that knowledge is potentially leaving with that person. Maybe we do an exit interview with someone who is leaving, or if you’re fortunate enough to hire a replacement before someone retires, maybe the new staff member can spend a few weeks with the individual before he or she leaves. But realistically, when they’re new to the system operation, they don’t know what to ask, and it’s impossible for someone to convey 30 years of information in a matter of weeks. However, if we incorporate that knowledge on the wiki in site information sheets, now it’s in a centralized location, and this information is available to everyone in virtual perpetuity. Your changing workforce does not have to keep relearning some of the same lessons.

In some cases, maybe it’s just bullet points. It doesn’t have to be much. One of the big advantages of using the wiki is to retain those nuggets of information staff can reference so when something’s not working right, they can pull information off the wiki that gives them just enough direction to say, “this is what I need to do to make this work.”

WikiAn excerpt from Wikipedia

A wiki (wik-ee) is a web application which allows people to add, modify, or delete content in collaboration with others. In a typical wiki, text is written using a simplified markup language or a rich-text editor.While a wiki is a type of content management system, it differs from a blog or most other such systems in that the content is created without any defined owner or leader, and wikis have little implicit structure, allowing structure to emerge according to the needs of the users.

Wikis can serve many different purposes both public and private, including knowledge management, notetaking, community websites and intranets. Some permit control over different functions (levels of access). For example, editing rights may permit changing, adding or removing material. Others may permit access without enforcing access control. Other rules may also be imposed to organize content.

Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as “the simplest online database that could possibly work.” “Wiki” ... is a Hawaiian word meaning “Quick.”

solutions

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Business Practice and Workflow Improvements and the Revival of Maintenance OperationsBy Darrell Thomas

Ongoing efforts are under way at DC Water to improve workflows in its Operations & Maintenance (O&M) divisions. The benefits of this work to date are far-reaching – transforming how staff performs work, increasing transparency in all aspects of Operations, promising major improvements to process and efficiency, reducing work backlog, engaging staff, and enabling leadership to use quality data to make more informed decisions. The improvements also move the organization away from reactive maintenance toward more proactive maintenance practices.

DC Water formed a team designated to configure and improve workflows to better manage the work order process associated with its IBM Maximo work and asset management system. The improvements encompassed the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility O&M, and Water and Sewer Pumping Maintenance.

Workflow Redesign and StandardizationThe DC Water team identified and documented current department needs and performed a gap analysis against the existing work processes to identify where improvements could be made to the workflows. Workflows were then redesigned where new approaches would better meet department needs. This was an iterative process that involved working closely with supervisors and frontline staff to test the efficacy of the new processes to be implemented.

Standardization of work processes was a high priority within the departments, promising to bring uniformity to how work is performed and entered into Maximo and also ensuring the data entering the system is consistent throughout the departments. As workflows became standardized within departments, any additional changes to process could be made globally to maintain consistency going forward.

TrainingExtensive staff training on new business processes and technology consists of both customized classroom instruction as well as one-on-one on-site support outside the classroom. This focused effort gives technicians the tools and knowledge they need to receive their work orders electronically and enter their work accurately, with the necessary detail, on a daily basis.

DC Water

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Benefits Associated with ChangeThe workflow improvements at DC Water are part of a dynamic and continuous process expanding and delivering many benefits along the way. Specific examples of improvement can be seen across the organization.

Improved Data Quality. Uniformity in how work order information is entered into Maximo and work process changes that will allow staff to enter their work order information directly into the system increased overall consistency and accuracy of work and asset data. This is a critical step in building a reliable system all departments will use to plan and manage work and assets effectively.

Better Work Order Management Practices. New workflows improved how work orders are managed overall. Now, work orders can be routed to people in an efficient manner and monitored and managed from start to finish. Changes in work order status are managed more effectively. Established business practices are consistently applied to each record. Additionally, new workflows ensure an audit trail exists for each record and process.

Greater Reporting Capability. With more accurate data on hand, departments have a repository of work and asset information enabling them to produce custom reports with key O&M metrics for leadership’s review. These metrics include information such as utilization numbers, completion and compliance rates on work completed, labor costs, and overall availability of resources.

More Informed Decision Making. Greater reporting capability gives leadership the data they need to make more informed decisions. This information provides an entirely new level of transparency and access to data, which contributes to overall improved operational efficiency. There are tangible examples of this occurring at DC Water, where managers now have the necessary data to identify specific work orders and/or maintenance issues requiring additional attention or even immediate follow up. Also, supervisors now have the ability to build a business case based on data when more staff is needed to meet current workload.

More Proactive, Less Reactive Maintenance Practices. When preventive maintenance (PM) work is more strategic and performed correctly, it reduces emergency corrective maintenance issues. Pump maintenance is a prime example of this, where oil changes are no longer performed on a set time basis (e.g., every three months) but rather, according to usage (a predetermined number of hours running). This more predictive approach is geared toward identifying corrective maintenance issues early, generating corrective maintenance work orders before issues reach critical stage.

Greater Overall Efficiency. Now that staff members enter their own work order information instead of their supervisors doing this work, reams of paper work orders produced in the previous process can be eliminated. Also, supervisors can focus on other matters and manage more effectively.

Increased Transparency and Accountability. The new workflows give technicians and management the same access to the data associated with work performed. With this increased transparency comes greater accountability for all staff.

Culture of Empowerment. When fully trained on new, standardized workflows and technology, staff members have a clearer understanding of the overall work process and are able to see how their work is contributing to greater efficiency throughout the organization. This instills a greater sense of engagement and ownership in staff.

The number of Maximo users at DC Water has mushroomed from 50 to 400. Another 150 users are to be added to the system, which is now viewed as a trusted source of information departments use confidently to manage work and make stronger, more informed decisions regarding work, assets, and maintenance.

For more information, please contact Darrell Thomas at dthomas@ema-inc.com.

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residents had outsourced its customer service functions but found itself at a crossroads. St. Cloud needed to transition these services when its outsourcer announced its plans to migrate to a more expensive CIS and its intention to close the walk-in Customer Service Center, which they operated in St. Cloud’s City Hall.

St. Cloud found itself with an immediate need for a new CIS to maintain its services. Knowing a CIS implementation was under way at Toho, St. Cloud contacted the Authority to discuss possibilities.

“St. Cloud and Toho have always had a close working relationship,” said Veronica Miller, Assistant City Manager at the City of St. Cloud. “When we were presented with the dilemma of what to do, I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask if they would be willing to work with us. Toho helped us outline what the path would look like if our City Council decided they wanted to go this direction and enter into an agreement with them. They also put us in touch with EMA.”

Ultimately, the City decided to move its cus-tomer care in house. Since the timing of the move was critical, St. Cloud and Toho collabo-rated, reaching an innovative solution. Toho’s new CIS would meet St. Cloud’s needs, so the

by Lynne Powers and John Schiebold

Toho Water Authority (Toho) was implementing its new Customer Information System (CIS) and moving its customer service functions in-house from a third-party provider when its neighbor, the City of St. Cloud, Florida, reached out to discuss its own unique customer service and CIS needs. The exchange led to an innovative agreement that could serve as a model for other utilities.

Toho’s CIS ProjectToho is an independent authority that provides water, wastewater, and reclaimed water service to most of Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk counties in central Florida. In 2011, Toho’s governing Board approved a plan to bring its customer service functions in house, including call center, billing, payments, collections, and field service functionality.

Working with EMA, Toho began to assume responsibility of its customer service functions. The project included project mobilization, design/development, and implementation. In February 2013, the new CIS went live, and Toho opened its Customer Service Center.

St. Cloud’s Urgent NeedSt. Cloud provides water, wastewater, re-claimed, irrigation, sanitation, and storm water services for its customers. The city of 36,000

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two organizations entered into an inter-local agreement, enabling St. Cloud to use Toho’s contract with their CIS vendor to set up another instance of the CIS on servers co-located at Toho and monitored by Toho IT support.

“We did not want to weigh down the agreement with administrative efforts and costs,” said Mike Sweeney, Deputy Executive Director of Toho. “We wanted to keep it simple by including an IT scope of work that would provide contingency services if St. Cloud needed them. Toho would serve as a pass through agency so they could access the vendor.”

The timeline to bring St. Cloud live on Toho’s new system was ambitious – about a year in total from the time initial discussions ensued in fall 2012 to when St. Cloud would go live in November 2013. It is important to note that when the organizations began discus-sions, Toho was still deep in the middle of its own CIS implementation, but the project was going well. Toho felt strongly it could meet St. Cloud’s short timeframe.

Already working with Toho on its CIS imple-mentation, EMA also was able to assist in developing the inter-local agreement by formu-lating a cost estimate and project schedule for St. Cloud and help facilitate the project. For St. Cloud, there was much involved in migrating, including the double-duty of learning the processes and nuances of an interim legacy system used by its outsourcer and Toho’s new system along with taking over the existing Customer Service Center, assembling a staff, and training everyone on both systems.

“We did this with EMA’s support, helping us outline how much staff we’d need for billing and customer service,” Miller said. “Then we started hiring, starting with the service center supervisor and the billing analyst. When the two came on board, we listened to what they had to say taking into account their expe-rience. Our plan was revised a few times. The biggest challenge and goal was to stay open

minded, considering everyone’s input, because everyone was bringing something to the table.”

Benefits of CollaborationThe inter-local agreement has many benefits. Its collaborative spirit reinforces Toho’s vision of good stewardship practices for the sake of stakeholders. It also illustrates the collaborative

approach both organizations follow toward water supply management, as evidenced by their participation in a regional cooperative focused on the issue.

“We viewed this as another facet of our partnership,” Sweeney explained. “From the standpoint of sustain-

ability, it makes sense to think broadly here and outside of ourselves. We both strive to provide excellent customer service and also develop and preserve our water supply in a responsible way.”

The inter-local agreement helped St. Cloud bring services in-house with a state-of-the-art CIS and keep its Customer Service Center open, which customers both used and ap-preciated. It reduced training costs by sharing resources found in-house and through the various vendors. It also enabled the City to achieve its go-live objective in less than half the usual time. Finally, the agreement provides flexibility for the City to modify the agreement to meet its future cus-tomer service needs.

“We couldn’t have taken control of our billing and customer service so quickly without Toho’s support,” Miller said. “The agreement was the key step that enabled us to meet all of our necessary deadlines. Through the partnership with Toho, we were able to utilize their recent experience with the billing implementation and the software, and that has been invaluable for us.” For more information, please contact Lynne Powers at lpowers@ema-inc.com or John Schiebold at jschiebold@ema-inc.com.

The inter-local agreement between the City of St. Cloud and Toho Water Authority enabled the City to maintain its walk-in Customer Service Center (shown above) which its customers appreciate and utilize frequently.

“ Through the partnership

with Toho we were able

to utilize their recent

experience ... and that has

been invaluable for us.”

Veronica Miller Assistant City Manager, City of St. Cloud

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Join us this fall at the following conferences – we’re presenting! WEFTEC 2014New Orleans, LA • September 27 - October 1, 2014

WORKSHOP Saturday, September 27 (Workshop 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM)

ROOM 343: W06 - Using On-Line Analyzers To Meet Stringent Nitrogen and Phosphorus Limits 11:45 AM: Process Control Fundamentals and On-Line Analyzers Jack Geisenhoff, EMA, Inc.

TECHNICAL SESSION Monday, September 29ROOM 357: 222 - Surviving the Workforce Tsunami: Creating a Competent and Well Trained Workforce Is a Key to Sustainability4:00 PM: Building for World-Class at Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Sue McCormick, Detroit Water and Sewerage Department Dave DiSera, EMA, Inc.

2014 Water Infrastructure ConferenceAtlanta, GA • October 26 - 29, 2014

TECHNICAL SESSION Monday, October 27MON08: Managing Cyber Risk for Water Utilities3:30 PM: .01 Keeping Our Utilities Cyber Secure: AWWA’S Process Control System Cybersecurity Guidance Tool and Its Practical Application Phil Gaberdiel, EMA, Inc.

Tuesday, October 28 TUE05: Tools and Technology for Operations Management9:30 AM: .03 A Leading Maintenance Best Practices Web Tool for Drinking Water Distribution System Assets Shiv Iyer, EMA, Inc. Terry Brueck, EMA, Inc.