{"id":633532,"date":"2023-11-17T09:25:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcwatch&p=633532"},"modified":"2023-11-17T09:25:54","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T17:25:54","slug":"automating-a-city-with-arcgis-workforce","status":"publish","type":"arcwatch","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcwatch\/automating-a-city-with-arcgis-workforce","title":{"rendered":"Automating a City with ArcGIS Workforce"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":8132,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[471562],"tags":[472171,462031,160642,487472,487462],"arcwatch_issues":[487272],"class_list":["post-633532","arcwatch","type-arcwatch","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arcgis-workforce","tag-arcgis-survey123","tag-arcgis-workforce","tag-local-government","tag-parks-and-recreation","tag-sarasota","arcwatch_issues-november-2023"],"acf":{"short_description":"ArcGIS Workforce doesn't just help the City of Sarasota process work orders\u2014it's a framework for asset management, weathering storms, and more.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Hurricane Ian hit the Florida coastline in September 2022, devastating communities and ultimately causing more than $17 billion in damage across multiple counties. The city of Sarasota was no exception, with downed trees impeding emergency responders in the immediate aftermath of the storm. The Sarasota Parks and Recreation Department alone had to address over 300 individual emergency response-related work orders.\r\n\r\nFortunately, beginning in 2019, the city had begun laying the foundation for a system of work order processing through ArcGIS Workforce\u2014a mobile app designed to coordinate fieldwork\u2014that would prove critical in the response to Hurricane Ian.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe were able to take the city map and divide it up into zones for our crew leaders,\u201d said John Kretzer, landscape operations manager for the Sarasota Parks and Recreation Department. \u201cWe do the first push of cleanup after the storm, so we go clear the roads to make sure that they're passable for emergency vehicles. The emergency operations center started taking calls about where trees were down blocking roads, and we were able to go in and assign those to specific crew leaders based on the map, with a separate layer for associated work orders.\u201d\r\n\r\nEven after the initial storm response was over, the benefits of managing assets with ArcGIS Workforce became clear, explained Larry Favor, supervisor for the Sarasota Parks and Recreation Department.\r\n\r\n\u201cAs we repair, replace, or add new things to the facilities that we own, we all get them loaded into our GIS database that shows where they are, what condition they were in when they were installed, and what the expected life span is,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen a storm comes through, we have a record of what we lost.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhile the response to Hurricane Ian may be the most dramatic demonstration of the ArcGIS Workforce app\u2019s benefit to the city, it has addressed the needs of multiple departments before and after the storm by establishing a streamlined system of communication and recordkeeping in public works, parks and recreation, and elsewhere."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":633592,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cThe amount of staff time saved is significant,\u201d said William Rockwell, GIS coordinator for the City of Sarasota. \u201cI conservatively estimate that we save more than 8,000 hours annually using Workforce.\u201d\r\n\r\nWith its ability to be integrated with other ArcGIS software like ArcGIS Dashboards, ArcGIS Survey123, and ArcGIS Experience Builder\u2014which the city uses to create landing pages for dispatchers and managers\u2014the adoption of ArcGIS Workforce has been transformative for the City of Sarasota.\r\n\r\nThe Spread of Efficiency<\/strong>\r\n\r\nAlthough Sarasota\u2014a growing city that currently houses more than 56,000 full-time residents and an additional 2.3 million additional vacationers\u2014began its transition to an ArcGIS Online cloud-based system for work order processing in 2019, the COVID-19 lockdowns accelerated the project.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe increasing demand for services put a strain on our traditional work order management process,\u201d said Rockwell. \u201cPreviously when a request came in, it was written down or an email was printed out and handed to someone to complete\u2014no data, no analytics.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAlmost everything we do is via work order,\u201d added Kretzer. \u201cWe track everything that gets done, and we have a lot of public work orders that come in, so not having a way to do this efficiently wasn't working.\u201d\r\n\r\nEven before the pandemic, it was essential that field crews be able to complete their tasks remotely, noted Kretzer.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of my goals was to have my staff all be online,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a work order came in, we could distribute it right away, and they would be able to acknowledge the fact that they got a work order.\u201d\r\n\r\nSince then, ArcGIS Workforce\u00a0has become central to Sarasota\u2019s entire internal and public service request management process.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was an obvious choice to go with Workforce,\u201d said Rockwell. \u201cIt\u2019s mobile friendly, provides easy integration with other [ArcGIS software], and you can use dashboards to show data in real time\u2014these are literally game changers for us. I showed city managers all the things Workforce could do, and they were impressed with its functionality and the fact that it was part of our existing ELA.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":633572,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The integration with other ArcGIS software in particular has come in handy in addressing many of the city\u2019s needs.\r\n\r\n\u201cOne of the big things that we were able to do is to utilize a combination of [GIS] software to come up with something that functions like asset management,\u201d said Kretzer. \u201cWe go into the parks, and we identify each asset, take a picture of it, assign it the number, [and] give it a location. We do all the things that you would do for asset management, and any time we have a work order, we can reference that particular thing in ArcGIS Workforce.\u201d\r\n\r\nArcGIS Survey123, for instance, is used to collect field data and create on-the-fly assignments. It also allowed the city to transition from paper time sheets to digital recordkeeping and provides the capability to capture the costs of labor, equipment, and materials. Moreover, cost analytics can now be displayed on dashboards created with ArcGIS Dashboards.\r\n\r\n\u201cDashboards are the way in which managers keep their finger on the pulse of thousands of work orders being created and closed every year,\u201d says Rockwell. \u201cDuring the first two years of our ArcGIS Online workflow, there were 23,776 Workforce assignments created across 6 Workforce projects. Our current Workforce deployment uses 67 dashboards.\u201d\r\n\r\nBetter for the City and the Public<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe primary institutional challenge in implementing the system was getting field staff to understand the importance of changing how their work assignments were documented\u2014moving from written notes and work orders to using a smartphone with apps.\r\n\r\n\u201cOnce I was able to show field staff how the use of Workforce\u2014and smartphones in general\u2014was going to help them in their jobs, as well as their day-to-day lives, it was amazing to see them go from reluctant to enthusiastic,\u201d said Rockwell.\r\n\r\nMoreover, Sarasota\u2019s public-facing Workforce implementation allows residents to submit requests for services and receive email confirmations and ticket closure emails in response. The satisfaction survey distributed by the city indicates members of the public are very happy with their new method of communicating with Sarasota\u2019s local government."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":633582,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"\u201cThe analytics provided via dashboards or the more in-depth option using SQL provides accurate and timely metrics that previously had to be gleaned by looking through reams of paper,\u201d said Rockwell.\u201d In addition, we\u2019ve expanded our services, allowing our residents to submit requests with full closed loop communications that allow the city to be more responsive to [resident] needs.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Parks and Recreation Department first implemented ArcGIS Workforce in 2019. Its spread has been organic and transformative for the city\u2019s municipal staff, ultimately supporting workflows for a variety of field activities and allowing mobile workers to easily manage their assignments.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt was so successful [for the Parks and Recreation Department] that six other departments in the city, including Public Utilities and the Police Department, are now using it,\u201d said Rockwell. \u201cIt\u2019s touched almost every public-interfacing service we provide.\u201d"}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nAutomating a City with ArcGIS Workforce<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ArcGIS Workforce doesn't just help the City of Sarasota process work orders\u2014it's a framework for asset management and weathering storms.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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