Cityworks Helps South San Francisco Surpass State Sewer Mandates

Previous to their Cityworks implementation, the City of South San Francisco was working in a paper environment managing and tracking everything on paper – a time-consuming and error-prone process.  In 2007 new state mandates required the City to track and document sewer and storm drain infrastructure or face a considerable fine.  Having no CMMS or tracking system for environmental compliance, the City began searching for a solution to their documentation crisis and to meet the new requirements.  Cityworks was selected by the City IT Director, Doug Hollis, as the solution to best meet their immediate needs and, in addition, vastly improve and expand the City’s tracking of daily work and reporting capabilities.

Cityworks has been up and running for about a year in the Public Works Department, providing measureable results and exceeding staff expectations.  Within Public Works, the Electrical Division runs Cityworks to manage all electrical maintenance throughout the city while the Parks and Recreation Department recently completed implementation.  The City has plans to bring the Water Quality Plant and Motor Pool Division online in the near future.

South San Francisco has realized significant cost savings as a direct result of their Cityworks/GIS implementation.  So much so, that a group of City employees – Ray Razzavi, City Engineer; Justin Anderson, GIS Consultant; and Doug Hollis, Director of IT – will present to the GIS council about the significant fiscal savings the City has realized because of their new system.  More importantly, the City met its original goal in providing internal and statewide reporting.  The state of California recently reported the City has surpassed mandates and exceeded their expectations.

“This is a great story of how our City departments came together, funded a project, and provided support with everyone embracing its use,” states Doug Hollis, Director of IT at South San Francisco.  “Cityworks and ESRI’s GIS working together have accelerated the quality of work performed within the City immensely.  Most of the City has gone from paper to electronics in just one year.  We are all completely ecstatic about our use of Cityworks and GIS.  Having a vision for the organization and being able to leapfrog two jumps ahead of where we were is awesome.  We are very pleased, no question about it.”  

“South San Francisco is representative of why we are in business – to help people do their jobs easier, meet their needs, and experience fast, beneficial results,” states Brian Haslam, President of Azteca Systems.  “Their enthusiasm for Cityworks is no doubt exciting as is a regulatory agency like the state of California expressing their admiration with the City’s results – and in such a short amount of time.  The combination of Cityworks and GIS consistently produces the same great benefits – how two business functions are brought together within a single, intuitive environment.”

About South San Francisco
The City of South San Francisco, California, occupies the valley formed by the San Bruno Mountains and the Coast Range near San Francisco.  Incorporated in 1908 and long known as “The Industrial City,” it was home to stockyards and a marketplace for livestock.  Other industries have followed and the city has become a well-balanced community of industrial and residential areas.  With roughly 60,000 residents, South San Francisco offers its citizens mild winters and cool, dry summers.   

About Azteca Systems, Inc.
Founded in 1986, Azteca Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of GIS-centric Enterprise Management Systems.  Built exclusively on top of ESRI’s leading GIS technology, Cityworks is powerful, scalable, and affordable, designed for agencies that own and care for critical infrastructure, capital assets, and property.