IBM Software Thought Leadership White Paper

Government

Asset management for

local government
Achieving unified enterprise asset management with
IBM Maximo software
2 Asset management for local government

Contents to fulfill those roles while conforming to a complex web of

regulations. To meet their responsibilities and achieve their
3 Handling today’s complex challenges goals, local government organizations must improve their
internal operations, achieve economies of scale across their
4 Unifying a fragmented asset management world
departments and find efficiencies to free resources for other
6 Strategic asset management for municipalities opportunities.

6 Understanding the unique needs of municipalities The task of improving operations in local government is
7 A comprehensive solution in a converging world complicated by the very nature of the organization. Often, there
are dozens of departments, each with a specific charter and
7 Reducing complexity, increasing control sometimes an independent budget. The breadth and scope of
assets and services for which municipalities are responsible,
7 Extending the power of asset management
when coupled with financial pressures, is unlike anything in the
8 For more information private sector.

8 About Tivoli software from IBM Consider this sample of assets that municipalities manage:

Executive summary ● Buildings and property: Local governments own and manage
Whether they are called cities, counties, villages, boroughs—or a large number of physical structures and places, from city hall
something else entirely—local government municipalities of all to office buildings, parks and recreation land, to perhaps the
proportion around the world shoulder the same responsibility to largest physical space requirement—public schools.
provide essential services to their constituents. Amid flat or ● Roadways: In addition to roads themselves, assets such as road
shrinking budgets, local governments today are expected to signs, traffic signals and street lights require the appropriate
accomplish more with fewer resources. Governments aim to levels of service to ensure they function properly and conform
maintain and develop the type of community where people to regulatory standards.
desire to live and businesses can thrive, but they often struggle
 IBM Software 3

● Utilities: Local governments may be responsible for some, increasingly converged traditional and intelligent asset environ-
if not all, of the deployment and maintenance of delivering ment. Third, as governments promote sustainability practices
critical utilities such as electricity, gas, water, sewer, storm within their community, they need to develop their own capabil-
water and telecommunications networks. ity to improve building operations through green building
● Public safety: Police, fire and other first responders must have practices, smart redevelopment and use of available technology
well-maintained equipment capable of performing as required to reduce energy use in existing government buildings.
in an emergency. Primarily this means cars, trucks and other
vehicles, but it can also include specialty equipment. Managing workforce and infrastructure transitions
● Public transit agencies: Heavy and light rail systems require Making the transition from a retirement-age workforce to a
maintenance of right of way, track, vehicles and stations. Bus younger and less experienced one poses a significant challenge
systems must maintain buses, but also paratransit vehicles, for local governments today, but it also creates an opportunity.
accessibility equipment and shelters. As large numbers of highly qualified personnel leave, local gov-
ernments risk losing practical and institutional knowledge about
When individual departments use separate systems to manage their assets and operating history. Each department must be able
their own assets, the result can be a complex, multi-layered to capture knowledge and asset management best practices from
enterprise. Local governments need to look at enterprise experienced employees and deploy them as proven workflow
solutions that allow them to take an enterprise asset manage- processes.
ment approach to maintain their assets, deliver services and
improve performance of the government as a whole. Not only is the workforce aging—the assets underlying opera-
tions are also getting older. Minimizing the impact of the aging
Handling today’s complex challenges infrastructure requires local governments to:
Three challenges have emerged for local governments with
regard to improving their internal operations. First, as govern- ● Provide a central repository containing asset condition and
ment employees reach retirement age, municipalities must maintenance records.
make a successful transition to a younger and less experienced ● Use historical data to prioritize asset replacement.
workforce while retaining years of accumulated institutional ● Program the maintenance of assets based on criticality, usage,
knowledge. Second, local governments must find efficiencies history and other factors in order to optimize asset lifespan,
in operations by consolidating applications to support an minimize risk and comply with regulations.
4 Asset management for local government

Consolidating operational applications means that any incidents must be tracked, and any resources
To effectively manage all of their assets, local governments used to respond to environmental incidents involving hazardous
need a way to harness the data they already have. Then they materials and the like must be ready and available.
need a well-defined process to control and manage day-to-day
work-related functions. Lastly, they require analytics tools to There’s also the issue of optimizing the existing building space
make informed decisions based on their asset and work data. local governments already have. Making the most of the build-
Accomplishing this requires a rational set of industry standard ings governments possess by maximizing the use of existing
tools, including enterprise asset management, which can func- physical space and resources can conserve energy and increase
tion across the local government enterprise. Governments that overall operational efficiency. This approach can also help delay
seek to do this must: costly new construction, further lowering costs and lessen the
environmental impact.
● Establish a core set of information systems necessary for
the function of government including financial management To help create sustainable building operations and processes,
and geospatial citizen response, as well as asset and work local governments need a way to:
management.
● Have an integrated asset management solution to manage ● Enable a central repository for space management and data
all types of assets—buildings, roads, parks and physical center infrastructure to optimize space utilization.
plants—that enables optimal return on assets, complies with ● Develop processes that can optimize energy consumption.
regulations and helps minimize risk. ● Allow asset-intensive divisions of the government to develop
● Link the processes between these systems to support smarter processes that support all types of assets such as emer-
government-wide requirements such as integrated supply gency rooms, fire doors, buildings or other facilities.
chain management.
Unifying a fragmented asset
Creating sustainable building operations
Local governments must constantly find ways to become smarter
management world
Municipal asset management challenges are further exacerbated
through sustainable building operations that are clean, safe and
by the fragmented nature of most asset management software
optimized for energy efficiency at a reduced cost over time.
solutions used today. Individual assets types (school buildings
Because local governments are bound to environmental health
versus park system assets, for example) are generally managed by
and safety regulations, ensuring that these requirements are met
standalone, legacy systems that are often poorly integrated,
expensive to operate and difficult to change.
 IBM Software 5

Parks and Roads and Transportation Law

recreation bridges enforcement

IBM Maximo Asset Management

K-12 school Water

districts infrastructure

Government Public Fire Motor pool

facilities works department

IBM Maximo Asset Management software delivers a unified platform to track and manage the full spectrum of municipal assets.

The islands of data that these systems produce cannot be challenges across multiple departments; and integrates smoothly
aggregated in a way that supports informed decisions. Similarly, with key systems such as geographic information systems (GIS),
standalone systems make it next to impossible to comply with enterprise asset management (EAM), customer information
recognized industry standards such as the Publicly Available systems (CIS) and ERP.
Specification 55 (PAS) from the British Standards Institution
(BSI), and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board Municipalities that are ready to adopt a new approach can
(GASB) Statement Numbers 34 and 42 in the United States. leverage today’s superior technologies to unify asset manage-
ment, optimize asset life, deliver services more efficiently and
The ideal solution instead provides a unified platform to track stretch shrinking budgets. This unified asset management
and manage the full spectrum of municipal assets and service approach embodies a set of processes and practices that enable
providers; addresses compliance, accounting and asset-related
6 Asset management for local government

municipalities to optimally manage the performance of their ● Flexibility: Perhaps most important, it is vital that municipal
critical assets according to the expectations and requirements of asset management solutions be highly flexible and config-
key stakeholders. urable, in order to support the diverse compliance and
accountability requirements of individual municipal depart-
Strategic asset management for ments. It should be possible to configure the application’s
municipalities interface and workflow to better align with each department’s
With effective, unified management of assets, local governments specific processes, and to give each decision maker an optimal
are empowered to make more informed decisions about view on the available data.
resource allocation and utilization. Unified asset management
● Scalability: An asset management solution for local
also improves governments’ ability to track the results of their governments should also scale to manage the great volume
decisions over time. Better executive decision making is made and diversity of municipal assets and service provider relation-
possible by improving the quality and timeliness of information. ships. Ideally, the solution would also allow for the manage-
ment of IT assets including servers, networks, desktop and
In particular, an asset management approach enables resource laptop computers, software and telephony equipment.
allocation decisions to factor in not only the funding required
● Functionality: In addition to supporting multiple types of
for major projects, but also the utilization of value-added assets, the solution should offer built-in features that local
resources including staff, equipment, materials and real estate. governments and municipalities will find particularly useful.
The end result is a pragmatic, systematic process for maintain- These include workflow and automated alerts that can be asso-
ing, upgrading and operating physical assets and managing ciated with procurement decisions or problem escalations;
services in a highly cost-effective manner. modules for contract management, warranty management,
labor certification and service management; built-in deprecia-
tion calculations for trucks and repair equipment; and a host of
Understanding the unique needs of
other functions specific to government operations.
municipalities ● Integration: It is critically important that the solution can
With a strategic view of all essential assets, municipalities can integrate with other key municipal systems in order to lever-
obtain the right levels of visibility, control and automation to age current IT investments for maximum value. Integration
more effectively and more proactively manage assets throughout capabilities that are particularly important for local govern-
their life cycles. While the primary capabilities and associated ments fall into the areas of CIS, EAM, ERP and GIS.
benefits of asset and service management apply to any organiza- ● Standards-based: Any work and asset management solution
tion, local governments and municipalities have additional, should be built on advanced, standards-based architecture that
unique requirements including: can mesh with evolving initiatives and reduce infrastructure
complexity. It should not create another legacy application that
requires support and integration.
 IBM Software 7

A comprehensive solution in a converging Built-in features tailored to local governments—such as service

world level agreements, service desks, mobile capabilities, contract
On today’s smarter planet, where everything from utility meters management and standard integration adapters—help shorten
and roadways to nuclear power plants and electric grids is time-to-value. Maximo Asset Management also enables local
becoming infused with microprocessors, firmware, software, governments to manage the increasing number of service
network connectivity and more, assets have unprecedented providers, whose performance directly impacts asset accountabil-
intelligence. ity, and capital and operating budgets.

The resulting convergence of smarter assets is bringing substan- Maximo Asset Management streamlines operations by unifying
tial changes to the traditional help desk, which until now has not only the various processes for asset tracking and asset
always focused on a narrow class of incidents such as water management, but also the legacy systems used for tracking
main breaks, power outages or road closures from particular and management. To further reduce complexity and improve
infrastructures. Convergence transforms the traditional help reliability and data integrity, Maximo Asset Management man-
desk into a consolidated help desk capable of providing support ages all assets from a single, central data repository. Built on a
for all assets from a single software instance. standards-based, service-oriented architecture, the IBM solution
supports a centralized implementation across multiple depart-
ments and locations, and it integrates with key financial and
Reducing complexity, increasing control
business systems including ERP and GIS
Achieving asset management success in today’s complex world is
a major challenge for municipalities. IBM® Maximo® Asset
Management software delivers a complete work and asset man- Extending the power of asset
agement solution for local governments. From a single unified management
platform, municipalities can monitor and manage their efforts to Maximo Asset Management can easily be extended to include
address regulatory requirements, improve safety and services, procurement and supply chain solutions for asset-related
maximize asset performance and reduce costs. materials, and to provide mobile access to asset data via smart
phones and other devices. With IBM Maximo Spatial Asset
Maximo Asset Management provides industry-leading asset Management software, users gain visibility to see complex GIS
modeling that is suited for all asset infrastructures—be they information by providing a dynamic, geospatial context of work,
parks, schools, power lines or road repair equipment—to better assets and relevant land-based features. This unifying framework
support the growing need for timely maintenance and repair brings technology together so that key stakeholders have the
over asset replacement. information they need.
A proven solution built on decades of experience in enterprise
asset management, Maximo Asset Management delivers a
comprehensive asset and service management solution that is
used by hundreds of municipal customers around the world.
Maximo Asset Management helps local governments deliver
higher service levels with fewer resources, while providing © Copyright IBM Corporation 2011
budget justification and asset accountability. IBM Corporation Software Group
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589
Maximo Asset Management allows local governments and
U.S.A.
municipalities to see the full range of assets, identify untapped
Produced in the United States of America
potential within them, and deliver the knowledge and control
July 2011
they need with the accountability legislators and taxpayers All Rights Reserved
demand. The result is a consolidated, trusted platform for easily
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and effectively managing everything from individual tools at a trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United
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municipality meet today’s unique challenges, contact your
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About Tivoli software from IBM that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which
Tivoli software from IBM helps organizations efficiently and IBM operates.
effectively manage IT resources, tasks and processes to meet Product data has been reviewed for accuracy as of the date of initial
ever-shifting business requirements and deliver flexible and publication. Product data is subject to change without notice.
responsive IT service management, while helping to reduce The information provided in this document is distributed “as is” without any
costs. The Tivoli portfolio spans software for security, compli- warranty, either express or implied. IBM expressly disclaims any warranties
ance, storage, performance, availability, configuration, operations of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose or noninfringement.
IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the
and IT lifecycle management, and is backed by world-class agreements under which they are provided.
IBM services, support and research
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