From reactive to proactive

The City of Lindstrom, Minn., set out to creatively harness technology by transitioning from a reactive to a proactive approach of asset management through adoption of ArcGIS Online. The City set goals to improve services, prioritize road maintenance, improve efficiencies of community-requested work orders and migrate to paperless documentation for all utility maintenance and property records.

With our intimate familiarity of the City’s goals for customer service, infrastructure knowledge and savvy planning—MSA partnered with the City of Lindstrom to brainstorm and custom-build practical ArcGIS Online applications for both office and field use. Through a strong working relationship, the partners brainstormed GIS solutions which capitalized on robust asset management strategies well beyond paperless record keeping.

Integrated, real-time solutions

The result was a suite of GIS applications ideally suited to solving the City’s needs and addressing tasks that had previously been very time-consuming for staff. Significant cost savings resulted from improved efficiencies in locating utilities in the field, accessing property records in the office and automating pavement maintenance rankings—not to mention solely utilizing GIS as opposed to multiple third-party software platforms designed for singular tasks.

The City of Lindstrom’s GIS now features a real-time work order system which integrates across all administrative and field staff—along with a pavement management system which uses custom algorithms to rank streets based on condition, socioeconomic factors and budgetary considerations. Lindstrom’s GIS also tracks maintenance, repair and other valuable background information on parks and utilities. The City now has the ability to chart work order trends, access unique property records and create reports with a few clicks.