In October 2013 Gloucestershire County Council (GCC) decided to review their streetworks Management solution in order to ensure EToN 6 compliance by the mandatory deadline. The review lead to the decision to replace their existing software solution with Symology’s Cloud based Insight for streetworks solution. In the process, GCC managed to become one of the first authorities in the UK to become EToN 6 compliant - four months in advance of the deadline. In this interview we talk to Ian Howells, NSG custodian, and Phillip Cameron, traffic manager, both from GCC, and get the background on the decision to swap to the Insight solution. Vibeke Ulmann reports.
After having used their existing system across its highways provision for more than 25 years, the introduction of Symology’s Insight solution into Gloucestershire County Council’s (GCC) traffic management schemes signifies the beginning of a new era for the network and traffic management team.
Phil Cameron, traffic manager at GCC, says, ‘The working relationship we had with our previous supplier was different to other councils, as we had access to the ‘hard code’; this meant we could modify the system and write our own reports. This option wasn’t going to be available going forward, so we would have to revert to the ‘base’ product, and we would lose some functionality, including our ability to ‘join up’ the systems we had within Gloucestershire Highways for noticing etc. These could have been reinstated; however it would have meant starting from scratch.’
In the light of these challenges, GCC decided to look at alternatives in the market keeping in mind that the Information Communications Technology (ICT) team recommended they go for a managed services solution. After looking at all the EToN compliant software solutions available, GCC settled on the cloud based Insight for Street Works solution from Symology - a leading supplier of streetworks systems and highway asset management systems.
On Monday 9th December 2013, Gloucestershire’s network and traffic management team started using the new solution to manage the coordination and monitoring of all works within the county. Symology’s Insight Mobile software is also used by GCC’s streetworks inspectors in the field, and Insight is further used by the county for Street Gazetteer and Additional Street Data Management.
Mr Cameron says: ‘The decision to change provider was driven by contractual changes to GCC’s highway maintenance contract, it was decided that the new contractor would decide what asset management system supplier would be used. And importantly that the new contractor should be able to manage the solution and its usage. Given the need for the traffic manager to act autonomously, we felt this could be demonstrated more clearly by having our own separate system for work coordination and inspection purposes.
Updating the System
Mr Cameron adds: ‘As our ICT team advised it would be best to go for a managed service, it was agreed that as the Street Gazetteer data was closely linked (and fundamental) to the street works system. It not only made sense but would also be best practice -to link the two databases/areas of work, and opt for the same provider for uniformity and business continuity. We were happy to do this, as Symology’s knowledge of the Street Gazetteer package was impressive. Their team gave a fantastic demonstration of the system, they answered every question we asked, and their knowledge of streetworks is excellent. That really helped us make the choice.’
Ian Howells, Gloucestershire County Council
EToN 4 and EToN 5 were both introduced with severely tight deadlines for the implementation of new software. On both occasions Symology were extremely successful in delivering fully comprehensive solutions to their customers, as early as six months before the date on which they went live. This included providing permitting capabilities free of charge to existing customers, when EToN 5 was introduced.
In choosing the managed service cloud based delivery, it should also be noted that the IT requirements were as simple as arranging secure web access. No need to manage servers, backup or any related IT administration. The delivery was quick and easy it only took three months from agreement to a successful go-live as planned.
Mr Cameron explains the key advantages that the Insight solution has provided to GCC’s traffic management team, ‘We liked the main system and the Insight Mobile solution; Symology were also brilliant about making changes to help us manage our NSG network, which had worked very well with our previous system and we didn’t really want to lose any functionality. For this specific project, GCC had some pre-defined requirements for maintaining an additional identifier on its ESU records, in order to pass road classification information to the GCC corporate mapping solution. Symology were able to automate the creation and allow ongoing management of this identifier with ease.
Phillip Cameron Gloucestershire County Council
The sticky point when moving to a new solution is always how to migrate the data safely, and the reassurance they gave about moving our data was encouraging. Symology gave us the confidence that they would provide a ‘business as usual’ solution for us, with a minimal level of data or ICT related risks.’
The Insight Mobile solution enables users to interact remotely with the central Insight system, with the central Insight system, and it has become a central component of Symology’s highways asset management software.
When asked about specific advantages provided by Insight Mobile Mr Cameron says: ‘We knew from the beginning of the project that we would need an effective mobile solution. Insight Mobile was the best option for our inspectors. Now they can capture information ‘on the fly’ and then easily and accurately upload that information while out onsite or at the end of the day. With each inspection record we can take photographs to back-up the reason why we have failed an in-spection. These can be sent from the field and be seen immediately by the relevant works promoter within a matter of minutes. This really helps to reduce wasted time on disputes.'
The Implementation Process
With EToN 6 becoming industry standard as of April 1st 2014 one of GCC’s main concerns was the migration of data from the old system to the new one.
Mr Cameron says: ‘The switchover project happened quickly and relatively smoothly, considering that a data migration exercise from our previous supplier was also required. Migration from the old system was achieved by reprocessing EToN notices, in order to benefit from EToN validation rules. This process led to an improvement in our data quality because all unnecessary or erroneous works were filtered out. The attention to detail was brilliant, with the Symology team always responding to everything quickly, and remaining very helpful throughout the process.
