Woodbridge, Va. (May 18, 2017) — Woolpert and the Prince William County Service Authority (PWCSA) team implemented and recently went live with the Cityworks Server PLL (Permits, Licensing and Land) and Cityworks Asset Management System (AMS) suite for the PWCSA’s Engineering and Planning Department.
The suite, integrated with the Cayenta billing system and JD Edwards financials, was the first phase of a project focused on new development projects and their respective contributed assets.
The PWCSA oversees more than 2,200 miles of pipeline and services nearly 90,000 customers. Located in one of the fastest growing Washington, D.C., suburbs, there is an ever-increasing development demand that directly impacts PWCSA’s ability to provide timely customer service and effectively manage its infrastructure.
This implementation took 13 months to complete and went live at the end of February. Since that time, the PWCSA has reported its intentions to expand the Cityworks suite to its Operations and Maintenance, Management and Budget, and Environmental Services and Water Reclamation divisions.
"Even though we’ve only been using the software live for a few months, our users are already seeing the benefits of having all of our permitting and inspections data in one place,” said Adam Shinal, PWCSA asset manager and Cityworks administrator. “The organizational transparency it provides is great, and using one central database for reporting purposes instead of rounding up a myriad of Excel spreadsheets and Word documents is a big time-saver. Having a real-time link between the office and inspectors in the field is also very helpful."
Beginning in late 2015, Woolpert began working with PWCSA’s Engineering and Planning Department to define its existing and future business processes. Originally, the project scope was to implement only the Cityworks PLL module; however, after completion of the business processes, Woolpert recommended that PWCSA add the Cityworks AMS module to provide additional required functionality for its end-users. This resulted in PWCSA utilizing both of the PLL/AMS modules to manage its development and work responsibilities for the department.
The Cayenta integration developed by Woolpert references specific tasks within the PLL business process workflows to trigger the creation of customer billing accounts following account creation, meter set and final occupancy inspection activity.
The JD Edwards integration leverages custom tables developed by PWCSA to facilitate the appropriate staging of financial information throughout the development review process.
PWCSA provided Shinal as an asset manager to assist with the project, and he has not only participated heavily in the overall project but also has contributed valuable information and application development to assist with the success of the integration. Shinal and the PWCSA team were knowledgeable and provided details necessary to make the integration successful.
Woolpert also incorporated NServiceBus, a middleware that connects the software into the implementation. Jen Kouns, Woolpert project manager, said NServiceBus efficiently retains information and sends notifications if the systems go down.
“NServiceBus is a powerful tool—the more integrations you have, the more your system can communicate effectively rather than having pieces and parts that can break in the middle,” Kouns said. “The more integrations you have and the more you can control those integrations, the more capable your system becomes.”
For more information about the PWCSA, visit www.pwcsa.org.
About Woolpert
Woolpert is a national architecture, engineering and geospatial (AEG) firm that delivers value to clients by strategically blending engineering excellence with leading-edge technology and geospatial applications. With a dynamic R&D department, Woolpert works with inventive business partners like Google and Esri; operates a fleet of planes, sensors and unmanned aerial systems (UAS); and continually pushes industry boundaries by working with advanced water technologies, asset management, Building Information Modeling (BIM) and sustainable design. Woolpert’s mission is to help its clients progress—and become more progressive. For over 100 years and with 26 offices across the United States, Woolpert serves the needs of federal, state and local governments; private and public companies and universities; energy and transportation departments; and the United States Armed Forces. The firm currently is doing business in all 50 states and in six countries. For more information, visit woolpert.com or call 937-531-1258.
