Cartegraph software helps you capture data, analyze it and prepare for the future, empowering you to deliver the best possible outcome for your community—in any situation.
1. What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
Cartegraph started off like many other software companies: with four guys in a basement looking to grow and change an industry. It was 1994, and after seeing local governments struggling to manage their assets with note cards and paper maps hanging on their office walls, the founders knew they had to build a better way. First, they started by answering the question: what assets do I have—and the company has grown from there. More than two decades later, that inspiration remains. Today, it’s a group of 100+ people working together to grow and change an industry— to build high-performance government.
2. What is your signature product and how does it work?
Our signature product is our operations management system, which empowers high-performance government agencies to capture critical data, analyze it and prepare for the future.
While the web-based software and mobile tools are user-friendly and well designed, the depth and breadth of its capabilities are equally impressive. Local governments use Cartegraph to:
- Create an accurate asset inventory with condition data
- Build digital task lists and work orders so nothing gets forgotten
- Track the cost of maintenance and how resources are being used
- Monitor performance with detailed reports and dashboards
- Uncover and correct hidden inefficiencies
- Gain visibility on spending—and if departments are on track with their budgets
- Track how quickly they respond to citizen requests
- Analyze data to find opportunities to operate more efficiently
- Spend less time on data entry and more time on the work that matters with automations
- Prepare budgets and capital improvement plans
- Run projections to see the impact of budget on asset condition
- Measure the ROI of maintenance methods—and plan accordingly
- Prioritize projects based on budget, asset criticality and more
- Develop emergency response plans for critical assets
- Streamline FEMA disaster response, cleanup, recovery and reporting
For more information and product visuals, visit: http://bit.ly/2CcwrH2
3. Why do you believe your products are essential to the government community?
Simply put, the outdated methods many municipal agencies rely on to manage their assets and operations haven’t been cutting it for a while now. To protect and provide the best possible outcomes for their citizens, they must ditch the paper work orders and incomplete spreadsheets, and stop relying on employee memory.
Many factors have changed and challenged the local government landscape over the last few years, which makes it even more critical for these organizations to elevate their performance. To overcome the following hurdles, local government agencies need a partner—like Cartegraph—to help them manage assets effectively, deploy resources efficiently and become more productive:
- A crumbling infrastructure in desperate need of repair. The U.S. infrastructure received a near-failing grade of D+ from the American Society of Civil Engineers in their 2017 Infrastructure Report Card. The report noted infrastructure assets across the country are mostly below standard and exhibiting significant deterioration with many elements approaching the end of their service life. Local governments across the country need to act fast to avoid failures and strategically invest in maintenance— repairing the right assets at the right time.
- Citizens are looking for a consumer-quality experience. The day-to-day operations of local governments directly impact the quality of life of their citizens. Today, residents think of themselves as the end users and government services as a “product” they have “purchased” with their taxes. What’s more, in our mobile-driven world of instant e-commerce, citizens increasingly demand a personalized, customer-focused experience with platforms that support two-way communication—and quick response.
- The “Silver Tsunami” is making a big splash. According to the Center for State and Local Government Excellence’s 2016 survey, 54 percent of local governments have experienced an uptick in retirements and 40 percent have seen a rise in quit rates. With fewer skilled workers pitching in with day-to-day operations, local governments need to become more effective and efficient to keep up. Additionally, with most maintenance knowledge hidden away in paper work orders or lost to the memory of former employees, communities are shifting to mobile solutions that provide a digital archive of maintenance history.
- Sluggish revenues equal mid-year budget cuts. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers’ Fall 2017 Fiscal Survey of States, lackluster revenue performances prompted 22 states to make net mid-year budget cuts totaling $3.5 billion. This is the highest number of states reporting net mid-year cuts since fiscal 2010 and the Great Recession. In an uncertain world, agile, data-driven communities will come out on top. (see customer story for example: http://bit.ly/2oqQSXg).
- Citizens are calling for more open data initiatives. By law, government data is public data and citizens are calling for more transparency and accountability when it comes to their local government. In fact, the single biggest fear of American citizens is the corruption of government officials according to Chapman University’s 2017 Study of American Fears. To make positive strides, communities not only need to make more data open and available, but also ensure the info they’re sharing is crystal clear and easy for every day citizens to understand.
4. What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
The biggest challenge our company faces is helping local governments overcome the notion that “this is the way we’ve always done things” and that there’s nothing that can be done. When we can help them believe in their ability to make change happen—to be better today than they were yesterday—that’s when great things start to happen.
5. What makes your company unique?
Our company is unique in that we partner with customers along every step of their high-performance journey. We recognize software alone isn’t a solution, and leverage a comprehensive approach that combines state-of-the-art software WITH success coaching and expert consulting. So, whether customers need help defining their first goal, collecting assets, building multi-year pavement programs or identifying inefficiencies through process mapping, we’ve got their back. And once the software is implemented, our customers always know who to call when they need help.
6. What do your customers like the best about you and your products?
We genuinely care about our customers—and their citizens— and pride ourselves on exceeding expectations without fail. On the product side, we don’t settle for satisfactory and believe that simplicity and beauty are as vital as purpose and function. We service what we sell, listen to our users, and work day and night to provide the best possible experience for our users.
On the customer service side, we delight and surprise at every opportunity and create an exceptional experience for every client. We never hesitate to let our customers know how much we appreciate and respect them, and we’ll do what it takes to help ensure their success.
7. What is the most rewarding part of serving the local government community?
To witness, celebrate and be a small part of the success our customers achieve along their high-performance journeys. Each year, customers nominate themselves for our High-Performance Government Awards, and the submissions are nothing short of incredible. Take one of our 2016-2017 award winners, the city of Arlington, Texas, Parks Department. In an effort to be more efficient, the city analyzed their park run data in Cartegraph and created a new schedule that saved the city 3,300 hours—or $60,000—in just 9 months.
8. Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share with our users about you or your company?
- Cartegraph was founded on Halloween, October 31, 1994.
- Over 11 million assets are managed in Cartegraph.
- Cartegraph has helped serve over 80 million citizens.