The city of Arlington, Texas, recently received a Smart City North America Award in a competition by the International Data Corporation (IDC) for a smart asset management system that 200 city employees use to manage more than 50,000 assets, half for the the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.
This parks and recreation-led system won a smart city accolade beating Washington, D.C. in the competition’s administration category.
Arlington’s Public Works and Transportation and water utilities departments also use the system for roads, signs, equipment and all aspects of operations, including labor, according to the city. With it, the city has been able to improve flood response, equipment usage and more, according to IDC.
The city of Arlington owns its data, which is stored in and accessed on Amazon Web Services cloud. By moving away from a cumbersome, legacy system powered by spreadsheets to a centrally managed, cloud-hosted one, the city uses asset and operations data to reduce costs and improve services.
A smart asset management system advises planning and resource allocation, according Arlington Parks & Recreation Asset System Administrator, Scott DeGrant. Once assets are managed within a city, departments can use the data to power apps, such as like Park & Rec’s new conditions assessment app. According to GCN, Arlington Park & Rec has about 100 asset types, including parks, playgrounds, pet stations, irrigation systems, hydration stations, benches and trees.
Park & Rec staff has currently recorded 25,000 assets, including 10,000 trees. According to its asset management system vendor, the city analyzed their park run data in 2016 and created a new schedule that saved the city 3,300 hours — or $60,000 — in nine months.
Hear about how the smart asset management system changed the way the city of Arlington and its Park & Rec department works in a 2015 video created by Cartegraph:
