Introduction
Norfolk is the third largest county in England and has the second largest highways network, comprising some 200,000 assets stretched out across a total of 9,600 kilometres of road.
Norfolk County Council has the challenging task of managing and maintaining this vast and sprawling network and required an asset management software solution that would drive down costs and deliver efficiency.
Learn more about Norfolk County Council's journey with Causeway Horizons .
Customer Information
Customer Name: Norfolk County Council
Industry: County council
Causeway Solution:
Causeway Horizons
The Challenge:
Reduce energy costs and carbon emissions
As Tracy Jessop, the council’s Assistant Director of Communities and Environmental Services, explains:
“Like all local authorities, we are experiencing issues with ageing infrastructure, a growing demand for services and reduced budgets.
"To meet these challenges, we are focussed on driving down costs and maximising funding available through Government schemes like the Incentive Fund and the Local Highways Maintenance Challenge Fund, with the end goal of maintaining and enhancing the quality of our highways network.”
The council began looking for a new asset management software solution to deliver on this vision.
The Solution
Custom built integrated Intelligent Lighting Solution (ILS)
Following a competitive tender process, it signed a five-year £500,000 contract with Causeway which includes hosted versions of Causeways suite of asset management software, incorporating the integrated Highways and Street Works modules, as well as the visualised asset management platform, Causeway Horizons.
The partnership also delivers multiplatform support for mobile devices as well as integration with the Council’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM), finance system and third party contractor works management system.
Causeways Asset Management and Horizons solutions will also be interfaced with the Council’s online mapping portal, giving visibility of planned works and allowing for the monitoring of reported defects.
Prior to the contract signing, Norfolk County Council was already a longstanding customer of Causeway having operated its accredited pavement management system software, MARCHpms for several years.
The trust that developed between the two organisations during that time was a key factor in the contract award. Norfolk CC was also impressed by the potential of Causeway's software solutions to support cost savings and drive operational efficiencies.
Having signed the contract, Norfolk CC put in place a staged implementation process, spread out across eight to nine months and split into three implementation phases;- Causeway Horizons
- Causeway Highways
- Causeway Street Works
Tracy Jessop Assistant Director, Communities and Environmental Services stated:
“Working in partnership with Causeway has enabled us to raise standards in highways asset management across the county, while at the same time delivering operational efficiencies and driving down costs. We have a shared vision of how by harnessing and making optimum use of the latest technology developments in this area we can maintain our highways infrastructure at the highest possible level, and ensure Norfolk remains a great place to live and work.”
Norfolk County Council is using Causeway Horizons to carry out a multi-scenario analysis of its highways network, ensuring it can model asset behaviour and deterioration and therefore make the choices required to maintain the network in optimum condition.
More specifically, Causeway Horizons can determine the current maintenance backlog faced by the Council i.e. the type, extent and cost of remedial works needed to return the highway network to acceptable condition. The Causeway Horizons Analysis module will also support the appraisal of different scenarios determined by anticipated levels of funding; and service delivery targets measured against both national performance and specific condition parameters.
Over time, the use of Causeway Horizons will help the Council to achieve a much better understanding of the condition of its network. The tool’s visualisation capability will also help the Council justify decisions around network maintenance and its use of the available budget to senior management and members.
In addition to Causeway Horizons, Norfolk County Council is also using Causeway's Highways Maintenance and Street Works modules to better manage its highways assets.
Causeway Highways provides Norfolk with a cost-effective approach to asset management, from inventory to works orders and inspections, while also handling the end-to-end cycle of reactive maintenance from customer enquiry, through to inspection, works and
completion. It also enables Norfolk to order work to their internal and external contractors.
Causeway Street works allows Norfolk to effectively manage its street works register, enabling operational efficiency and an appropriate, transparent service on the streets.
The council was attracted by the flexibility that Causeway demonstrated during the tender process.
“Causeways asset management solutions are continuously evolving and they have emphasised that they would be happy for us to have input into them and how we would like to see them operate for the business, especially around the future works contracting module.”
Karl RandsArea Manager Highways Norfolk County Council
The Outcome:
Cost and time efficient reporting and repair processes
One of the key benefits that the new Asset Management solution will deliver for Norfolk is an enhanced mobile solution. Previously, the council issued paper work tickets to the crews working on the highways network, who manually update the ticket and return them to the office when the job is complete.
The business support team would input the re-measure into the back office system.
With Causeway Asset Management solutions supported on Android mobile devices, 100 council users will be working with this new technology. It is anticipated that Norfolk can achieve significant efficiencies and savings across its highways asset management processes.
The council can, for example, forward works orders directly to its road workers in-cab. The in-cab team can then in turn view a photograph of the relevant defect taken during the original inspection, carry out the work; photograph it to confirm it has been done and then transfer the documentary evidence in real time to the back office.
Norfolk’s team of highways inspectors will also benefit from the new Android-supported Causeways Asset Management modules.
Using Causeway Asset Management will enable highway inspectors to see customer requests out in the field in real-time, allowing them to deal with queries immediately rather than having to go back to the once and download service requests received from customers on the previous day.
Causeways Asset Management also interfaces with Norfolk’s new Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) based computer system which uses Microsoft Dynamics and enables automated responses to be issued to customers, allowing them to track the progress of repairs on defects they have reported.
Summing up, Karl Rands reports: “The combination of Causeways Asset Management and the new Android mobile devices has helped deliver more efficient business processes and will ultimately produce efficiency savings for the authority.”
According to Tracy Jessop: “The hosted nature of the Causeway Asset Management and Horizons offerings is saving us hardware, software and personnel costs and ensuring we remain at the forefront of future advances in highway asset management. Added to that, the mobile working enabled by Causeway Asset Management is providing us with significant and ongoing efficiency savings.”
The Causeway solution also allows for identification and prioritisation of highway maintenance and improvement schemes through the use of multi criteria analysis, as well as the end to end process of defect reporting through system integration and mobile working.
We have demonstrated a thorough understanding of Norfolk’s requirements and challenges and have delivered solutions that are helping them implement new working practices, achieve efficiency gains and benefit from our ongoing commitment to innovation.”
In addition to the core software solutions, the Casueway Norfolk partnership also includes multiplatform support for mobile devices as well as integration with the Council’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM), finance system and third party contractor works management system.
The Causeway Asset Management and Horizons solutions will also be interfaced with the Council’s online mapping portal, giving visibility of planned works and allowing for the monitoring of reported defects.
Are you interested in hearing how you can achieve the same results for your business? See how Causeway Horizons could make an instant difference to your business by booking a 30-minute demonstration here.
