Since going live with CausewayOne Asset Management in September 2025, Stevenage Borough Council has transformed the way it manages its environmental services, moving away from paper-based processes to a more connected and data-led approach.
Using CausewayOne Asset Management across grounds, cleansing, trees and playgrounds, the council now has greater visibility of its assets, jobs and service performance. This has helped Stevenage work more efficiently, improve information for residents and reduce customer contact by 16%.
The Challenge
Before CausewayOne Asset Management, Stevenage’s environmental services relied heavily on paper and manual processes.
Resident reports had to be manually triaged, including managing duplicate requests, then copied into Word documents, printed and handed to operatives as works orders. Teams collected paperwork at the start of the week and returned it at the end, giving managers limited visibility of progress and making it difficult to search historical records or provide timely feedback to residents.
The council also had around five years of asset updates recorded on paper that needed to be brought into its GIS, while playground inspections generated 52 inspection sheets every week, alongside additional quarterly paperwork.
For Stevenage, the challenge was therefore not simply replacing paper with a digital system – it was creating a more connected, accessible and flexible way to manage its services and the assets within them.
“It’s night and day compared with working from bits of paper. We now have much greater oversight of our services, and the flexibility to change our processes ourselves as our services evolve.”
Jo Davidson, Systems Manager (Environment and Leisure), Stevenage Borough Council
Jo Davidson, Stevenage Borough Council
The solution
By bringing its environmental services into CausewayOne Asset Management, Stevenage has created a more connected way of working across grounds, cleansing, trees and play.
Teams can access the information they need in the field, while managers have a clearer view of jobs, assets and performance from one place. This has helped Stevenage move from paper-based processes and limited visibility to a more responsive, data-led approach.
Grass cutting
Stevenage used its asset data to rethink how it managed grass cutting across the town. Previously, the whole town was managed by one team against a 21-working-day cutting target, which was rarely achieved. With CausewayOne Asset Management, the council was able to redesign the service around its assets and introduce a new zonal approach.
Key changes:
- Five zonal teams: Stevenage divided the town into five zones, with a dedicated grounds team responsible for each area.
- 15-working day cutting cycle: Each zone is now targeted for cutting every two weeks, improving consistency across the town.
- Better performance visibility: Managers can compare performance across zones and identify where workloads need to be balanced or working practices reviewed.
- Greater flexibility: Stevenage was able to configure much of the new approach itself, making changes without having to rely on external consultants for every adjustment.
A more connected resident experience
Stevenage has also changed how residents interact with its environmental services, replacing manual processes with a more connected and transparent journey.
Key changes:
- Introduction of the API: Linking CausewayOne Asset Management with the CRM.
- Asset-based reporting: Residents can select the relevant asset when reporting an issue, helping ensure requests contain the right information from the outset.
- Automatic updates: Once a job is completed, residents receive an automatic notification rather than relying on staff to manually provide an update.
- Fewer duplicate reports: Residents can see existing reports, while the system prevents new reports being submitted within a defined radius of an existing issue.
- Self-service grass information: Previously, residents could report long grass, but these requests did not change the council’s planned cutting schedule. Stevenage now allows residents to select a specific grassed area on the council website and see when it was last cut and when it is due to be cut again. This gives residents greater visibility while reducing unnecessary requests for the team to manage.
Digital playground inspections
Stevenage has also moved its playground inspections from paper to a digital, asset-based process.
Previously, weekly inspections required 52 printed sheets, which were collected, completed and scanned. The records were not searchable, despite needing to be retained for 21 years because of the potential for later injury claims.
Key changes:
- 52 play areas digitised: Weekly inspections are now completed digitally on tablets.
- Searchable inspection history: Inspection records are stored against individual assets, making historic information much easier to access.
- Stronger evidence for claims: If an insurance claim arises, staff can quickly see when an asset was last inspected and review its history.
- Better asset knowledge: Stevenage now has a clearer picture of the equipment within each play area, with information accessible centrally rather than relying on individual knowledge.
One system, greater visibility
CausewayOne Asset Management gives Stevenage a single view across its environmental services, helping managers understand what work is being completed, where it is happening and how teams are performing.
The same information can also be shared with other council teams. For example, Stevenage now provides the garages team with monthly information from its garage-block cleansing activity, helping them respond to resident enquiries with information they did not previously have.
The results
Since implementing CausewayOne Asset Management, Stevenage has greater visibility across its environmental services and is using its data to support more consistent service delivery, better resident communication and stronger asset management.
Key benefits:
- 16% reduction in customer contact: Stevenage has reduced customer contact by 16% since introducing CausewayOne Asset Management.
- Greater operational visibility: Managers have a clearer view of jobs, assets and team performance, making it easier to monitor progress and identify where action is needed. With Version 3, this information will be even easier to access, with the ability to create dedicated hubs for each zone.
- More consistent service delivery: The new zonal approach has enabled Stevenage to move from a 21-working-day grass-cutting target that was rarely achieved to a 15-working day cutting cycle across five zones.
- Less administrative work: Moving away from printed works orders, paper inspections and manual processes has reduced the time teams spend handling paperwork, freeing capacity for higher-value work.
- Stronger asset information: Bringing asset data into one system gives Stevenage a clearer picture of its assets, with searchable histories for work and inspections.
- Better information for residents: Residents can access information about services such as grass cutting and receive automatic updates when reported jobs are completed.
- Stronger evidence and risk management: Digital inspection records give Stevenage accessible evidence of inspections and maintenance, including when responding to potential insurance claims.
- Better information across the council: Service data can be shared with other teams, helping them respond to resident enquiries with information they did not previously have.
Looking ahead
Stevenage plans to extend its zonal approach to cleansing, subject to the availability of the required vehicles, and develop dashboards to give managers a combined view of grounds and cleansing activity within each zone. The council also plans to add more information to play assets, including photographs and manufacturer instructions, so operatives can access the information they need when carrying out repairs or ordering parts.
The council also plans to continue expanding how it uses CausewayOne Asset Management, making more of its service and asset information available to teams and finding new ways to use the system as its services develop.
Find out how CausewayOne Asset Management can help your council transform environmental services. Speak to our team today.
