For many of us, it is now difficult to imagine how anything could have been done before Trimble's software solution", says Ilkka Saarimäki, the City Geodesist of the Turku Municipal Property Corporation. City of Turku has been involved in developing Trimble's software and applications from the very beginning, and the solution has become the core of different technical processes of the city.
Turku has been using Trimble software for decades. "We did consider other alternatives but found them to be significantly less advanced. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to say that we made the right decision", says Ilkka Saarimäki. "Not only back then, but many times over, since we haven’t fallen into the trap of changing to a new system every few years. Trimble's software solution has progressively evolved over the years to answer new demands that could never have been anticipated in the first place", he continues.
Boosting quality and efficiency of work
Today the base solution, Trimble Locus, is widely in use in city departments. "Trimble Locus is mostly used for the maintenance of basic geographic and register materials. Unlike before, both data types are now entered in one go by the same person. This basic work is mostly conducted by staff in technical units and the public utility companies", describes Saarimäki.
Once entered into the system, data is immediately available to all users across administrative branches. The information is utilized in an increasingly wide range of tasks, from land-use planning, property management and building control to the planning of school and health care district divisions based on population data. From Saarimäki's viewpoint, Trimble's software solution has significantly enhanced both the quality and efficiency of many work processes.
"Before Trimble's solution, you had to run around looking for maps and other paper documents from archives and other people’s desks, take photocopies and finally return the documents. Now versatile, always up-to-date information is available with a click of a mouse. The depth of preparatory and planning work has increased tremendously. Easy access to data has also proven to be a highly valuable tool in meetings and in customer service", says Saarimäki. "For many of us it’s now difficult to imagine how anything could have been done before Trimble's solution."
At the moment, Turku is collecting information about general areas, such as streets, parks and green areas for the Street and Park Management -application. The amount of collected data is massive.
"Public structures are a big part of the city’s assets. Earlier, we did not know the exact extent of our assets", Saarimäki remarks. When up-to-date data is available in one central solution, it is easier to plan maintenance actions of general areas efficiently and call for tenders for maintenance.
"In Turku, we collect a lot of information about streets and parks and we commission the actual maintenance work from subcontractors. Before the Street and Park Management -application, we did not know exactly what the target of the call for tenders was. Now the maintenance tenders are based on facts", says Saarimäki. With the help of Trimble Locus, assessing maintenance investments has also become easier and more accurate.
"When planning maintenance actions, it is easy to get a reality-based cross-section of the state of the property and how much should be dedicated to repairing investments yearly. Earlier, this was a massive task and the result was merely a rough estimate of investment needs. The city’s property is worth tens of millions, and at the end, the cost of making the Street and Park Management -application cost was little compared to this."
Easy fieldwork with mobile application
With Trimble's mobile applications, register data can be read and written directly in the field. In Turku, the application is most actively used in the Municipal Green Area Corporation, where experts use it to save properties and data on the condition of trees. Saarimäki thinks the solution is fast and saves the experts' time. "When analyzing trees, mobile device is excellent. The tree expert may have thousands of trees which are processed individually. With a GPS, you can define the location of the tree, and record its condition and properties for the tree while standing right next to it. The record is ready straight away – unlike in the past when they had to take printouts with them to the park, and update comments written on the printouts to the system after returning to the office. Digital data is easy to maintain and it makes work faster. This is clearly a question of costs", says Saarimäki.
eServices are part of modern customer services
Turku uses all the eServices Trimble has produced so far. With the help of these applications, municipalities can offer its citizens services in which the information is recorded on an electronic desktop both the customer and the municipal authorities can view and supplement.
Turku uses an Internet-based service for applying for permits, with which the applicants are able to fill in the applications on the internet using their own computers, and the building control can both monitor and guide the entire procedure. Applying for permits on the Internet works 24/7, meaning it is not dependent on date or time.
Turku also utilizes Trimble Feedback, an electronic feedback application where citizens can send the city feedback on, for example, broken streetlights or potholes that obstruct traffic. The feedback is based on geographic information, and recorded directly in the right place. Processing feedback will also be easier, since the person in charge is able to see all information properties related to the object. "When we receive feedback, we can immediately evaluate the situation and determine necessary actions. The feedback application acts as a sort of extension to our production environment."
"The key element here is that the feedback is based on geographic information. We see Trimble Feedback as a tool for administrating all of our assets", concludes Saarimäki.
