When it comes to servicing roads, rates and rubbish, Konect helps councils, their employees and contractors access all the data, maps and details they need, wherever they are.
Whether it’s trees, footpaths, potholes, street lights, parks, rubbish, recycling services, or a combination, local governments have a lot of assets and services to inspect and manage. Konect simplifies this enormous challenge by giving your team all the information they require and the ability to document their work in the palm of their hands.
The Konect app revolutionises local government work and boosts productivity by:
Replacing paper printouts with targeted distribution of workflows and detailed maps that can be set up without developer assistance or coding.
Providing in-the-field access to all the relevant information your team requires to get the job done.
Accurately collecting data with forms featuring geo-tagging, auto-populating fields and conditional logic.
Streamlining reporting with real-time photo and file uploads that are automatically linked to each project.
The team at Global GBM has been servicing the local government sector with map and GPS linked mobile devices since 2002. Maps are especially important as most local government assets are located on public lands in the space between land parcels and therefore cannot be described by a typical street address. Local Government Organisations work over large geographical areas, often outside the range of wireless data services.
Konect, with its integrated maps, intelligence data forms and ability to continue to operate when there is no internet connection, is the ideal tools for field services personnel delivering municipal services. Konect excels in this environment by delivering improvements in operator efficiency and automating any workflow that requires multiple visits to distributed field sites.
Global GBM’s map-enabled mobile solution improves the productivity of both inspectors and repair crews. Inspection and repair works are linked into a fully electronic workflow, making it easy to close out work requests and collect statistics on the work done.
Map linked data forms make it easy for inspectors to track which segments have been inspected and quickly mark the location of any defects. Intelligent data forms make sure defects are described consistently. Wireless data services upload all defects to the cloud database from where they can be easily reviewed and repairs prioritised.
Maps assist repair crews to quickly navigate to defect locations and positively identify the site and work requirements. No more paper forms, no more time wasted matching up work sites and work requirements.
Konect automatically collates audit records to protect against possible legal challenges around the state of the footpath network and steps being taken by the asset owners to minimise public risk.
Konect assists managers of road networks to demonstrate that they have implemented a best-practice approach to managing the risk of damage and injury for road users.
Konect provides a secure and efficient framework for recording defects and managing make-safe repairs. Time stamped electronic records allow managers to demonstrate their compliance with metrics stipulated in their Road Management Plan.
Global GBM assists numerous Local Government Organisations to regularly inspect the various classes of assets in the road corridor (signs, guide posts, lighting, road surface, footpaths etc.), log defects and prioritise make-safe repairs.
Accurate map location of defects allows repair crews to easily identify their worksite and positively confirm closure of hazardous defects. Road owners reap efficiency benefits and can significantly reduce insurance premiums by demonstrating a positive approach to risk management.
Grass cutting is one of a myriad of contractor tasks regularly managed the mobile systems from Global GBM.
Cutting areas are marked onto planning maps for electronic transfer to contract crews who can quickly locate the area assigned to them and easily record completion. WH&S instructions can be attached to each contractor task.
Konect simplifies contract management and assists the scheduling inspections and audits if necessary.
In Australia alone, local governments manage over $100 billion in community assets, including many small items like park furniture, lighting, guide posts and trees that are scattered across the public lands. These need to be located, inspected and repaired.
Global GBM provided unique map linked drawing tools that allow inspectors to accurately locate these assets at their GPS location or more commonly mark them on high resolution aerial imagery. In Australia spatial asset capture drives repair and maintenance regimes and provides critical observations that drive Council Asset Management software.
Inspection and Maintenance of park furniture is one of the most common activities assisted by Global GBM mobile software. Park furniture, particularly playground equipment is one of the most closely monitored groups of Council Assets due to the real concern around possible injury from poorly maintained equipment.
Map linking of inspection sheets are critical as otherwise it can be difficult to locate equipment spread across a large park area. Maps and forms drive a robust inspection regime that identified as potential defects and ensures end-to-end closure of the inspection and maintenance cycle.
Every year witnesses unfortunate incidents around poorly fenced back yard pools. This is one of many areas where ongoing vigilance in managing citizen’s compliance with bylaws is critical for community safety. Inspectors are armed with a map linked register of private pool locations and compliance forms that allow them to quickly complete an inspection check list.
Providing a mobile inventory or registered pets significantly simplifies the task of canine inspectors. When a stray dog is located in the street, a check of registered pets in the immediate map area can often quickly reunite the animal with its owner, saving the need to capture the animal and hold it in the pound. Armed with a map of registered dogs, inspectors reduce the need to check with the office or disturb law abiding citizens when animals are observed on their premises.
Members of the public are increasingly relying on their mobile devices as their primary means of communications. The days of waiting on the phone to report a downed tree or pothole are thankfully coming to an end.
Global GBM will be extending Konect to serve as a citizen engagement tool where members of the public view map linked information on their mobile devices and report issues by clicking on the map. Defect reports will be routed directly to the Council’s Customer Relationship Management system that can automatically post acknowledgement and resolution details back to the mobile device.
This type of solution will improve customer satisfaction and save on call centre costs. Direct integration with specialist Customer Relationship Management systems is available on application.
Urban forests are of special interest to urban councils who recognize their responsibility for possible damage or injury that may result from failure of trees in their ownership. Trees also have a value, both as a community amenity and also for the carbon capture potential and habitat contribution.
Proactive management through a regime of regular inspections and logging of all works against individual trees yields dividends both in terms of the health and vigour of the forests but importantly in terms of incident reduction.
Several Global GBM customers have achieved insurance premium reductions of several times the compliance cost by demonstrating their mobile device driven risk minimisation strategies.
Developers submit plans that detail the location of roads, footpaths and services to be established in new sub-divisions. As-built infrastructure invariably differs from those plans. Konect is an efficient tool for Local Government employees and contractors to validate final installations against the original plans for upload to Council’s GIS system that will track these assets through their productive life.
There are many areas in council where personnel need to be dispatched to inspect or maintain assets in the field. Konect, with its unique combination of a manager’s desktop, wireless data service and mobile App is an ideal environment for assigning works to field crews and tracking tasks to completion. Integrations with Assets Management systems can be developed as required. Typically an Asset system will forward work orders to Konect and receive updates as works progress.
Local Government is responsible for a diversity of assets and activities that are carried out at real world locations, many of which cannot be reliably located from a street address alone.
Konect is a very good fit for this style of organisation because workflows and data sets can be easily and quickly tailored for each activity without the delay of engaging a programming team. More importantly, a new workflow can be immediately distributed to a work crew without needing them to download a different app.
