City of Nürtingen Works Department

Professional work for an integrated process

With around 40,000 inhabitants, a municipal department has to handle a broad range of different tasks. Streets and sidewalks need to be maintained, signs need to be put up, the city needs to be cleaned, landscaping work has to be done, playgrounds have to be refurbished, and winter snow removal has to be handled. For the roughly 60 employees in the city of Nürtingen’s Works Department, however, those are just some of the duties they have to fulfill. Their scope of responsibility also includes maintaining the vehicle fleet and handling carpentry and locksmith work.

Challenge

In general, the administrative work associated with such a diverse range of so many different tasks is both difficult and time-intensive. Processing all employee service data, creating report documents, generating invoices, and maintaining master data require a large amount of work, although automation can reduce this workload significantly.

Solution

Nürtingen decided to take advantage of this possibility. The Baden-Württemberg Works Department has been using the integrated Municipal departments module by Axians Infoma since 2014, which it used to replace its existing ARES system. The primary driver behind the decision in 2014 was the ability to integrate the module with Infoma newsystem financial accounting. Project managers valued this option, as they had introduced double-entry bookkeeping into their core administration at the start of 2015 – they had a large number of internal financial processes that needed to be mapped.

That made it all the more important to everyone involved that the launch phase run very well and very professionally, despite personnel changes. Outstanding internal collaboration between Utilities and the Treasurer was a key factor in their success. The migration to double-entry bookkeeping was just as seamless and results-focused as the project coordination, workshops, and training sessions had been, thanks to support by the Axians Infoma team.

In addition to the basic module, which handled order processing, resource management, order budgeting and monitoring, and mapping service types, the Nürtingen Works Department also uses the vehicle fleet and web order modules. The process proved highly efficient in everyday use, which is reflected in the high level of approval it enjoys among employees.

Benefits

Most of our expectations have been fulfilled,” project manager Savita Christ from the Nürtingen City Treasury concludes. “Direct booking and faster recording, including with an interface to dvv.personal, has allowed us to generate significant workload reductions and time savings.

The internet or intranet-based web order, especially, has helped optimize processes with its ability to handle the commissioning and notification process between departments and Utilities without any media disruptions. Nürtingen has now switched the entire order assignment process to digital tools. Existing orders can be expanded by adding additional information, and any number of variable forms can be set up for different clients. Savita Christ only says that Axians Infoma still has some work to do on the status function: “Setting up a traffic light function would be good, since it would ensure clients were always up to date on the status of the order.” Nürtingen project managers have seen how quickly Axians Infoma is able to implement change requests that come up in everyday practical work. Right at the beginning of the project, the Axians Infoma team adjusted the report function for work orders to match Nürtingen’s needs. Unnecessary fields were removedand cost center groups, payers, and general ledger accounts were added. After converting to version 7 of newsystem, Works Department employees were able to enjoy some additional optimizations.

In contrast, the newly installed Vehicle fleet module, which allows the department to administer any number of vehicle types, is not yet fully in use. It provides all data on each recorded vehicle, work material, and device, along with links to the respective cross-sectional fields. All technical resources – including vehicles, equipment, machines, and technical tools – to be invoiced to other departments or recorded internally as consumption can be administered with the module. At the same time, the user receives extensive standard reports, for instance for accepted maintenance orders, material requirements lists, and similar documents.

After almost two years in operational use – one of which was under single-entry bookkeeping, double-entry having been introduced on 1/1/2015 – the Nürtingen Works Department is very satisfied with the performance of the process, as well as the service provided by Axians Infoma for questions. The city, located in the beautiful Neckar river valley, plans to tackle other issues in the medium term, such as direct data transfer from the gas station to the vehicle fleet module via interface. By thinking about issues like these, Nürtingen is laying the groundwork for even more economical operations.