Page 11 - Alabama 811 Magazine 2021 Issue 2

Harnessing Tech to Expedite Locates
The City of Auburn finds suT
ccess with e-ticket software
By Michael Downes he City of Auburn has spent the last two years 811 Magazines leveraging a new software technology that has
streamlined the city’s locate process.
And the advantages keep coming.
Chris Graff, deputy chief information officer with the City of Auburn, said his team launched the DigSmart platform in 2019 for locators, after several successful years harnessing the power of CityWorks for general public works tickets.
He said adding DigSmart to their toolbox has eliminated a lot of unproductive office hours and missed tickets, among other perks.
“One big benefit we saw on Day One [of the software launch]
is we as an organization have gotten more efficient in getting locates done because of the technology,” Chris said. “We are in the office less to get organized to do the work, and spending more time actually doing locates instead. We are getting to work quicker, working faster and with fewer mistakes — and locates aren’t falling through the cracks.”
DigSmart’s key component is that it receives tickets sent to the City by Alabama 811, and parses the data in several ways that had to be done manually in the past.
“DigSmart ingests the tickets, and takes the ticket apart into pieces, and applies various logic against it to determine what needs to be located, and who should be responsible for those locates,” he said.
Users are looking at work in real-time, and tickets don’t disappear accidentally like they have in the past with old systems.
“When it was all on paper, shuffling work between people because folks were on vacation or out sick was ripe for work
to get delayed. Now we can move more efficiently if a locator is on vacation. Another locator can jump into the person’s inbox and cover for them. There’s no need to check through someone’s email or rifle through the pile of papers on so-and-so’s desk,” he said.
As tickets come in, locators are able to view the information on their laptop, and there’s an archive function so they don’t have to call back to the office to pull a ticket from three weeks or three months ago. In fact, not only are they able to see old tickets, but also notes and other work history, plus photos and other documentation that can aid in the follow-up locate.
“Having that history at everyone’s fingertips allows them to do their job better, whether it’s a locate or construction or repair. And we are working under the assumption that if we can do it faster and higher quality, we are protecting those assets and mitigating those damages,” Chris said.
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2021, Issue 2 Alabama 811 • 9