Council’s new service contract with City Care Limited

SWDC is pleased to announce it has signed a new utilities and facilities service contract with City Care Limited, commencing on 1 October 2012.

City Care is a leading provider of construction, infrastructure and facilities management in New Zealand. Their proven success with 15 other councils, and their established expertise and equipment, gives SWDC the ability to improve its services to ratepayers. City Care’s new contract with us is for the following areas:

• 3 Waters:  Maintaining waste water treatment facilities & infrastructure; potable water treatment facilities & infrastructure; water races.
• Facilities Management:  Running and maintaining pools; maintaining parks, buildings and cemeteries.

Council’s previous contract had been in place for over 14 years, initially with Serco, who were later acquired by Transfield Services. Moving to City Care therefore presents a substantial change in how we do things and involves a huge leap in technology. Where we used to have a fairly complex system for assigning work to the contractors, we can now do it electronically in virtually one step.

City Care’s “Customer Event Manager” (CEM) online platform links the public, Council and contractors all in one dynamic tool. Council staff can log a job request into the CEM while out in the field – using a mobile phone or tablet – or by using a PC at their desk. The request will go directly to the contractor. Updates on the job status are communicated in real time by text or email until the job is complete. All of the job requests and updates are tracked and saved within the CEM system for greater transparency and traceability.

Mark Allingham, Group Manager Infrastructure & Services said, “Residents can be kept in the loop as well. If you contact Council with a repair request and leave your mobile number or email address, the progress updates will be sent to you too.”   

Not only will we experience improved service communications, there will be an increase in collecting asset management data. Repairs and upgrades made to council assets (like water or sewer mains) can be remotely uploaded to our GIS, ensuring Council records are accurate and up to date. Improvements like these will help Council’s decision making in the future.

City Care and the CEM tool will be in place as of 1 October 2012 with planned enhancements as the contract transitions over the next three months. 

Posted 3 October 2012