COVINGTON, Ky. - Covington is installing a new software program that will make it easier for residents to report potholes, crumbling curbs, faulty street lights, fallen tree branches and other public infrastructure problems.
The Covington City Commission voted 5-0 tonight to contract with a company called iWorQ for a modern work order management system that can be accessed on the spot through a phone or other mobile device.
The company’s mobile-friendly, cloud-based software application is designed to improve efficiency and boost production for City workers, especially in the field, but a major benefit is that residents can also use the program to communicate with City Hall, said Kendall Huff, Covington’s System Analyst/Project Manager. For example, residents will be able to snap a photo of a problem site, send it to the City through an app on their phone or the city’s website and then track the status of their request.
“When it comes to infrastructure, it’s a big step toward improving City Hall’s responsiveness to the people we serve,” City Manager David Johnston said.
iWorQ’s bid was the best of the five received and was selected after hands-on demonstrations by the City’s Public Works Department, Covington officials said. IWorQ specializes in software for local governments and has 1,200 customers across the United States and Canada.
The contract is for $37,000 - $17,000 is allocated toward a one-time set-up and implementation fee, while the remaining $20,000 will be for annual subscription services, said Kendall Huff, Covington’s System Analyst/Project Manager.
It’ll take roughly 12 weeks to implement the system and train members of Covington’s Public Works Department how to use it, Huff said. The City also plans to create “how to” manuals for the public portal, once it’s operating.
“The system will be fairly easy to use,” Huff said.
Acting Public Works Director Rick Davis said iWorQ will greatly improve efficiency because of its immense capability.
“It’s definitely a much-needed improvement from our current 1990s work order system,” Davis said. “What we have now is difficult to navigate, difficult to use and inefficient for supervisors and the front office.”
The new system will allow Public Works to go paperless with work orders, provide much-needed mobility to its work force, allow unlimited users and let officials track the history of an order to ensure it was completed and generate reports with detailed costs.
It handles service request, work order, task management and reporting requirements for things like facilities, curbs and sidewalks, traffic lights and signs, parks and recreation, streets and tree inventories.
Huff said the system could be expanded to include other departments and functions, such as fleet management, code enforcement and zoning.
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