Designing a data utility
Background
Engineering Services has been designed to provide the Corporation and over 700 external
customers with geographic data and infrastructure information services such as:
- Surveying
- Drafting Mapping
- Database management
- Municipal-rights-of-way management
- Licensing and marketing of Corporate data
We are responsible for creating and maintaining four key datasets; Legal Base, Property Base
Road Network and Digital Aerial Survey. This information serves as foundation data for our
internal and external customers who use maps and GIS.
For our internal customers we create and maintain datasets for; Waterworks, Wastewater &
Drainage, Roads (Street Lighting, Traffic Signals, Curb & Gutter and Sidewalks) and
Telecommunications.
For our external customers we create and maintain key information for construction, real estate
and land development industries as well as provide web-based services such as City OnLine and
Calgary eMaps.
Business Process Improvements
Beginning in 2000 the City of Calgary underwent a total reorganization, which enabled all
Business Units to examine their existing cultures and environments. During this reorganization
Engineering Services identified a number of business process improvement opportunities.
- Implement better integration of goals and coordination of work among work units
- Improve communications and relationships among work units
- Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy to attract new internal and external customers
- Evaluate services to ensure customer needs (accuracy, timeliness and quality) are met and
prices are appropriate
- Review opportunities to improve Corporate effectiveness and efficiency through leveraging
the technology and skill within Engineering Services
- Keep abreast of new procedures and innovations within our industry and our customer’s
industries
During the last year Engineering Services has also devoted much effort to develop an
understanding of service levels required from business units which we considered critical to our
success.
- Information Technology for support of system architecture and local area networks.
- Human Resources for training requirements, compensation structure and performance
management.
- Finance for analysis to support implementation issues and cost of services.
Although we were put in a position of taking on new business opportunities and meeting
demands from “new-look” customers, our new culture had to be representative of our existing
values;
- responsive customer service
- strong customer relationships
- quality services and products
- innovation and continuous improvement
- strategic use of technology
Combining our existing culture with new opportunities resulting from the Corporation’s total
reorganization, we designed a new structure, which enabled us to strengthen our vision of being
the partner of choice in spatial data and infrastructure information management
