The City of Kelowna was recognized by UBCM’s Community Excellence Awards for its new enterprise asset management system. To help manage its estimated $7 billion in infrastructure assets, the City of Kelowna spent five years developing an enterprise asset management system that now connects the work of more than 700 staff members.
Asset management runs throughout almost every task, project and department that a local government is responsible for. Whether road signs or drain culverts, park benches or baseball diamonds, a local government needs to know where each asset is in its lifecycle in order to make accurate financial and operational plans.
At the core of asset management lies a need for robust knowledge of a city’s inventory. Kelowna’s system integrates up-to-date data, condition reports and more that feed in real time to staff to manage workflow, maintenance schedules, replacement timelines and financial planning. By integrating planning, finance, operations and engineering, Kelowna created a line of sight between community expectations and infrastructure and services.
“We have every sign in our inventory, every paint marking that's on the road, every manhole, every catch basin, every water main, every hydrant. Every one of those assets has a lifecycle and the goal of the software is to help us extend that life cycle as safely and efficiently as possible,” said Greg Maier, the City’s asset management coordinator.
The usefulness and efficiency of this system earned Kelowna the top prize in Asset Management at the 2024 UBCM Community Excellence Awards. Congratulations Kelowna
One of the objectives of the Community Excellence Awards is to encourage peer to peer learning among local governments, by highlighting exceptional projects. To learn more about Kelowna’s asset management system, get in touch with Joel Shaw, Asset Management & Capital Planning Manager.