We’ve successfully eliminated the financial and technical barrier for small municipalities to implement a sophisticated asset management solution through a shared service model. Our model is open source driven, so there is no restrictions on the number of copies or users that can utilize the system.

The reporting uses PowerBI from Microsoft whose desktop download is free while pro edition is reasonably priced. Alternative open source BI solutions are also in development using R, Superset and Metabase as we move towards offering a full open-source stack.

Software Stack

GIS software
Asset Management Software
Web mapping software
App Server Admin & updates
Database Server Admin & updates
BI software
Analytics software

SaaS Service

You can implement the open source stack on your own by accessing the github repository and provisioning your own servers or take advantage of the cost effective SaaS model

Shared Expertise

A municipality lacking resources to hire dedicated asset manager/GIS professional can also avail itself of our shared expertise The shared expertise helps provide:

1. BI expertise for financial statements & asset reports for council & for public
2. GIS expertise and support
3. Quarterly/monthly or more frequent parcel downloads and integration
4. Annual tax & utility uploads and integration with mapping
5. Year end financial uploads
6. Database administration, updates and backup
7. Data uploads & maintenance
8. Support for BI, GIS, Data Collect App & Asset Management
9. Training & public works field application support

How were we able to build a solution that costs tens of thousands less?

We built on open source platform and are leveraged the cloud to provide a standards based tightly integrated solution. The integration makes database management simpler and cloud hosting eliminates worries about software updates & administration. Our data frameworks reflect our philosophy to keep things frugal and practical. Your outside crew will appreciate the simplicity of our field app which won’t get in the way of doing their job. We emphasise decisions base on factual information and not on dubious and costly optimizations .

This social venture was born of necessity of enabling access for small rural and disadvantaged municipalities access to practical and sophisticated asset management with minimal cost. If you are a municipality struggling to implement and effective AM program, come visit Ashcroft and have a look at our implementation and see if it can benefit you.

MAPS

• Village of Ashcroft Map with utilities and parcels
• Map with parcels & draw tool
• Tourism Map with interactive photos of Mosaics & Trails

ANALYTICS

• Evacuation route map & 3D Visualization (UBCM sponsored project to identify and plan evacuation routes)
• R based analytics

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI)

• Council App for Financial & Asset Management Reports
• ‘Live’ Asset Management Plan– reports and graphs linked to underlying database with interactive BI
• Public Financial Reports (In development)

QGIS

Ability to utilize powerful features of Qgis with a seamlessly integrated dataset

WEB APPLICATION

Full featured web application to view and update inventory on the cell phone, web or other devices.

CORE DOCUMENTS

Asset management policy, strategy and plan.

Initial Spreadsheet

I have often observed vendors overwhelm municipal employees with information, data and graphs in order to sell their software. Although software has its place in helping you organize your assets, I would strongly advise against immediately purchasing software. Focus initially on your governance, draft your policy and strategy. Organize your data in the attached excel spreadsheet. Once you outgrow excel, you are ready to look at software. The standards based, free software based service provided by JI is more than adequate for most municipalities wishing to implement a sophisticated and complete asset management system (look at the solutions page for details).

The attached spreadsheet will help you get started. It has two tabs organizing the asset registry, the first lists the assets and the second the components tied to those assets. The components tab is where the financial data from PSAB is listed. Along with the policy and planning documents, it will get you going and allow you to check off a number of requirements.

• Asset Management Spreadsheet

We’re working for the following goals:

• Inclusion: Create a sophisticated platform specifically for small municipalities & first nations providing level of service as good or better than the larger, wealthier municipalities.
• Frugality: Save taxpayers tens of thousands per municipality by leveraging open source software & using the cloud to develop shared services.
• Transparency: Use cutting-edge tools and BI frameworks to transparently share data with the public & enhance understanding for council.
• Strengthen Municipal Commons: Encouraged public ownership of valuable data & information.

Unique Perspective

Working as a CFO in Ashcroft for over 5 years I have become intimately familiar with challenges unique to small municipalities. Averse to spending tens of thousands on software and then on consulting with an end result that was neither simple or practical, I applied insights and innovative ideas from science and academia that could allow small municipalities to level the playing field compared to their larger counterparts. The end result is a shared -service model predicated on the cloud using open source to eliminate license costs which can then be applied to the provision of services.

Fostering Innovation

JI was created to foster innovation for small municipalities. Small municipalities face greater financial & HR constraints and are unable to afford additional technical staff. They need solutions that are  specifically tailored for them to be simple, effective & most importantly, frugal.

JI has developed an innovative platform to hide complexity and handle data warehousing, ETL, semantics and analytics while providing frugal, effective solutions optimized for small municipalities. We enable the use of free and open source software to drastically cut costs and provide a common platform to share expertise and resources.

Solutions vs Software

Our focus has been to develop solutions and as opposed to just software. Solutions that are practical, realistic and flexible enough to incorporate conditions unique to each municipality.

Data Ownership

If data is the new oil, feedback data is gold dust (paraphrased).

Prof. Ajay Agrawal, founder of the Creative Destruction Lab and co-founder of the AI/robotics company Kindred

The advent of AI and IoT has increased the volume and importance of data. Most municipalities are not structuring their contracts appropriately to retain ownership of their data. This leaves them dependent and reliant on service providers. JI was formed to address this gap and we explicitly assign ownership of data to the municipality thereby retaining public ownership of this increasingly valuable asset.

Knowledge Sharing

I am an enthusiastic supporter of our community of learning and often conduct workshops & seminars and believe in sharing knowledge openly and helping colleagues succeed. My focus is on encouraging adoption of open source to improve collaboration and cut IT costs drastically.

Future Possibilities

This work is opening up possibilities in development of shared infrastructure allowing handling of big data. Apart from the innumerable advantages of having shared infrastructure across municipalities, the ability to handle big data allows application of sensor networks, advanced analytics and AI predicated on a shared platform. I see huge potential in low-cost IoT sensor networks alongside burgeoning AI field. I believe were are at an inflection point with AI much like prior revolutions in semiconductors and internet and I am committed to helping municipalities realize the benefits.