Southern California public works department optimizes the management of water quality and more with Locus software.

This municipality is in a mountainous region of Southern California, several miles from the coastline. Its mediterranean climate, nature preserves and wetlands, and corporate business parks have helped it attract close to 130,000 full-time residents. A buying committee spanning environmental compliance analysts and specialists, water quality managers, and GIS analysts sought a cloud-based solution to simplify data collection, tracking, and compliance work related to the city’s drinking water, stormwater, reservoir data, and wastewater.

Challenge

The Environmental Division of this city’s Public Works Department is a lean operation with diverse responsibilities. The state’s water supply is at risk due to drought and climate change, and the water they do have is vulnerable to urban/stormwater runoff and wastewater. The team must track water quality and demonstrate compliance with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), and the California Department of Health Services (DHS). With scientists working in the field and compliance personnel in the office, they needed a better way to collect and manage data pertaining to their work.

Solution

After extensive market research, Locus Technologies and two other software companies were shortlisted and invited to participate in a formal RFP process. One product was immediately ruled out because it only excelled with one niche requirement. The city conducted reference checks and deeper analysis of product functionality. This research revealed that the third product had limited practical experience and configurability. In contrast, the city valued Locus’ dual solution for environmental information management and EHS compliance, plus the company’s proven experience with water utilities and incident management. Locus successfully completed a pilot implementation for the city in 2022, followed by a complete roll-out in 2023

Results

This relatively small municipality needed a software product that was both robust to handle its critical water data and compliance, and flexible to meet the varied needs of compliance personnel, managers, GIS analysts, policy makers, and the public. They also required a partner that had relevant experience, a solid track record, the ability to scale to support broader sustainability initiatives, and experts ready to listen and problem solve. Locus proved to be the only company that could meet all requirements, and ultimately help the city’s environmental department become more efficient and better managed.

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