July 25, 2017 -- The Water Finance Research Foundation (non-profit) announced The 2016 Comparative Review of Municipal Maintenance and Infrastructure Asset Management Systems as one of the top resources for municipalities and utilities to address the aging infrastructure crisis. This review focuses on GIS as the definitive factor in infrastructure and operational management.

The United States and Canada are facing huge capital outlays to repair and replace aging municipal and utility infrastructure. GIS technology is required to better manage the complex decision-making process for maintenance, operational and capital investments and resource allocation. This study originally conducted in 2012 and updated in 2014-2015 and initially published in 2016 comprises a comparative review of the major computerized maintenance management and infrastructure asset management systems used by municipal governments and water and wastewater utilities. This study also discusses the municipal urban infrastructure crisis, in part, created by the Great Recession.

The objective of this study is to provide municipal elected officials, public works directors, infrastructure asset managers, maintenance managers, information technology managers, finance directors and procurement staff an overview of municipal maintenance management and infrastructure asset management software in a comparative format in preparation for a request for qualifications or proposals.

The comparative analysis of core maintenance management and infrastructure asset management functions was completed for 14 of the most popular and common software systems. The comparative criteria include software costs, vendor services, support, specialization, work orders, inventory control, licensing and permitting, condition assessment, risk management, asset inventory, GIS mapping, Esri ArcGIS integration, 311 systems, mobile devices, and the Esri ArcGIS ROI.