St. Johns County Utility provides water and wastewater utility services within Florida’s fastest-growing county. GIS data is the backbone of any efficient and affordable utility department, and St. Johns County Utility takes those qualities seriously. Our robust relationship with the Utility throughout the span of nearly a decade has been carried through by multiple Timmons Group teams, which all stemmed from the Utility’s GIS team’s needs and objectives.
St. Johns County Utility needed a streamlined and reasonable management system for the County’s GIS data. The team contracted Timmons Group in a multifaceted approach that included several types of support, including onsite discovery, custom tool development, onsite training, data migration, Cityworks PLL integration, GIS data standardization, and a public conservation awareness program.
The combination of these efforts expanded the County’s GIS by further developing support targeted at increasing overall productivity, developing information, integrating systems, limiting duplicate work processes, and creating a platform for community buy-in.
Onsite Discovery
Timmons Group worked onsite with Utility managers to understand the County’s editing workflows and their data requirements. This discovery focused on Utility data — specifically operations, capital improvement, and development. After thoughtful discovery, Timmons Group found the Utility needed custom tools, training, data migrations, applications, and integrations to support the County’s mission.
Custom Tool Development
Following initial discovery, Timmons Group collaborated with St. Johns County Utility GIS managers to devise a custom application and tool development plan that would support the County’s needs, which included:
- Workflow Standards — The team collaborated to develop workflow standardization tools for the County editors, which aid in version and database management and maintaining standards when creating and modifying GIS data.
- Data Quality Tools — Timmons Group worked with County editors to develop quality checks, which ensure clean data and maximum capacity utilization in other programs. This work uses Esri’s Data Reviewer extension (DR) and Attribute Rules.
- Enterprise ArcSDE — The team applied the GIS datasets to an enterprise ArcSDE database that supports the Utility’s ArcGIS Desktop/Server/Online, Cityworks asset management, and Innovyze water modeling applications. These applications provide critical information daily, and help the Utility operate effectively during recent and future growth.
Onsite Training and Continued Support
Once Timmons Group’s team created workflows and custom applications for the Utility’s GIS needs, our team worked directly with St. Johns County staff to conduct thorough onsite training and continued support, which included:
- Deployment and Testing
- Maintenance Support
- Troubleshooting
Data Migration
Timmons Group assisted the County with migrating its capital asset data from the existing Microsoft Access Database to a relational geodatabase. This involved converting the data into a file geodatabase schema containing non-spatial tables and a feature dataset to hold relational object features. Timmons Group then assessed the data to determine the scope of required cleanup.
Cityworks PLL Integration
Timmons Group and the Utility collaborated on a full Cityworks PLL integration, which included:
- Project Planning/Management
- Three Days of Onsite Workshops to Identify Workflows
- Technical Memo to Document Workflows and Hardware/Software Specifications
- PLL Configuration Support
- Training and Documentation
- Reports
- Online Access Portal
GIS Data Standardization
Standard data is pertinent to ensuring that the Utility is streamlining its resources, especially as it relates to crosspollinating GIS information across multiple platforms. Timmons Group assisted the County with standardizing its information, which included:
- GIS Needs Audit
- As-Built Digitization
- Evaluation of Data Integration
- Process Documentation
- Update/Reconfigure Editing Tools
- Remote Training Sessions
Public Conservation Awareness Program
To support the investment in revitalizing the County’s GIS data, the Utility asked Timmons Group to coordinate a public conservation awareness program that would highlight the significant roles that community members play in water usage and the data it imparts.
Florida’s largest water resource, the Floridan Aquifer, is at risk for mass depletion because it is a major source of potable water throughout the state. To minimize this impact, the County asserted a Water Usage Campaign directed at community members that highlighted ways they could be an active part of the discussion surrounding conservation of Florida’s most precious natural resource.
Timmons Group assisted the County with its Water Usage Campaign by creating, developing, and publishing social media and ArcGIS StoryMaps content that focused on:
- Decreasing landscaping water usage on new home construction
- Minimizing non-recyclable water bottle usage
- Tips and tricks for what native and nonnative plants to incorporate in landscaping
- Asserting irrigation schedules for landscape watering
- Debunking common misunderstandings of water quality and sourcing
- Celebrating the history of the St. Johns County Utility
- Announcing Utility capital improvement plans throughout the County
Content targeted St. Johns County residents with the goal of encouraging active participation in conservation. Timmons Group’s GIS professionals enlisted the help of the firm’s marketing team to accomplish this by:
- Brand and Messaging — Timmons Group and the Utility created a platform from which the County could advise the public on conservation efforts while creating a reciprocal relationship with its stakeholders. This was supported by creating a cohesive brand standard that aligned with the Utility’s mission, St. Johns County’s brand, and trending content.
- Social Media Presence Establishment — Timmons Group expanded the St. Johns County Utility Department social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) by posting industry-related news, St. Johns County Utility updates, and information to empower the public and St. Johns County residents to become conservation leaders.
- Social Media Management — Timmons Group’s marketing team established and maintained a frequency of St. Johns County posts on social media platforms. This was supported by supplemental investment in engaging with other local entities whose missions aligned with the Utility’s, which resulted in a measurable increase in social media engagement of customers and users in the region.
In addition to the Utility’s social media-based Water Usage Campaign, Timmons Group developed data and applications to support the County’s Water Conservation Awareness Program using ArcGIS Online Web Application, building GeoForms, and creating StoryMaps. Timmons Group also supported the County on an as-needed basis by designing, developing, editing, and maintaining GIS data.
