Fast and accurate results
Within a month of purchasing the software full implementation and import of historic data was carried out and the system went live. Given the ease of use the interface provides, just one day of formal training was required to get Anglesey up to speed, upload the Council’ s strategies, and allow them to produce its forecast for the Welsh Government.
“ Once the system was up and running, we were able to generate our 15-year forecast to support our prudential borrowing. The system helps us to show how we are using the additional funding and supports us in demonstrating that we are making best use of it. This has made it much simpler to justify what we wanted the money for and how we would spend it. The forecast can be based on future performance indicators or on fixed budgets or vice versa – the system performs the calculations for us,” adds Iolo Jones.
Increasing transparency, facilitating the best decisions
Horizons has increased visibility of the network and its condition for Anglesey’ s highways team. It is also improving ongoing decision making, supporting the Council’ s approach to maintenance and repair.
“ Rather than us deciding what the priorities are, Horizons gives us more transparency by actually showing us what the priorities should be based on accurate data. This makes the network cheaper to manage and safer to use. We can extend its life and value based on reliable information”
Iolo Jones.
“ It is so much quicker to identify potential schemes using the system than relying on conventional UKPMS outputs and feedback from inspector site visits alone. For example, we were able analyse and identify 21 schemes for 2013 to 2014 with an expected budget of £ 1.1 million and 37 schemes if the budget were increased to £ 1.2 million in a very short time.– in fact we were able to do it during our day’ s training using Horizons and Yotta DCL support. Manually, it would have taken weeks to complete this work,” he adds.
Historical visual record
Horizons now provides Anglesey with a rapid-access, visual historical record of all its surveys mapped out over the network. With annual survey data being input to the system, it is easy for the highways team to access information and see the improvements and deterioration of road surfaces over time. This means questions are answered quickly and accurately.