Roseville, a municipality of more than 135,000 people, has begun work on three jurisdiction-wide Smart City Initiatives.
Chief Information Officer Hong Sae, who's also president of the Central Chapter of the Municipal Information Systems Association of California (MISAC), described the three initiatives to Techwire. Last year, Roseville spent about $44 million on IT projects.
Knowledge City — Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP)
The city is in the process of implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) to streamline processes in Finance, HR, Payroll and Budgets for all city departments. The city has partnered with CherryRoad Technologies to implement Oracle application on the cloud. The city's vision for the ERP Project is “Transforming the City’s Business.” With growth projected over the next decade, the city has recognized the need to improve its ability to deliver services and reduce operational costs using modern technology. The new ERP system is intended to meet the entire suite of administrative management requirements of the city over the next decade through state-of-the-art technology and software infrastructure. Roseville desires to deploy and implement an ERP System that meets its administrative and business management needs including Financial Management, Procurement, Projects and Grants, Human Capital Management and Enterprise Budgeting and Planning. An ERP system will benefit the city by increasing efficiency, integrating information, improving reporting capabilities, enhancing customer responsiveness, and improving the accuracy, consistency and security of data.
The city estimates the project, including five years of software licensing and services, will cost more than $5.8 million.
Innovative City — Small Cell Network
The city is working with a leading wireless planning and infrastructure partner, 5 Bars of XG Communities, to densify coverage through the deployment of small cells (4G and 5G wireless network technology) on city vertical infrastructure assets. The Electric Department has identified over 1,700 light poles along major boulevards and arterial roadways that will be available for small cell installations and is working on equipment design standards to accelerate small cell deployments. The city is tailoring its permitting process to enable streamlined, efficient, large-scale deployments. Available light poles will be marketed to carriers through the partner’s proprietary software platform where they can reserve sites (poles). This program accentuates the value of partnerships with public and private entities to help deliver solutions. By bringing next-generation wireless connectivity to its community and creating a process for wireless providers to access its public infrastructure and assets in a predictable and efficient way, the city is building a strong and secure foundation for smart city applications.
Intelligent City — Transit Passenger System
Roseville Transit is partnering with the IT department to modernize their operations by implementing a smart Roseville Transit Passenger System (RTPS). The cloud-based system will automatically capture passenger and route metrics, and provide management reports to improve service. The system will provide Wi-Fi Internet access to passengers and allow them to view routes and monitor bus locations online. With an RTPS, the city will have data that will allow accurate and timely decisions. Having the data collected automatically on a daily basis through RTPS and access to reports will reduce staff time spent in data collection, summary, and analysis, making route planning much more effective and timely. The city will also improve communication with passengers, which is associated with increased ridership due to increased perceived reliability of service and better understanding of how to use transit. Roseville expects to increase safety through onboard Wi-Fi, which will provide a live a feed of onboard cameras for police. Wi-Fi is an additional passenger amenity that may result in increased ridership.
The city has estimated that the transit passenger system would cost about $260,000.
