With over 40,000 customers, the City of High Point, NC, has been a DataVoice customer for over 15 years. Paul Sottile, Electric Systems Analyst at High Point, has been part of DataVoice’s Customer Advisory Board for most of his time at the city.
Paul reached out to DataVoice a year ago with a specific need. In subsequent discussions, he helped design the FixIt App as the solution that would meet that need. He was able to explain what he wanted, and DataVoice was able to develop that into a module to be used city-wide.
According to Paul:
I had already worked with DataVoice to create the Street Light Repair app. It worked so well and we had such a positive response from the public, I decided to try to take it a step further with something like the FixIt app.
In the streetlight app citizens select a specific object from the web map. The idea with FixIt was that they could select any spot and drop a pin on the map. Then they could request maintenance from a predetermined drop-down list of orders.
What the City of High Point really needed was an enterprise solution for service requests. It’s the same concept whether the service is electric or not, so I wanted to expand it to include all city departments. Having a single interface for the public, no matter the issue, just made the most sense.
Prior to FixIt, we just had a form on the city’s website. The public filled it out and described the problem and location. The form was emailed to a customer service rep where it had to be entered manually.
The FixIt App eliminates the need for manual entry, and we can see the exact location of the issue on the map. Better still, the request goes through the outage management system (OMS) and then immediately creates an order in the billing system. Orders can be dispatched immediately and field crews can respond more quickly.
With the FixIt App, the City of High Point expects to resolve service requests in a more timely manner and ultimately improve public satisfaction.
Paul Sottile, GISP. For the last 10 years Paul has worked for the City of High Point, NC, Electric Department. Paul received his B.A. in Geography from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Paul started his career with E911 and cadastral mapping in Pennsylvania. In 2013, not knowing anything about electric, he bravely moved to High Point, NC, and began working as a GIS Analyst for the Electric Department. In 2018 he was promoted to an Electric Systems Analyst. Paul is responsible for GIS, OMS, and other hardware and software for the department. Paul remains an active member of the DataVoice Customer Advisory Committee and is always willing to tell DataVoice what we can improve.
