I am often asked - What are the "software" ingredients to make a budget conscious Snow and Ice Removal Program? Like any good master chef, the answer is found in the "secret recipe" or "blend" of ingredients. Each ingredient adds a value to the overall result. My recipe has been tested, refined, redefined and retested over a period of 17 years. (I want to say that this recipe has been passed down from my family over generations - but that would be a stretch!) Snow & Ice Removal TOOLS= Fleet Management TOOLS + Payroll TOOLS + Call Center/Work Order TOOLS + Financial / Budget TOOLS + Weather / Pavement Sensor TOOLS Let's step back for a second. The TOOLS used in your Snow and Ice Removal Program - are BLENDED from a variety of sources. In order for you to run a successful snow and ice removal program - you need: (1) your FLEET department to ensure trucks are readied for plowing and salting, (2) employees from varying daily responsibilities spanning your Public Works or Transportation departments, (3) your financial folks in the budget office who let you know how much money is available for you to spend (4) payroll - after all - you need to keep your snow team paid (5) your call center - and hopefully they are not flooded with calls and complaints (6) your contracting office - so that you can engage outside contractors to fill in any routing voids. Whew. Take another look at that list. Snow and Ice removal affects your entire organization. Not just one department. Not just one group of employees. I would venture to guess, that each of the different departments or offices that are described above -- have specialized software TOOLS to help them do each of their assignments. I think you get the picture. By using only ONE or TWO specialized tools from the above list - to manage your snow and ice removal program - you are shortchanged. You need a portion of ALL of the tools from each of these departments - to effectively add VALUE to your snow and ice removal efforts. Any single ingredient is not enough. You need the secret BLEND. A smart combination of the following ingredients - is necessary for your budget conscious snow program. Ingredient #1 - the best of Fleet Management TOOLS. Fleet Management refers to software that provides both you and your FLEET manager with the following VALUE: helps you track your cars, vans, trucks and other operational equipment helps you monitor repairs, costs of parts helps you to dispatch employees and vehicles to designated routes and in many cases it is "connected" to your AVL software so that you can watch the moving parts at any time Ingredient #2 - the best of Payroll TOOLS. Next, you will want to add some payroll features to capture employee costs into your snow and ice removal program. Payroll refers to software that allows employees to be correctly paid for union, non-union overtime or double time activities: helps you track employee time and attendance helps you monitor regular, overtime and double time costs as it relates to snow and ice removal helps you to classify labor costs based on job responsibilities, office or department location Ingredient #3 - the best of Call Center or Work Order TOOLS. Maybe you use a public web site to collect requests for service. Maybe constituents phone in to your 311-type call center. Irregardless, you need to get the message out to your drivers - that a road needs to be plowed or salted. helps consolidate requests for services provides you with a ticket number, name, address and formatted information documenting the problem or service request helps you to schedule "work" (road plowing or salting) to your drivers Ingredient #4 - the best of Financial and Budgeting / Cost Analysis TOOLS. I admit, that's a mouthful. And, probably one of your toughest challenges - is to put together accurate costs or estimates of detailed expenditures each time your team removes snow. helps you see the cost of your snow removal program helps notify you to any gross misuse of funding helps you to better monitor costs associated with your contracted equipment Ingredient #5 - the best of Weather Information and Pavement Sensors TOOLS. Do you use a favorite meteorologist? A weather service? Or the generic weather web sites? Do you use pavement sensors to give you temperature and dew point numbers from selected bridges or roadways? These tools, help give you information to make better decisions are used to determine your level of mobilization and a bad forecast, can affect your bottom line What is the RIGHT software tool for you? As you can see, it is blend of 5 ingredients. It is a COMBINATION of the best ingredients from your entire organization. With the right mix from each of these ingredients, your snow and ice removal efforts will provide you with real budget conscious VALUE. The formula is worth repeating: Snow & Ice Removal TOOLS= Fleet Management TOOLS + Payroll TOOLS + Call Center/Work Order TOOLS + Financial / Budget TOOLS + Weather / Pavement Sensor TOOLS

StormTRAK™ -- Snow and Ice Removal
Budget conscious software solutions for city, county and state governments

StormTrak™ is the copyrighted work of Cycon Publishing, Inc. Use of StormTrak™ is governed by the terms of the end user license agreement, which accompanies or is included with the Software ("License Agreement"). An end user will be unable to install or use StormTrak™, unless he or she first agrees to the License Agreement terms. StormTrak™ is made available for use by end users according to the License Agreement, and includes all documentation and screen and report samples found on this web site. StormTRAK™ is the intellectual property, trademarked and proprietary software of Cycon Publishing, Inc., and any duplication, attempt to modify, reproduce, reverse engineer or redistribute the software is expressly prohibited and punishable by law. Violators will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible.