April 02, 2014 -- The UK’s St Helens Council is to use Yotta’s Horizons visualised asset management solution to undertake lifecycle planning and deterioration modelling for 748 kilometres of highway.  By supporting the creation of a robust Highways Asset Management Plan, Horizons will also help St Helens maintain essential government funding for highways maintenance. In addition, the visualised asset management solution will be used to determine the most cost effective solutions to highways maintenance against a backdrop of new statutory responsibilities, rising costs, increased customer expectations and the need to mitigate and adapt for climate change possibly evidenced by recent periods of severe weather.

“Our existing asset management solutions were very limited, not very user friendly and data tended to be stored in an ad hoc fashion making it largely inaccessible to staff that could benefit from access to information,” said Daniel Gordon, Head of Highways Maintenance at St Helens Council. “Having looked at a number of other systems we selected Horizons because it was a map based asset management system that has been specifically developed to assist Highways Authorities with their asset management functions.”

The advanced software solution will allow for improved scenario analysis, including the determination of the most cost effective solution to highways maintenance problems, and the development of long term works programmes providing greater financial control and more effective use of resources. Horizons will also allow for better utilisation of existing highways data such as SCANNER and video asset surveys, also from Yotta, and the Councils UKPMS data.

“Horizons will allow the Council to bring together and share previously disparate information within a single solution,” continued Gordon. “This will help to identify and monitor trends, detect potential issues and view data in context. In addition the DfT has recently stated that local authorities must have in a robust Highways Asset Management Plan or face losing up to 10 per cent of their funding. Horizons will help us meet this requirement.”

Horizons is a visualised Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) asset management platform designed to make it easier for asset managers to visualise, manage and optimise all their asset management strategies and records in a unique and effective way using a single cloud-based solution. Since launching to market in 2012 Horizons has experienced significant growth in sales in the UK and with customers including the UK Highways Agency, the London Borough of Richmond and Lancashire County Council, to name just a few. Yotta has recently launched Horizons in the US.

CONTACTS:
Beth Rothwell,
Email Contact,
+44 (0)1926 319 613
www.yotta.co.uk