Case Study
City of Round Rock
The City of Round Rock went digital with Cityworks PLL, Cityworks AMS and Esri for permitting and asset management. The results? Super-fast inspections and permits, departments working together effectively, and predictable revenue streams.
Impact
- Fast permitting and inspections
- Reduced processing times
- Enhanced collaboration
- Predictable revenue
- Greater transparency across the asset lifecycle
At A Glance Products
I certainly feel confident when using Trimble software because it allows me and my users to get the data that they're looking for a lot quicker. We weren’t able to do so on our previous software. Trimble software allows us to have all these dashboards ready to go and confidently provide that information to our stakeholders and executives.
— Nathan Smith
Geospatial Services Manager, City of Round Rock
Background
Previously, Round Rock handled permitting and inspections with paper forms, in-person visits and email communication. This approach demanded significant time and effort from residents, contractors and city staff alike.
To address these challenges, the city sought to modernize. Their focus: create a digital system that minimized paperwork, offered greater efficiency and enhanced collaboration across departments, all while providing a better user experience.
“We wanted to become more effective and efficient with how we do things,” said Smith. “We didn’t want to have to continue with all of these manual and paper processes.”
A building inspector uses Trimble Cityworks PLL coupled with a custom ArcGIS Web App to perform plan reviews.
Connecting permitting and asset life cycles
Round Rock uses Cityworks PLL and Cityworks PMM (now known as Trimble Unity Permit and Trimble Unity Maintain) to ensure assets are efficiently managed from permitting through maintenance.
With Cityworks PLL, citizens can apply for permits online, pay fees digitally, and monitor application status through a public-facing permit portal. Contractor registrations and plan reviews are also handled digitally, eliminating the need for in-person interactions and paper submissions.
Cityworks AMS supports the city's asset management and inspection activities, including water and wastewater infrastructure, streets, parks, public buildings, hydrants, bridges, and facilities. Field inspections that were once completed on paper are now captured digitally.
Together, these solutions provide city staff with a unified platform to monitor and manage assets effectively, enabling full lifecycle oversight from initial implementation through ongoing operations.
GIS-powered connected data environment
Built on Esri ArcGIS, Cityworks provides a spatially-enabled foundation that connects data across departments. City staff use dashboards and map-based views to track inspections, permit volumes and asset status in near real-time.
By integrating ArcGIS Dashboards with Cityworks, city leaders and planners can quickly find answers to pressing questions, such as how many permits have been issued in a neighborhood or how many inspections are scheduled for the day.
This creates a vibrant, connected data environment (CDE) for the city, where authorized users can log in and access live updates across Planning and Development Services, Utilities, Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Code Enforcement, and more.
Instead of needing a third-party technology integration, City of Round Rock employees use Trimble Cityworks eURL to pull Cityworks data into an ArcGIS dashboard to view how many permits have been issued for a specific subdivision, providing key information for planning directors and city council members.
Streamlined operations across departments
The review process for permits often involves multiple departments, such as Transportation, Parks and Recreation, Police and Utilities. Previously, mail served as the main coordination tool, with PDFs and manual tracking complicating workflows.
Cityworks integrates these reviews into smart, digital workflows. Tasks are automatically sent to the right reviewers, while individualized dashboards highlight pending items for each user.
This new system has substantially decreased email clutter, reinforced accountability and made internal operations more streamlined and effective overall.
A building inspector with the City of Round Rock reviews permit details in the field via Trimble Cityworks PLL.
Improved efficiency and measurable ROI
Since adopting Trimble solutions, the City of Round Rock has seen significant operational benefits:
Streamlined and expedited permit workflows
Decreased turnaround times for reviews and inspections
Reduced administrative bottlenecks from physical paperwork
More on-time payments due to convenient online options
Increased usage of ACH and credit card payments over checks
These improvements save staff time, reduce administrative overhead, and move projects forward more quickly.
Anticipating future opportunities
The City of Round Rock continues to integrate Trimble with ERP, HR and financial systems while transitioning users to updated web and mobile solutions. They are also advancing dashboard usage to gradually replace static reporting methods.
By collaborating with Trimble and Esri, the city is creating a scalable and future-ready digital framework that boosts service delivery, supports long-term asset stewardship and positions itself for sustainable growth.
