(continued)
Things ran great. Our client was able to achieve their goals and complete their project on time
and under budget. Then something happened. The light rail tracks had advanced to another city,
crossing the boundaries of elected officials and municipal oversight.
No big deal, right? We had already worked out all the complexities of managing a large Light Rail project...or
so we thought. When we approached the next municipality with a bid and a plan to continue the Light
Rail Acquisition process in their city, they informed us..."That’s not how we handle the Right of Way Process.".
I was blown away. How could this city deny the fact that we had already worked out, in detail, all of the
steps necessary to manage this project in their town? That moment was the beginning of CityVerse. What we had
failed to realize is that most cities are not on the same team. Each municipality has its own Real Property
department with their own degrees on how to manage large scale land projects. Every City, County and Department of
Transportation in the country has their own methods for collecting data, managing GIS, reporting, mail merging, etc.
Off the shelf, out of the box solution... Yeah right!
We soon realized that there is no ‘Out of The Box’ solution for any Right of Way project. The complexities,
terminologies, project managers and right of way agents all have different and unique methods for their processes.
This makes a one size fits all solution impossible.
We soon realized that there is no ‘Out of The Box’ solution for any Right of Way project. The complexities,
terminologies, project managers and right of way agents all have different and unique methods for their
processes. This makes a one size fits all solution impossible.
Needless to say, we did not get the project for the next leg of the Light Rail. Our system at the time was
catered to the previous City and leg of the Light Rail. So, we set out to develop a dynamic data application
where the end users could define all aspects of their processes, data collection, reporting, mapping, CRM, billing,
document merging... well, you get the idea.
(continued)