Utility Asset Management Software
Ziptility is purpose-built software for utilities. Map assets, complete locates, work orders, customer requests, and maintenance — all in one app.
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Track Everything in the Ground — From the Field, on a Phone, Without Driving Back to the Office
Ziptility is purpose-built software for utilities. Map assets, complete locates, work orders, customer requests, and maintenance — all in one app.
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What Utility Asset Management Actually Looks Like
Most utilities we work with are running on some combination of spreadsheets, truck books, and the memory of whoever's been there longest. It works — until it doesn't. Until someone retires, or the state shows up, or the board asks a question nobody can answer. Utility asset management software puts everything on a map, tracks every work order, and builds maintenance history automatically — so when someone leaves, the knowledge stays. A proper asset management plan tracks asset location, age, condition, criticality of failure, and cost of replacement. It also ensures your team has a program for day-to-day maintenance, ongoing condition assessments, and a long-term capital plan for deploying resources where they matter most.
"Some work was done somewhere at some point in time by somebody."
— Nick Vigliotte, Payson AZ, describing their maintenance records before Ziptility
“Some work was done somewhere at some point in time by somebody.”
— Nick Vigliotte, Payson AZ, describing how most utilities track maintenance history
Water Asset Management Plan
A well-run asset management plan improves customer service, reduces non-revenue water loss, lowers operational costs, boosts staff productivity, and extends asset life by shifting investment from reactive to proactive maintenance. Here are five things you need to know to build and implement a solid plan: 1. Know where everything is. Accurate locations in a mobile GIS app let your crew capture data from the field. Knowing exactly where a valve or meter is — especially after a snowfall or when vegetation covers it — saves time every day. A location description and a photo taken on a mobile phone help the next person on your team find it fast. 2. Know what condition it’s in. Once you’ve mapped every asset, capture its attributes: install date, condition, measurements like hydrant flow tests over time. Then use judgment to determine criticality. Does a water main serve the local hospital or school? That asset gets a high Business Risk Exposure score. 3. Estimate remaining useful life. Publicly available tables project how long an asset should last based on type, age, and usage. Working with a consultant to model a rate of decay curve helps you plan a replacement window and start budgeting for it. 4. Plan for repair, rehabilitation, or replacement. With the data from steps one through three, you can answer the big question: what does it cost to fix or replace critical assets, and what’s a realistic timeline given your O&M budget, staff, and customer demands? 5. Close the gap between the plan and the field. The real challenge is getting the work done during normal operations. Ziptility lets you program maintenance tasks from your asset management plan and assign them to field crews with notifications via text and email. Tasks show up on the map with visual highlighters so every crew member knows what to do next. That’s why engineers are using Ziptility to build water infrastructure digital twins — collaborating with clients in real-time instead of passing Shapefiles back and forth.
Wastewater Asset Management Software
Wastewater collection systems don’t get the same attention as water distribution, but they’re just as critical. Operators need to manage manholes, lift stations, blowoffs, dry wells, cleanouts, inlets, outlets, gravity lines, force mains, laterals, and culverts — all the pieces that move waste to a treatment facility. Unlike water systems, sewer lines aren’t pressurized, so problems don’t announce themselves the way a water main break does. That makes consistent data collection, sewer inspections, televised sessions, and routine maintenance even more important. Most compliance regulations require 20 percent of a system’s manholes to be inspected each year — meaning you’re covering the full system every five years. On top of inspections, your wastewater asset management software should let operators schedule repairs, replacements, and cleanings as recurring tasks.
- Manhole ID number
- Longitude
- Latitude
- Z-Depth
- Lid Diameter (in)
- Lid elevation (ft)
- Wall Material (Precast, Fiberglass, Corrugated Metal Pipe, Concrete, Brick, Others)
- Manhole Condition Photo
- Date Installed
- Condition
- Criticality of Failure
- Date last inspected
- Invert depth (ft)
- Invert direction
- Invert pipe material (Ductile Iron, HDPE, PVC, Cast Iron, Vitrified Clay, Other)
- Invert pipe diameter (in)
- Notes/Description
Making sure your mobile asset management software is easy to use, works offline, and is flexible enough to bring in contractors and engineers matters. Managing wastewater is hard enough — your technology shouldn’t make it harder.
Read more: Why the Smallest Utilities Have the Most to Lose →“I don’t even know how many facilities, to be honest with you — maybe this points to the need for better asset management.”
— A utility operator describing their wastewater collection system
Stormwater Asset Management Software
Stormwater is the runoff from precipitation. Stormwater utilities are relatively new and less common in the US than sanitary sewer or potable water systems. They collect and control runoff from hard and soft surfaces more efficiently than combined sewers. Some utilities run a combined sewer system that mixes sanitary sewer and storm sewer in one set of pipes. Heavy rainfall can overwhelm these systems, pushing sewage to the surface in populated areas — creating serious health risks. Because stormwater infrastructure is often funded by an additional fee to ratepayers, it’s critical to maintain it well and extend its useful life. Common stormwater assets include catch basins, manholes, inlets, ponds, CSOs, outfalls, gravity lines, and culverts.
- Catch Basin ID number
- Longitude
- Latitude
- Depth (ft)
- Rim elevation (f)
- Invert elevation (ft)
- Catch Basin Status
- Material
- Catch Basin Condition Photo
- Date Installed
- Condition
- Criticality of Failure
- Date last inspected
- Pipe size (in)
- Pipe direction
- Pipe material (Ductile Iron, HDPE, PVC, Cast Iron, Vitrified Clay, Other)
- Notes/Description
GIS Asset Management Software
Ziptility combines GIS and asset management in one system. We don’t outsource our mapping to a separate GIS provider, which means your utility doesn’t have to maintain two applications to do one job. One app, one map, one source of truth — built for the people actually doing the work.
Read more: Is There an Esri Alternative for Small Water Utilities? →Utility Maintenance Software and Work Management
A utility asset management system is only as good as the maintenance program it supports. Utility maintenance software ties your asset data to your work orders — so every valve exercise, hydrant flush, pump inspection, and meter replacement is tracked, timestamped, and tied to the asset it was performed on. That's what turns a map into a management system. Utility work management software takes it further by automating recurring tasks, routing emergency work orders to the right crew, and giving supervisors a real-time view of what's open, what's in progress, and what's done. When your maintenance history lives in a system instead of a truck book, you can answer the board's questions, pass the state's inspections, and plan your capital budget based on actual condition data — not guesses.
What Happens When You Don't Have a System
We hear the same stories from nearly every utility we talk to. Assets are buried — literally and figuratively. One town uncovered a manhole two weeks ago that nobody had seen because it had been paved over by the road. Another discovered meters that had been installed and never billed — "inventory getting put in the ground that we're not getting billed for." A third told us their preventative maintenance data was "stored in Bernie's brain" — and Bernie was getting close to retirement. Without a system, emergency repairs cost 3x what planned replacements cost. State inspections turn into scrambles because nobody can prove the work was done. Unbilled connections go unnoticed for years. And when the person who knows where everything is walks out the door, the knowledge leaves with them. That's not a technology problem. It's an existential one.
Utility Inventory Management Software
Every asset in the ground has a story — when it was installed, what it's made of, what size it is, when it was last maintained. Utility inventory management software tracks all of that so your team knows exactly what's in the ground before they start digging. When you can pull up an asset and see its full history — install date, material, size, last inspection, photos from the last three work orders — you stop guessing and start planning. That's especially important for small utilities where one wrong dig can blow the budget for the quarter.
Measuring Asset Performance in Real Time
Maintaining assets is only half the picture. You also need to know how they’re performing. Real-time asset management software — combined with sensors and monitoring devices — gives utility operators visibility into metrics like criticality of failure, business risk exposure, flow measurements, and pressure readings. These real-time reports show you how your infrastructure is actually delivering water to your community, not just whether it’s still standing.
Measuring Asset Performance in Real Time
The best utility asset management systems don't just track where things are — they track how things are performing. When every work order, inspection, and condition assessment is logged against a specific asset, patterns emerge. You can see which pump stations have the most emergency call-outs, which sections of main have the most breaks, and which meters are failing fastest. That data drives smarter capital planning: instead of replacing infrastructure based on age alone, you replace based on actual condition and failure history. For a small utility with a tight budget, that's the difference between spending money where it matters and hoping for the best.
Free Asset Management Software
Ziptility gives utility operators a mobile-first app for tracking infrastructure assets and managing their entire operation. Easy asset tracking from the field means better data, and better data means smarter long-term decisions. Sign up for a free demo today to see the difference for yourself.
What to Look for in Utility Asset Management Software
If you search "utility asset management software" you will find dozens of options. Most of them were built for large municipalities with IT departments, GIS analysts, and six-figure software budgets. They work great for a city of 200,000. They do not work for a water district with 3 people and 1,500 connections.
Here is what actually matters when you are evaluating utility asset management software for a small system:
It works on a phone, in the field. If your crew has to drive back to the office to enter data, they will not enter data. The software has to work where the work happens — at the hydrant, at the meter pit, at the lift station. Mobile-first is not a feature. It is the baseline.
It works without cell signal. Rural utilities do not have reliable coverage everywhere. Your crew needs to pull up maps, log inspections, and complete work orders even when there is no signal. Offline access is not optional.
It includes GIS mapping. Your asset data needs to live on a map, not in a spreadsheet. If the software does not include GIS mapping built in, you will end up buying a second system and trying to make them talk to each other.
It does not charge per seat. Per-user pricing means your superintendent gets a license and everyone else shares a login — or goes without. Your whole crew should be on the system from day one. That is the only way you get consistent data.
It does not require a GIS analyst to run. If the software assumes you have someone with a GIS certificate on staff, it was not built for you. Your operators should be able to use it with the same effort it takes to use a smartphone.
It covers the full workflow. Mapping, asset tracking, work orders, inspections, and maintenance scheduling should be in one system — not four different products bolted together. Every handoff between systems is a place where data gets lost.
Utility Asset Management Software Comparison
Here is how the most common options compare for small water and wastewater utilities. This is not a comprehensive review — it is a quick reference based on what we hear from operators who have evaluated these tools.
| Criteria | ESRI / ArcGIS | Cityworks | iWorQ | Ziptility |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for small utilities (<10K connections) | No — designed for large cities and counties | No — mid to large municipalities | Partial — serves small govts but broad focus | Yes — designed specifically for small water/wastewater |
| Pricing model | Per-seat + modules, $15K-50K+/yr | Annual license $10K-30K + implementation | Per-module subscription | Flat annual subscription, no per-seat fees |
| GIS mapping included | Yes (core product) | Requires ESRI integration | Basic mapping | Yes — built-in GIS with offline maps |
| Work orders included | Separate product (Workforce/Field Maps) | Yes | Yes | Yes — integrated with assets and map |
| Works offline | Limited (Field Maps) | No | Limited | Full offline — maps, work orders, inspections |
| Requires GIS expertise | Yes | Yes (ESRI dependency) | No | No — built for operators |
| Setup time | Months | Months | Weeks | 2-4 weeks, your data imported for you |
The right choice depends on your size, budget, and what your crew will actually use. For utilities with 500 to 10,000 connections, the question is usually not "which enterprise tool can we afford" — it is "which tool was built for how we actually work."
Preventive Maintenance — From Reactive to Proactive
Most small utilities run on reactive maintenance. Something breaks, someone calls, a crew goes out and fixes it. There is no schedule for valve exercising, no recurring hydrant flush program, no lift station inspection checklist that anyone follows consistently. The maintenance "plan" is the rough schedule in the superintendent's head.
This is not a failure of the people. It is a failure of the system. When maintenance tasks live in someone's memory or on a whiteboard in the break room, things get missed. And when things get missed, you get emergency repairs at three times the cost of planned work.
Utility asset management software changes this by turning maintenance into scheduled, assigned, trackable work orders. Hydrant flushing becomes a recurring task assigned to a crew member with a due date. Valve exercising gets a schedule based on criticality. Lift station inspections happen on a checklist that creates a record every time.
One utility using Ziptility logged over 8,000 tasks in a year at just 3,600 connections. That is not because they hired more people — it is because the system made it easy to capture work that was already happening but never getting documented.
The shift from reactive to preventive does not happen overnight. But it starts with one thing: having a place to schedule the work, assign it, and prove it got done. That is what your state regulator wants to see. That is what your board needs for capital planning. And that is what keeps your crew from spending every Monday morning figuring out what needs attention this week.
Getting Started — What the First 30 Days Look Like
The biggest reason utilities delay getting on a system is the fear that setup will be overwhelming. Your data is scattered across paper maps, spreadsheets, filing cabinets, and one person's memory. The idea of organizing all of that before you can even start feels like a second full-time job.
Here is the truth: you do not need perfect data to start. You need a place to put the data you have and a way to improve it as your crew works.
Week 1: Import What You Have
Ziptility's team imports your existing data — paper maps, AutoCAD files, spreadsheets, PDF as-builts, whatever you have. You do not need to digitize anything yourself. If you have a superintendent who has been there 20 years and knows where everything is, we will capture that knowledge too.
Week 2: Field Verification
Your crew starts using the mobile app during their normal daily routes. Reading meters, checking hydrants, responding to calls — as they work, they verify asset locations and drop pins on anything that is missing or in the wrong spot. No extra trips. No special equipment. Just normal work with a phone in hand.
Week 3–4: Live Operations
The full system is active. Work orders are being created, assigned, and completed in the app. Assets have maintenance history building on them. Your map is getting more accurate every day because your crew is improving it as they work. New assets get added when you encounter them — the system grows with your operations.
By the end of the first month, most utilities tell us the same thing: they wish they had done this years ago. Not because the software is impressive — because they finally have a record of what they have been doing all along.
Book a 15-minute demo and we will show you what your system would look like in Ziptility. We will use your actual data — not a generic demo.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is utility asset management?
Utility asset management is the practice of tracking, maintaining, and planning for every piece of infrastructure in a water or wastewater system — pipes, valves, hydrants, meters, lift stations, manholes, and treatment equipment. It includes knowing where each asset is, what condition it is in, when it was last maintained, and what it will cost to repair or replace. For most small utilities, this information lives in filing cabinets, spreadsheets, and the memory of whoever has been there longest. Utility asset management software puts it all in one system your whole crew can access from the field.
How do you create an asset management plan for a water utility?
A water utility asset management plan tracks five things for every asset: location, condition, criticality, remaining useful life, and replacement cost. Start by inventorying what you have — even if it is just the assets your crew works on most often. Then assess condition on a simple scale, rate how critical each asset is if it fails, estimate how many years it has left, and calculate what replacement would cost. You do not need to do this all at once. Most utilities build their plan asset by asset as their crew works in the field.
What is the best asset management software for small utilities?
The best asset management software for small utilities is one your crew will actually use. That means it works on a phone, runs offline in areas with no cell signal, does not charge per user, and does not require GIS expertise to operate. It should include mapping, work orders, and maintenance tracking in one system — not separate products. Ziptility was built specifically for small water and wastewater utilities with 500 to 10,000 service connections.
How much does utility asset management software cost?
Enterprise utility asset management software from companies like ESRI or Cityworks typically costs $10,000 to $50,000 or more per year, with per-seat licensing, implementation consulting, and ongoing maintenance fees. Ziptility uses a flat annual subscription based on system size with no per-seat fees, making it accessible for utilities that do not have enterprise budgets. Your whole team gets access from day one.
Do we need a GIS department to use asset management software?
No. Many asset management tools were designed for organizations with dedicated GIS staff, but Ziptility was built for operators — the same people reading meters, flushing hydrants, and running the system every day. If your crew can use a smartphone, they can use the system. No GIS certifications or technical training required.
Can asset management software help with regulatory compliance?
Yes. Digital asset records create an automatic audit trail for inspections, maintenance, and asset condition assessments. When your state regulator or auditor asks for documentation — whether for AWIA risk assessments, consumer confidence reports, sanitary surveys, or capital improvement plans — you pull a report instead of digging through filing cabinets. Having organized digital records can mean the difference between a routine review and a finding.
What is the difference between asset management and work order management?
Asset management tracks what you have — every pipe, valve, hydrant, and meter, along with its condition, location, and maintenance history. Work order management tracks the work being done — who is assigned, what needs to happen, and whether it got completed. In the best systems, these are connected: every completed work order adds to the maintenance history of the asset it was performed on. That connection is what turns a list of things you own into a system you can actually manage.
Related Resources
Explore more on managing your utility’s infrastructure:
Mobile Asset Management Software for Utility Field CrewsWhat Is GIS? A Plain-Language Guide for Small Water UtilitiesDo You Have an Asset Management Plan?What Is a Gate Valve? Maintenance Guide for Water Utilities.png)