When it comes to street department operations, city officials from across the nation focused on budget cuts, increased costs of operations and increased workloads as the three most significant issues they face.

It's an on-going problem. For years, cities have struggled against these growing problems. It's becoming more and more difficult to keep up when expenses exceed available resources, when increased demand for services stretches the department's ability to respond. Roads and the general infrastructure are deteriorating. A 1991 survey of issues and trends observed city and county officials identified streets and bridges as needing the most capital expenditures and in greatest need of repair. While 56% regarded street repairs as serious or very serious, 40% reduced maintenance due to lack of funding.

Additionally, while cities act to provide the same level of services to a growing community, it is becoming more difficult to maintain the existing system. One superintendent commented, "We cannot maintain the existing aged infrastructure properly because we are too busy installing new work."

This is a national problem and the U.S. Congress addressed the issue in 1991 when it passed a $151 billion Transportation Bill designed to rebuild America's infrastructure and improve management control in the various street and highway departments. America's mayors have also spoken out on the issue. During the United States Conference of Mayors in 1992, mayors from cities, large and small, identified over 7,000 public works projects in 506 cities that carried a price tag of almost $26 billion.

But, despite this emphasis, the reality is that small communities lack funds to accomplish major public works projects. They are struggling to maintain essential services in an ever-shrinking budget environment.

A public works operations director pointed out, "Budget constraints force us to prioritize work, evaluate the cost/benefit of services, and improve our personnel management procedures".

Yet, most cities agree they lack a comprehensive plan or strategy to solve these problems. Virtually all cities thought a specialized system would improve operations and efficiency. The consensus was that procedures must be established to streamline scheduling and operations, promote efficient use of personnel and equipment, and improve cost control.

Many communities have turned to computers and computer technology to provide the answer, but have failed to reach objectives because "off-the-shelf" software may provide certain management tools, but the software doesn't address the specific needs of the street department. This approach has developed into a "patchwork" effect of software solutions for the department with several separately-operating software programs each performing part of the tasks, but failing to provide total integration as a management tool.