Greensboro Finds Balance Between Today’s Needs and Tomorrow’s Utility Network

About Greensboro

The City of Greensboro Water Resources Department provides drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater services to more than 115,000 customers across 1,561 miles of water lines. Its team manages nearly one million assets in GIS spanning all three water systems. Today, the department is focused on key modernization initiatives: migrating from the legacy Geometric Network to Esri’s Utility Network, upgrading its enterprise asset management systems, and advancing outage and capacity modeling to better serve residents and support future growth.

The Challenge: A Narrowing Runway

The City of Greensboro Water Resources Department knew the future of its GIS lay with Esri’s Utility Network (UN). With ArcMap deprecation approaching, the department faced the task of migrating off the legacy Geometric Network (GN), a system that had served them well for decades.

The timeline became more complicated when Hexagon acquired Infor EAM, changing database access Greensboro had relied on for years. A two-year modernization plan suddenly had to be rethought on a six-month schedule.

“We had to pause and reallocate resources. The Utility Network migration had to wait while we dealt with that shift.” -Jason Brenner, IT Administrator for GIS in Water Resources

At the same time, city leadership was asking for better answers from GIS. For example, when analyzing water main breaks, the department would estimate how many people were affected. Sometimes those estimates turned out to be off by a couple thousand. “Those numbers mattered, and we had to get them right,” Brenner explained.

Sewer engineers were also seeking improved capacity modeling to support development permits, while stormwater systems came with their own unique requirements.

The challenge wasn’t just about moving data — it was about balancing modernization with ongoing city needs, all under pressure from shifting timelines.

The Turning Point: Creating Breathing Room

To move forward, Greensboro needed not just new tools, but time.

“The biggest thing for us was lengthening the runway. We knew the migration was going to take a long time, and we needed breathing room to get it right.”

By implementing Geonexus, Greensboro was able to synchronize the legacy Geometric Network with the new Utility Network. This meant production could continue to run on GN while test environments advanced in parallel. Even if the project had to pause — as it did during the Hexagon transition — the city could pick back up without losing months of work.

“It gave us confidence. We could keep things in sync, test ideas, and roll forward at our own pace. That safety net made all the difference.”

The Results: Accuracy, Flexibility, and Confidence

With synchronization in place, Greensboro began to realize tangible benefits:

• Improved Accuracy: Utility Network tracing allowed the city to provide more reliable outage calculations, building trust with leadership and the community.
• Reduced Risk: Synchronization eliminated a common source of uncertainty. “It removes a whole class of error,” Brenner explained. “If something doesn’t match, I know it’s a business issue, not a sync issue. That lets us focus on what matters.”
• Flexibility in Migration: With GN and UN kept aligned, the team could pause and resume the project as needed — an essential advantage during periods of citywide IT transition.
• Sustainable Practices: By moving away from fragile custom code, Greensboro reduced reliance on a single individual and built a foundation others could replicate.

For Brenner, it wasn’t just about technology — it was about peace of mind.

“I didn’t have to worry if my sync tools were working. I could focus on designing the network correctly.”

Looking Ahead: Building for the Future

Greensboro is now on track to complete its Utility Network migration by the end of 2025, retiring ArcMap for good. But the vision goes further:

• Connecting Asset Management: Synchronizing Hexagon EAM with GIS to keep asset data unified.
• Streamlining Inspections: Pulling field data from SaaS programs for grease trap inspections, backflow testing, and more.
• Regulatory Automation: Automating ArcGIS Online updates to meet EPA Lead and Copper Rule requirements.

“I was looking at one of our processes the other day and thought, ‘Why am I still running random Python scripts? I should just let this handle it,’” Brenner said with a laugh.

Takeaway: More Than Just a Migration

Greensboro’s story is less about a single tool and more about the ability to adapt under pressure. Faced with changing timelines, technical shifts, and rising expectations, the city created the breathing room it needed to succeed.

By synchronizing old and new systems, Greensboro found balance between today’s needs and tomorrow’s Utility Network — and positioned itself for a more accurate, resilient, and sustainable GIS future.