At the same time, Armstrong worked to demonstrate the value of thesystem to those departments that were less than excited about theupcoming changes. The police did not see what the system would do forthem that their 911 system didn't. Armstrong pointed out thatstandardisation would help with interdepartmental programmes that werenot strictly police activities, such as a project that offeredconcentrated police, fire and social services to distressedneighborhoods.

Armstrong began the implementation with the department where the workwould be most intense: public works. He thought it was a good place tostart for two reasons: It received the most calls, and the departmenthead was an advocate of automating its processes.

But not everyone in public works was thrilled with the system. GregCloe, the department's customer service supervisor, would havepreferred a package solely designed for public works' myriad needsinstead of an enterprisewide system. "I knew it would require asignificant dedication of resources to get it to work for us, and Iwas concerned about that," he explains. To address those concerns,Armstrong and his team worked closely with Cloe to customise thesoftware. "Because of the IT team's cooperation in listening to ourneeds, we're pretty pleased with the overall product," Cloeacknowledges.

Armstrong brought on one department at a time, enlisting key people ineach area to help him customise the system for that department's needsand utilising these "change evangelists" to help drive theimplementation. "That's one of the things we've learned over the lastfew years: Involve people early and often," Armstrong says. "And notjust the department heads and line managers, but the actual peopledoing the work."