Welcome to the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health’s (WVBPH) Asset Management Program! You are looking at what is the first in a series of PowerPoints, meant to provide additional information and further assist you with developing your asset management plan using the CUPSS software. All of the PowerPoints were developed to follow different Asset Management Plan elements. For example, this presentation should be viewed with the corresponding asset management element in the guidance documents. The second presentation will go along with the next element and so on and so forth.

This PowerPoint presentation covers developing an AM team and a mission statement. As we continue to build our AM Plan each element will be identified with a puzzle piece and they will all come together to build our AM Plan.

PLEASE NOTE: When you print this out you will need to either print it in color or overview the pdf while looking at it in screen view. Throughout the presentation we have provided direction in the notes section to view specific items on the slide while reading through the speaker notes. We will reference specific colors of circles, rectangles, or ovals to indicate where on the slide the element of interests are located. So if you don’t have a color printer you may want to follow along on the computer using the electronic pdf version.

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So you may ask “What is asset management?”

Well truthfully there are many different definitions. For example, EPA defines it as “A process for maintaining a desired level of customer service at the best appropriate cost.” The American Water Works Association defines it as “a systematic process to obtain the maximum value from physical assets”. However, simply put, it is a way for a system to look at the big picture and should aid in sustaining water services into the future!

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So what does that really mean? When put into place, asset management will help systems to plan for their future needs. Additionally, it helps systems be proactive rather than reactive with maintenance and therefore, protect their existing assets. By tracking maintenance for the system’s assets, it allows a system to identify trouble spots and save money by targeting maintenance to fix these spots before they become nightmares. Plus an asset management plan can help a system secure funding to make system improvements by documenting why needed upgrades and rate increases are required. By maintaining it’s assets, the system will have less trouble remaining in compliance and be able to provide customers with quality service at the best possible price.

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Okay, so how is this really going to benefit me you ask? Well, there are numerous ways asset management will benefit you, but some of the main ones are:

• it helps define the expectations for your system’s service to the customer,

• it can assist you in performing a maintenance audit,

• in addition, it aids you in identifying and managing the assets presenting the highest risk to your system if they fail,

• it also supports you in determining the full costs for operating and maintaining your system for the long term,

• and it assists you in making investment decisions.

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So in other words an asset management plan will help your utility

• Back up budget talks with solid facts

• Boost utility efficiency

• Save staff time

• Keep customers happy

The bottom line is utilities can make better decisions because they’re more informed.

The BPH has developed a CUPSS centered AM guidance workbook that you will work in along side with the appropriate PowerPoint presentation and the CUPSS program in developing your AM Plan. We have provided an instructions tab (see red circle) that describes the overall process and the requirements. You will notice that in the green circle there are three different color worksheet tabs presented. The ones that are highlighted in yellow are required elements to be submitted to BPH, the purple tabs are elements that you will work through but the submission will be delayed until your Draft My CUPSS AM Plan. We will lead you through setting up your database and so you will have an opportunity to enter this information in to the My CUPSS AM Plan section, but you will not submit until the Draft AM Plan. Next, you will notice some of the cells inside of the worksheet are highlighted yellow (see the purple circle). This indicates to you that you will need to complete the information. If you see a cell that is greyed out (see the purple circle) you will not enter any data into this cell. The highlighted orange cell (see purple circle) provides an overview of the steps taken in the workbook and in the CUPSS program to complete the element.

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This slide shows the AM Agreement found in your guidance document (see the red circle) which should be reviewed and completed by Utilities who are receiving funding from the DWTRF. The purpose of the agreement is to help communicate the proposed timeline and necessary elements to develop an AM Plan. Your utility will identify the responsible party for each element and submit to the BPH for review when indicated in the guidance document.

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BPH has included in the guidance document definitions that you will encounter while working through CUPSS and our AM guidance. You can review these definitions by clicking on the [Definitions] tab of the CUPSS AM Guidance document (see red circle).

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Okay, you may be asking how does my utility get started? To get started you first will need to assemble an AM Team. This team will need to include your “go to” people for Operations, Maintenance, Finances, and Political Leaders. We will cover this in more detail in the next slide.

You also will need to develop a mission statement. The mission statement should consider the impacts to public health, your ability to comply with regulations, and your financial stability if you do not manage your resources. Overall, this is the overarching purpose for maintaining an AM Program. Many facilities make this their mission statement for their utility as a whole.

You will start collecting your general utility information to include in your AM Plan. This may include things like the NPDES permit number for the facility; the estimated number of connections, flow (mgd), average customer bill, and number of customers (residents). Later in this presentation we have provided a slide specifically for CUPSS Users that shows some of the required fields for the utility information section of the CUPSS program. Once entered this information will then be used by the program in the MY CUPSS Plan template report.

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So what might an AM Team look like? Here is an example of an AM Team.

1. You must included someone from the utility as the AM Lead. We recommend that this is someone in the role like a chief operator, general manager, or board official (member). The AM Lead will need to understand the processes and approaches used for every element in the AM Plan. The AM Lead will be responsible for AM submissions to BPH. We have found that a mayor or another political figure should not be used as the AM Lead since this position changes regularly, however, they should be included as part of the team. Our experience is the mayors are usually too busy and/or don’t have detailed knowledge of the water system operations necessary to develop AM Plans.

2. You should have an AM Data Development Coordinator who will assist the AM Lead. We recommend that this is another operator/operational staff, office manager, or secretary. The AM Data Development Coordinator will be the right hand man for determining the state of the assets, as well as understanding the processes and approaches needed for development of inventory and other areas of AM.

3. You should also have a Financial Lead who would be the go to person that

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handles budgets and other financial information like the treasurer, city clerk, or accountant. This person should have a good understanding of the financial state of the utility and has access to the financial data.

4. A Recorder is also recommended and can be any professional service provider, or utility staff. Their role is to help record, communicate, and prepare submissions for the utility.

We understand that some of these roles may be combined or adjusted, as needed. These were provided to give you a good idea of what roles should be considered as part of an AM Team. It is a requirement that the AM Lead be a representative of the utility; therefore, you should not have a professional service provider as the AM Lead.

Also, keep a look out for the puzzle pieces that are found throughout the PowerPoints they represent the recommended AM elements we will be covering.

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In the guidance you will find a template to assist you with developing your AM Team and Mission Statement. It includes a table for you to enter your meeting frequency along with the titles, name, roles, and responsibilities for each AM team member. In the first column on the table (see red circle in slide) you will enter your AM team member's utility title and name. We have entered examples of different titles in the table, but please do not limit yourself to these. The next column on the table is for your team members AM specific roles (see blue rectangle in slide). For example, are they your AM Lead or maybe they are the data recorder? The third column (see green rectangle in slide) is where you will enter in team member’s asset management responsibilities. We have provided examples; however, please set these up as appropriate for your system. The final column is where you will fill in your meeting schedule (see orange circle in slide). For example, is your team meeting every month? Maybe it is more often. We recommend meeting frequently to keep momentum on establishing AM program and AM Plan. On the AM team table you will see there is a place to fill in your utility’s Mission Statement (see pink rectangle in slide).

Later in this presentation we will show you how to set up your AM Team and where to enter your mission statement into the CUPSS program. You can complete the template with your information. Once you set up the CUPSS Program you can then enter in the information there as well. However, this will be a delayed submission.

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During the AM Process the Excel workbook, reports from CUPSS, or any other supporting documentation will be what suffice for your AM submittals to BPH.

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Be aware that CUPSS was not designed to run on a server or to be updated by multiple users at the same time. If you have multiple users entering information it should be loaded onto a shared workstation. The first thing you want to do is to figure out to which computer you will download the CUPSS program. Start the computer and open your internet web browser and search for https://www.epa.gov/dwcapacity/learn-about-check-program-small-systems-cupss-software. That will bring you to this screen. You will simply click on the CUPSS Software Version (download the latest version see yellow circle) to begin the install process. If you need more details about the program itself you can download the latest CUPSS Users guide at http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/drinkingwater/pws/cupss/software.cfm. CUPSS software requires administrative access to read/write to the program folder so you will have to be running the computer as an administrator to have privileges to assign this when you are installing the program. Notice on this slide that the latest version at the time of this presentation was CUPSS Software Version 1.3.9 December 2015. Once you have the program installed you will need to periodically backup the program and also check this website for updates to the software. It will not upgrade itself automatically. In order to receive updates, you will back up the program folder to another drive and then install the latest updated version.

Also, if you computer’s operating system is in Windows 7 or Windows 8 and you have

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trouble with the installation. Please contact your project lead for work around instructions specific for those operating systems.

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Creating your database for your AM information. This is what CUPSS uses to store all the AM information entered into the CUPSS program.

It is important to note that there are different areas in which you can access and use the CUPSS program. This will really depend on what is easier for your system.

Two Methods:

• Your CUPSS: “Your CUPSS” to create a profile for your utility. A lot of utilities use this if they only have one system to track, but over time more have found that using the second method may be better for them for various reasons, see below.

• Training Section: Allows you to create and manage multiple databases in the application. This would be helpful if you are working with multiple Drinking Water Systems in developing a AM Plan using the CUPSS program. This is also useful to a system for multiple reasons. A system may have multiple water systems, manage wastewater, track the last time they did a backup of their CUPSS program or have more control of the database used with the CUPSS program.

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A Drinking Water System who is just using CUPSS for the first time can create a profile for their utility by selecting the “Your CUPSS” database and clicking the [Enter] button in one of two places (see yellow circles in slide). Then you will see a pop up window that welcomes you to CUPSS and then you can click on the [Lets Get Started] button (see green circle in slide) to create your utility’s profile.

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CUPSS allows you to manage more than one database in the application. You can create new databases that are separate from the databases used to power “Your CUPSS” and the “Example CUPSS.” These additional databases can be useful for CUPSS Trainers who are working with multiple utilities in implementing CUPSS or systems that want to keep track of the different versions of your databases. Trainers have the ability to remove these databases from the application and load them later at different locations. This is also useful to a system for multiple reasons. A system may have multiple water systems, want to keep track of the last time they backed up their program better or they may even want to have more control of the database used with the CUPSS program.

You first will start the CUPSS program and then click the [Create Database] (see yellow circle in slide). CUPSS then will prompt you with a table to enter the database name and location. We recommend putting the location of the database in your CUPSS program files in the database folder as shown above. A good way to do this is to create another folder in the database folder with the date you are creating these files. Some systems have had problems with that location due to the security issues and had to put the CUPSS program in their computers MY Documents Folder. If you experience issues downloading , please contact EPA at cupss@epa.gov. If you need more details about the program itself you can download the latest CUPSS Users guide at http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/drinkingwater/pws/cupss/software.cfm for

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more instructions of how to work around this issue. Click save (see green circle in slide) when you are done.

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After you create your database, you will then open the CUPSS Program and select your database from the drop down list (see yellow circle in slide). Once it is selected press [Enter] (see green circle in slide) to load your CUPSS database. You will follow this procedure each time you open your database.

Once you enter into your selected database the program will lead you through the creating your utility profile as we have already show in the earlier slides. If you have further questions on this process please see the CUPSS Users Guide for more direction.

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Next, you will enter in the utility information into the utility Info section and click [Continue] (see yellow circle in slide) to move on to enter the User Info.

* Any information with a red asterisk is required information, CUPSS will not advance to the next page until it is all entered into the system.

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Next you will enter in the main user's information into the User Info section and click [Continue] (see yellow circle in slide) to move on to enter the Team Info.

* Please make note that you should enter the person’s name who will be the main CUPSS user here. This person will act as “administrator” of the CUPSS program on the computer to which it was loaded. Be aware that CUPSS was not designed to berun on a server and updated by multiple users at the same time. If you have multiple users entering information it should be loaded onto a shared workstation.

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When you first set up your utility information in CUPSS it will ask you if you want to select a bunch of pre-entered daily tasks we recommend you scroll to the bottom of the screen and click [Skip O&M Set Up Screens] (see yellow circle in slide) and click continue (see green circle in slide). We will talk about this more in the O&M section later on, but if you do not deselect these now you may end up with a lot of extra work later. If you do not click to skip the O&M set up screens, CUPSS will take you to another O&M screen with weekly tasks then a screen with monthly tasks and finally a screen with yearly tasks.

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You will enter in the rest of your AM Team’s information now. Every time you finish adding a team member’s information in you will then click the [Add Another Team Member] (see yellow circle in slide) until you have entered your whole team. Once you have added in every one’s information you will click [Continue] (see green circle in slide) to review and save the information.

Note: These can always be updated and changed later if needed.

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Remember you need to review the utility and Team information (see yellow rectangle in slide) before you [Save and Continue] or if you see anything you want to edit hit the [Back and Edit] button (see green circle in slide).

Once you click [Save and Continue] a CUPSS message will display prompting you to select a directory to save the password file. We recommend that you save it into the CUPSS program file itself so that you can find it later if you happen to forget your password. Once you have selected the program location CUPSS will take you back to the CUPSS home screen.

Note: Every time you go into setup it will ask you where you want to save your password, you do not need to save or change your password every time it will keep your original one. When this happens click okay where it asks you to select a directory then hit cancel on the next prompt. It will then take you into the CUPSS home screen.

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This is the navigation tool bar on the home screen of the CUPSS program. We wanted to note that at anytime you need to edit the utility, user, team, or password information you can do so by clicking the “Set Up” (see yellow circle in slide) link at the top of the right hand side of the CUPSS navigation bar. This will take you back into the set up information and you can make the necessary revisions.

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Once you open the CUPSS database and you have your utility setup you will find yourself on the CUPSS homepage. To start entering your AM information (mission statement and AM Team information) you will click in one of two areas. On the home screen you will either click the My CUPSS Plan tab section in the CUPSS program (see yellow circle) or the Work on My CUPSS Plan section on the lower part of the screen. If you look closely at the home screen you will notice that there are a lot of items that have two different ways to enter into them. If you ever need additional information on how to do something in CUPSS you can click on Do Some Training ( see purple circle) and it will take you to some short videos that will assist you. You can also get information from the CUPSS Users guide by clicking on help at the top of the screen (see green circle).

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The first time that you enter into the My CUPSS Plan section you will click on the begin a new my CUPSS plan button (see red circle).

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Next you will see a screen come up asking you to enter in the My CUPSS Plan information. You will need to enter a name and version number for the plan (see red circle). You can also add in any other notes if you want. Make sure that you clicked on the utility that you want so it is highlighted in blue even if you only have one utility entered (see green circle). Now click on the button labeled begin a new My CUPSS Plan (see yellow circle).

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Once that is open you will notice the different sections available to enter your utility’s specific details. Click on tab 1. Introduction (see yellow circle) and enter in the mission statement you created in section 1.1 Mission Statement (see red rectangle). Next you can enter in more information on your AM Team in section 1.2 Asset Management Team (see blue rectangle). Click save. Note: it is also advised that you read through the template information in section 1.0 and tailor it for your system. You will also notice that the CUPSS program brought in the AM Team Members that you entered into the setup section ( see green rectangle). Once you are done click save and continue (see purple circle). When you do this it will take you to the next tab (2. utility Overview) you can enter in more information if you want and click save and continue again (it will then take you to tab 3 LOS goals). If you do not want to enter anything in utility Overview you can simply click on the My Home tab at top (see orange circle). Remember to always click save and continue if you entered some information on a page, but if you did not enter new information in a section you can just click on My Home to exit the My CUPSS Plan area.

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When you want to enter back into your my CUPSS Plan you will first click on your CUPSS Plan to highlight it in blue (see red rectangle). Next you will right click on the blue highlighted row. Once you do this a box stating edit row and remove row will come up. You will click on edit row here to take you back into your plan to start where you left off. You will use this version as a working copy of your plan so you can update only what you need to. PLEASE NOTE: If you were to create a new copy it would take out anything that you have already entered into the My CUPSS Plan section and you would need to reenter it all.

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If you are a DWTRF recipient and you are hiring an Asset Management Administrator or technical service provider to help develop your Asset Management Plan you will want to keep in mind:

The AM Team as a whole should be involved in each step of the planning process and the utility’s AM Lead should have a full understanding of each step so he or she will be able to take responsibility for maintenance of the AM Plan in upcoming years. Your utility should be in charge of making all of the decisions for how the AM Plan is developed and the technical service provider is only there to help guide and assist you with the process. The utility will approve and submit all required documents. The BPH requests that all submissions come from the AM Lead and not the technical service provider.

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When you complete Your Asset Management Plan, the AMP should provide a summary of all the elements, findings, objectives, and targets to managing, and implementing the AM.

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These before and after photos demonstrate just what asset management can do for your system.

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