Valley Water manages an integrated water resources system that supplies clean, safe water, flood protection and stewardship of streams on behalf of Santa Clara County’s 2 million residents. The district effectively manages 10 dams and surface water reservoirs, three water treatment plants, an advanced recycled water purification center, a state-of-the-art water quality laboratory, nearly 400 acres of groundwater recharge ponds and more than 294 miles of streams.
Challenge
One of Valley Water’s missions is to serve the two million residents of Santa Clara County and effectively manage the region’s water resources. Oracle Forms and Reports-based applications aren’t efficient and flexible enough to adapt to the rapidly changing environment or significantly enhance user engagement.
Valley Water also wished to attain its goal of a single source of truth by eliminating multiple data sources and quickly implementing new community services, such as web-based forms and applications.
Valley Water sought a strategic partner to help it achieve its goal of better serving Santa Clara County, so it partnered with Insum.
Solution
Valley Water selected Oracle APEX as its new development platform. With its existing Oracle infrastructure, APEX was a logical choice as it required no additional licensing costs, offered ease of use, and had a short learning curve for its existing resources. The result was the development and rollout of at least thirty applications to date, with more in the pipeline.
Valley Water opted for the Oracle Autonomous Database on OCI. This decision was driven by its ability to scale and provide high availability and security features. Insum worked closely with Valley Water throughout the development process, playing a key role in creating several critical applications, including the Water Conservation Shopping Cart and the Water Supply Planning Database.
Through this collaborative effort, Valley Water has modernized its systems, saved time and money, and now better serves the needs of its community.
Some Results
Shopping Cart
One of Valley Water’s most critical applications is the Water Conservation Shopping Cart. This innovative platform has enabled Valley Water to deliver thousands of free water-saving devices to residents, helping them to conserve water and reduce their utility bills. The application’s success has been recognized nationally, with Government Technology Magazine awarding Valley Water the Special District Citizens Award for their use of technology to improve service delivery to the community. In 2022 alone, Valley Water shipped nearly 60,000 free water-saving devices to over 9,300 residents in Santa Clara County, making a significant impact on water conservation efforts in the area.
Water Planning Database
The Water Supply Planning Database is a crucial application developed by Insum and Valley Water to address the significant challenges faced in water supply planning activities. With the previous system becoming obsolete and no longer supported, the lack of a centralized and authoritative repository for water supply and consumption data, and inefficiencies from redundant and cumbersome data entry, this new database offers a comprehensive solution. The application enables faster and more flexible development of accurate and consistent water production and consumption reports, automates manual processes, and provides data visualization and analytics. Its implementation has significantly saved staff time and better supports the district’s planning and operations.
Technology used
- Oracle APEX on-prem
- Oracle APEX on Autonomous Database (OCI)
- APEX Office Print
- Address validation with usps.com
- ArcGIS Feature Service API
- REST API with ORDS for shopping cart order fulfilment by 3rd party vendor
Conclusion
The adoption of Oracle APEX as the new development platform truly revolutionized the way Valley Water manages its data and serves its customers.
The transition to Oracle APEX allowed for the development of several critical applications that streamlined processes and enabled Valley Water to better serve its community.
The Water Conservation Shopping Cart, in particular, has been a resounding success, with tens of thousands of free water-saving devices delivered to Santa Clara residents. Moreover, the Water Supply Planning Database has significantly saved staff time by automating manual processes and providing data visualization and analytics.
Working with a strategic partner such as Insum was key to this success, as they were able to collaborate closely with Valley Water and provide expertise in Oracle APEX development. This partnership ensured that Valley Water was able to leverage the full potential of Oracle APEX to achieve its mission of better serving its community.
Some of our other case studies
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Helping a Large County Streamline its APEX Applications
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