How Brunswick County Integrated Power BI with Lucity EAM

When systems don’t talk to each other, time and resources slip through the cracks. Integration closes those gaps, empowering public administrators to work faster and smarter. Brunswick County, NC experienced this firsthand.

The county faced growing challenges as it managed public works operations. Paper-based work orders, reporting inefficiencies and inconsistent processes often led to delays and human error.

Despite these hurdles, the county had a strong foundation thanks to CentralSquare EAM (powered by Lucity). Its large volume of data was well organized. The missing piece was a modern analytics tool to make sense of that information.

When Dr. James Glen Roche stepped in as Business Analyst, he identified this gap and introduced Microsoft Power BI. By integrating Power BI with the cloud-based EAM (enterprise asset management), Brunswick streamlined data analysis, improved reporting accuracy and saved hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In the recent webinar, Power BI with Lucity EAM, Brunswick shared its story. The rest of this article will highlight key takeaways from that discussion and explore how the integration has strengthened county operations.

From Paper to the Cloud

Brunswick County made a significant leap forward by moving from paper-based processes to the cloud with Lucity EAM. Previously, staff relied on paper work orders that were difficult to track, prone to errors and inconsistent across departments. By adopting the cloud-based platform, the county created a single system for managing assets, work orders and maintenance.

It took the county time to get water, sewer, and plant assets fully implemented in the system. But once complete, the shift came with multiple benefits:

• Improved transparency by giving staff and leadership real-time visibility into projects and performance.
• Simplified operations, reducing the manual steps that slowed productivity and often caused human error.

With streamlined digital processes, teams could make better decisions, respond to issues faster and allocate resources more effectively. Moving paper-based processes to the cloud gave Brunswick County a stronger foundation for long-term operational success.

Integrating Power BI for Real-Time Insights

By integrating Microsoft Power BI with Lucity EAM, Brunswick County created a powerful platform for real-time insights. While Lucity helped manage assets and work orders, Power BI enhanced its capabilities by transforming raw data into clear, actionable visuals.

How does the integration work? Through CentralSquare, a daily SQL backup of Lucity is performed. Brunswick then extracts this data and loads it into Power BI, giving supervisors and executives up-to-date metrics on KPIs, labor costs and work order status without the need for manual reporting. This process streamlined the reporting process while making reports more consistent and accurate.

The integration also provided access to detailed “child data” within work orders, such as materials used, labor hours and costs. Consolidating everything in one platform gave staff and leadership greater visibility, as well as the ability to make faster, more informed decisions.

Time and Cost Savings

Brunswick County turned data into dollars by pairing Power BI with Lucity EAM. Automated reporting alone saves the county an estimated 288 hours per year, since staff no longer need to manually retrieve metrics or compile KPIs for senior leadership. Instead, daily updates keep data fresh and accurate, allowing employees to focus on analysis and decision-making rather than report collection.

The integration has also improved preparedness and mitigated the risk of unnecessary expenses. The county saved $300,000 in costs for a generator fueling project (not including labor hours). Thanks to a Power BI report showing generator fuel levels, Brunswick avoided the unnecessary purchase of costly SCADA sensors.

With more accurate reporting, close-to-real-time updates and better quality assurance, the county fixed human errors that once led to underreporting. The integration has sparked demand for more dashboards and reports, fostering a culture of continuous improvement in the public works department.

Enhancing Data Quality and Decision-Making

In Brunswick County, better data meant better decisions – and the integration made that possible. One of the biggest benefits came through quality assurance and quality check processes. With easy-to-use dashboards, staff can generate reports to identify incorrectly closed work orders or missing data points – problems that once slipped through the cracks with paper-based systems.

For example, Brunswick County discovered that hundreds of work orders were being marked as “closed” without proper end dates, leaving critical tasks incomplete. Using a Power BI dashboard, staff quickly generated a report that flagged more than 350 of these incorrectly closed orders. Within three days, supervisors reviewed the list, corrected the errors, and reduced the number from 350 to 0. Now there’s only one or two mistakes per week and they are resolved immediately. What once would have gone unnoticed in a paper-based system is now easy to catch, fix and prevent.

Automation also improved report quality. With data retrieval handled automatically, staff no longer waste hours collecting and verifying information. Instead, they can focus on analyzing accurate, up-to-date reports, leading to stronger insights and reducing the risk of human error.

Lessons Learned and Best Practices

Brunswick County’s story highlights a few practical lessons for agencies considering a Power BI + CentralSquare EAM integration. First, dedicated IT support is essential. Daily backups, data pipelines and dashboard management take time and ongoing attention. So treat them like core operations, not side projects.

Second, Power BI licensing can be confusing. It took multiple conversations with vendors to untangle options, and Brunswick learned that both licensing and a Microsoft Fabric environment weren’t necessary for their size (Fabric makes sense primarily for very large organizations). Clarify your needs up front to avoid overbuying.

Third, invest time in learning the tool. The Power BI learning curve is manageable, but teams still need structured onboarding and training. That early effort pays back quickly in accurate reports and faster decisions.

Could your agency benefit from a CentralSquare EAM (powered by Lucity) and Power BI integration? Schedule a discovery call today to learn how this integration can streamline reporting, reduce errors, and save your agency a ton of time and money.