Case Study
City of Gresham, OR
Learn how the City of Gresham, OR used cloud-based Enterprise Asset Management to unify asset tracking, preserve institutional knowledge, and plan for the future.
About Gresham, OR
The City of Gresham sits just east of Portland, nestled between Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge. Its Public Works Department keeps essential services running across six divisions: Parks, Transportation, Watershed, Wastewater Collections, Water Department, and a Treatment Plant.
Across those teams, infrastructure is the backbone. Roads, pipes, facilities, and equipment all require ongoing maintenance, clear ownership, and consistent documentation. Without visibility, it’s harder to track asset lifecycles and plan ahead.
Since 2017, Gresham has relied on CentralSquare’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)—deployed in the cloud from day one—to build and maintain a unified record of assets across all divisions. Today, about 100 employees use the platform daily, with that number continuing to grow.
Getting there, however, required solving two challenges that will sound familiar to any public works department: incomplete asset visibility and the risk of institutional knowledge walking out the door.
“We've had turnover, we’ve had staffing shortages. What Enterprise Asset Management allows us to do is build a platform where, no matter who the person is, they’re starting from where the last person left off.”
Brandon McCullough, Business Systems Analyst
City of Gresham, OR
The Problem
Before EAM, Gresham lacked a centralized system for tracking its infrastructure. Assets were documented inconsistently across divisions, making it difficult to answer even basic questions:
- What does the city own?
- What condition is it in?
- What will it cost to maintain or replace?
Without that foundation, planning was reactive rather than proactive, and resources were harder to allocate with confidence.
The second challenge was staffing. Public works departments across the country have faced turnover and shortages in recent years, and Gresham was no exception. Every time an experienced employee left, they took institutional knowledge with them—knowledge about assets, maintenance patterns, and operational history that lived in their heads rather than in a system. For the next person stepping into the role, there was no clear starting point.
Together, these two challenges pointed to the same underlying need: a single, reliable platform that could outlast any individual employee and give every team member a clear view of the city’s infrastructure.
Single Source of Truth
A centralized record of city-owned assets and their condition.
Proactive Planning
A foundation for proactive planning and resource allocation.
Knowledge Continuity
A way to preserve knowledge through staff transitions.
The Solution
“With Cognos, it allows us to look at the data, think intelligently, and make data-driven decisions to better serve the community.”
— Brandon McCullough, Business Systems Analyst
In 2017, Gresham selected CentralSquare’s Enterprise Asset Management and made a deliberate choice to deploy it in the cloud from the start. The platform gave every division a shared foundation for tracking and maintaining city-owned infrastructure—and a place to store institutional knowledge that could outlast any individual employee.
At its core, EAM provided what Gresham had been missing: a single system of record for all city-owned assets. Staff across every division can document assets consistently, track maintenance history, and plan with confidence.
That foundation is now expanding. Gresham recently added Cognos, a business intelligence tool that takes EAM’s asset data a step further. Where EAM answered the question of what the city owns, Cognos helps answer what to do next.
The Results
“If you’re considering purchasing a CentralSquare product, know that their service and product are going to be top of the line.”
— Brandon McCullough, Business Systems Analyst
Since deploying EAM in the cloud, Gresham has seen meaningful improvements across operations. The city now has a reliable asset registry—a clear, current record of what it owns and what condition it’s in. That visibility has shifted planning from reactive to proactive, giving staff the data they need to make confident decisions about maintenance and resource allocation.
The cloud deployment has also provided operational benefits. Regular updates and rollups keep the platform current, and the team can respond to system issues more efficiently than before. All without adding strain to internal IT teams.
Looking ahead, Gresham is excited about the partnership between CentralSquare and Centerline AI. For a department managing aging infrastructure with a lean team, the potential is significant. AI could help the city uncover new efficiencies and make smarter decisions over time.
“I think AI can bring a lot to the public works industry in ways we don’t even understand yet. The ability to do more with less…and look for efficiencies…will increase the value of what we provide to the community,” Brandon McCullough explained.
For now, the foundation is in place. Gresham has a clear view of its assets, a platform that supports its people, and a system strong enough to grow on. If your public works department is looking to build the same, CentralSquare is the place to start.
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