Ilsur Metshin: "What once seemed impossible is real today"

(Kazan, KZN.RU, March 2, by Zilya Gayfi). In 2014, some 305,000 resident requests were filed through "Open Kazan" in 2014; request fulfillment reached 99.5%. Dmitry Eremeyev, an adviser to the mayor of Kazan on IT development, spoke about the housing data processing project at today's Business Monday meeting.

According to him, the "Open Kazan" system module has been processing residents' applications for the past three years. Its capabilities were expanded last year: the application started running on iOS and Android mobile platforms. Upon registration, users can submit requests and receive notifications about their fulfillment, submit meter readings, pay utility bills and receive notifications about planned outages and repairs.

The data accumulated over three years allows managers to see the most problematic housing areas with the greatest number of complaints.

Last year, "Open Kazan" gained yet another module, "Apartment Building Management." At the heart of management is the technical passport of a building. "Open Kazan" has become a database on the status of residential buildings with full details on the structural elements of each building. The system monitors the state of the foundation, facade and roof, making it is possible to assess the wear and tear of each element. Also, the new module allows forecasting changes in the physical condition of a building over time and calculate the cost of repairs.

Today, a third module of "Open Kazan" is being developed.  "We're planning close integration with the system for utility bill calculation, which will create a transparent fund movement mechanism. A single-click bill payment will be implemented, which should increase utility bill collection rates," said D. Eremeyev.

In general, according to Ilsur Metshin, "Open Kazan" is an effective tool in the hands of municipal workers. " Housing and utilities is a sector where it was difficult to put things in order at first, given the number of residents and the amount of housing. However, what had once seemed a fantasy has been  implemented. We have been looking forward to this program. A few years ago, when the project was launched, our main goal was efficiency. Today, we have a unified system of processing residents' requests and complaints. There has been a four-fold increase in the speed of decision-making, and implementation supervision has been improved. We can see on-line what and where emergencies have occurred and what is being done to fix them. In addition, the system can check on the state of housing that is akin to a regular physical examination of each house," summed up the head of the city government.