Why in-house stormwater software solutions fail

Many municipalities have found that building an in-house software solution isn’t always the best idea, let’s walk through some reasons why.

Time is money

Building an efficient stormwater management software in-house is a large undertaking and can take years to create, which often comes at a high price. The investment an MS4 would have to make to build a fully-functional system should be at the top of the list when considering solutions.

Technology advancements

It’s become generally understood that advancements in technology are moving faster than ever. An internal system runs the risk of becoming quickly outdated, and staying on top of required software updates may involve more resources than expected.

Lack of stormwater expertise

In most cases, IT departments are not experts in stormwater. This can pose a challenge when tasked with creating a software to manage stormwater programs. A benefit of using a cloud-based SaaS solution like NPDESPro is that we have expertise in both stormwater and technology. If a development team doesn’t have a strong understanding of stormwater management, the resulting solution will likely reflect that.

Keeping up with compliance

NPDES permit requirements change regularly. When a software is built around a certain set of regulations, there will come a time when the system is no longer meeting program requirements.

A private company like NPDESPro has a huge incentive to make sure we are on top of the technology and the regulations. We are in the business of making sure we're delivering the best MS4 Management Application on the market. And if we don’t do that, you're simply going to cancel your subscription. We need to be out in front, always making sure the application is up to date with current stormwater requirements and current technology.