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November 2000
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Alliant Energy Selects ESRI for Enterprise GIS
ESRI, Miner and Miner Provide Software and Consulting Services
Alliant Energy, US has selected ESRI for an enterprise geographic information system (GIS). The implementation will result in the consolidation of existing GIS applications and support services using software from ESRI and Miner and Miner, Consulting Engineers, Inc. In addition, new applications and services will be developed and used throughout Alliant Energy.
Alliant Energy is an energy services corporation based in Madison, Wisconsin. The company serves more than 1.3 million electric, natural gas, and water customers in more than 1,000 communities across Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and it has diversified operations both domestically and internationally. Alliant Energy was formed in 1999 through the merger of three energy services providers: IES Industries, Interstate Power, and WPL Holdings.
Prior to the merger resulting in today's Alliant Energy company, the three previous energy businesses each maintained their own information technology (IT) and GIS infrastructure, applications, and data. This included two separate GIS infrastructures from different software providers. The existing systems were heavily integrated into the business processes and included interfaces to the company's work management, outage management, system planning, and customer information systems. One and one-half years after the merger took place Alliant Energy supported both systems. Once the merger took place, Alliant Energy wanted to carry out an integration initiative to consolidate common databases and business practices into one seamless, enterprise solution. This would avoid duplicate data management and work services along with cutting costs and boosting efficiency.
Currently there are more than 700 Alliant Energy employees with access to the GIS data and services. This includes more than 400 employees using ArcFM Viewer on both desktop- and vehicle-mounted computers. GIS data is used in a number of applications including outage management, load flow analysis, gas maintenance tracking, work management, and property accounting. GIS services include environmental site analysis, target marketing, organizational development, and real estate management.
Alliant Energy anticipates the number of employees using GIS to double in the next two years. The company will use ArcInfo 8 professional GIS, ArcView GIS for the desktop, ArcIMS Internet software from ESRI, and the ArcFM and ArcFM Viewer software from Miner and Miner. Completion of the implementation is tentatively scheduled for the end of 2001. The initiative will include developing a standard data model and suite of applications and interfaces, moving all the existing data to the new enterprise database, and providing training and support for all the users.
"ESRI is honored to be Alliant's GIS partner, and we look forward to working with the talented GIS staff at Alliant Energy," says Jeff Rashid, Utility Solutions Group, ESRI. "We believe GIS technology will provide real business value to every area of Alliant Energy's enterprise. ESRI's next generation of software helps energy companies find new ways to explore business opportunities, improve efficiency and productivity, and better serve customers."
For more information, please visit www.miner.com and www.esri.com
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