Service record card access through the company Intranet
Kevin P. Bowman
Staff Analyst
Consumers Energy
212 West Michigan Ave.
Jackson, MI 49201
Office: (51 7) 788-0430
Fax: (517) 788-1732
David S.Lucian
P. E., Project Manager
Consumers Energy
516 West Willow Street
Lansing, MI 48906
Office: (517) 374-2306
Fax: (517) 373-8419
Introduction
This paper discusses the design, construction and implementation of a Service Record
Card electronic data repository system. As is any repository development effort, one of
the key success factors is the appropriate selection of information that will be converted.
For information that is selected, the system(s) must be able to ensure information
integrity at a consistent quality level throughout its life cycle, regardless of the business
process that may be exercising the data. Failure to achieve this data consistency will soon
render such a repository in a highly questionable state. Considerable forethought,
planning, and recognition of the inevitable technological change may enable us to
position ourselves for the economic optimization of this data asset over its complete life
cycle, in some cases as long as 70-80 years. This paper will use Consumers Energy
Service Information Management System as a case study for facility record access
through the company Intranet.
Business Functions
The Service Information Management System (SIMS) supports the creating, reviewing,
updating and deleting (CRUD) of underground facility information managed by the
physical SIMS data repository. This information supports Consumers Energy
dispatching, stake and locate, inspection and other business processes. By design this
paper does not address in detail the data conversion of existing records. The repository is
updated in a variety of ways including scanning, electronic file conversion (vector to
raster) or a number of other potential data collection methods.
Model Data Requirements
The principle objective of any application is to support some aspect of the CRUD model
as it relates to a given scope of the enterprise information repository. Given the potential
impact of erring in data content, it was imperative that a comprehensive, professionally
facilitated data modeling session be conducted. The goal of this session was to determine
the business processes that exercised this data, potential users and an understanding of the
qualitative aspects that must be ensured throughout the data lifecycle as well as the
repository content. The logical model describes the information content and becomes the
"standard" by which application development can be measured. The outcome of the
modeling session suggested that a graphical sketch as well as attribute data describing the
facility was the optimal solution to the users needs. The physical database will therefore
contain both textual attribute data and graphic data in the form of a raster image.
Develop Conversion Process
With the information requirements well defined and documented the effort can now be
focused on moving the repository construction forward. Creation and publication of
record conversion rules are necessary to ensure that errors can be effectively eliminated
as the documents move from a paper based medium to an electronic environment. The
challenge is to appropriately realize those opportunities that ensure the desired level of
accuracy for successful integration. Facility systems can be accessed through a number of
different geographic query schemes. The scrubbing of the records either before the
conversion or during the quality assurance process enables you to achieve the designed
level of integration. Post conversion software auditing of the converted data is a powerfd
and cost effective way of achieving highly reliable integrated data.
