OCX Technology : Field & Mapping Applications

Abstract
More customers. Larger service area. Same or less staff. Leveraging limited assets is a critical concern for deregulated utilities, especially in emergency outage situations. Graphical work order management and autonomous navigation has become a critical success factor (C SF) to maintain budget and meet end-user demand.

Due to the relatively limited mapping and navigation skills of service and restoration crews, interfaces are becoming a focal point. Incorporating a variety of off-the-shelf OCX technologies, developers no longer need to concern themselves as much with software coding, but rather with making the graphical user interfaces as simple and intuitive to use as possible. A variety of stock OCX technologies used for mapping, navigation, scheduling, and GPS will be examined.

This presentation will focus on the successful implementation of a mapped based, wireless communication system for outage restoration and work order management. We will review OCX technologies used for mapping and navigation using VB5. Also considered is how the use of OCX technologies in an application server component tier can streamline development and create programming maintenance efficiencies for use with multiple front end tools supporting a 3-tier architecture.

Introduction
What is an OCX? Who should consider using it? Where can it be used? What are the budget and managed cost considerations? How will using OCX technology assist you in object-oriented development, supporting a 3-tiered architecture and eliminating code reuse? This paper presents a look at the significance of OCX controls and uses a sample program to illustrate how developers can make visual and functional enhancements to field mapping applications.