AM/FM Project implementation at allegheny power

The Plan
The strategy was to begin with a central AM/FM system, uniform for all three operating companies, which would serve as a data repository for the other processes. While there are numerous applications for such a database, Allegheny Power would initially focus on data conversion, maintaining the database, automating data updates, and interfacing with our Outage Analysis and Work Management systems. What created the greatest

challenge to this project was the time frame required for implementation. The swiftness with which utilities are moving toward a competitive market demands an equally rapid response. While many projects are satisfied with initially populating a GIS database with their facility data, and developing applications after the fact, Allegheny Power wanted functionality right from the start.

In the spring of 1996, we began implementation of our plan with a time frame of twenty months. Due to the limited resources of the reorganized AM/FM Team, contractors were hired to assist in timely completion of the work. The team first needed to develop a strategy for handling systems development issues such as:

Choosing the platfon-n on which data is based.
Evaluating data sources.
Contracting of conversion vendors.
Hiring of consultants to develop a data model, and the tools for maintaining records.
Development of interfaces to the Outage Analysis and Work Management systems.

It was evident that we would be operating more efficiently with an automated GIS system, and we were already in the process of reducing the number of employees through our corporate restructuring. Therefore, we had to have an aggressive schedule and carefully coordinate all of the above resources.

Our first decision after developing our strategy was to purchase software from Smallworld Systems, Inc of Englewood, Colorado as the basis of our GIS system. We contracted with Cook-Hurlbert, Inc. of Austin, Texas to develop our data model. While the data model was in development we began the first task that would challenge our time frame: translation of our existing data into Smallworld. To convert our data from source to Smallworld, GeoData Solutions, Inc. of Westminster, Colorado was contracted to develop translators for each of the companies.