The internet advantage in facilities management

Ultramar Diamond Shamrock
Ultramar Diamond Shamrock (UDS) of San Antonio, Texas is a company that operates a pipeline system of approximately 4,500 miles in the states of Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Michigan. In addition to pipelines, UDS also owns and operates oil refineries as well as hundreds of convenience stores as retail outlets for its refined products. UDS is in the process of implementing an Intranet GIS to help manage its pipeline system and has chosen Autodesk’s MapGuide software as its GIS platform. Topographic Mapping Company of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and Topographic Land Surveyor of Parnpa, Texas have been selected to assist with the implementation of this system.

Selection and implementation

Committing to a Direction for the Pipeline GIS
When the UDS GIS Committee began its task of selecting a pipeline information system, we were well aware of the broad range of options available for our consideration. None of us were GIS experts. We had only broad directives regarding system functionality. Our budget was limited, and we were quite sure that a million-dollar solution would never receive approval. In addition to the many commercial GIS alternatives, we were being asked to consider a data management system being developed internally. The challenge before us was considerable.

As background information, we at UDS had been using CAD since the early 1990’s. In addition to CAD, we had been using a map-based document management system since 1993. With this CAD-based system, we were able to find and view pipeline documents by simply “picking” symbols on a CAD base map. This approach to locating information was simple and intuitive, but we believed that more powerful options were probably available by 1997.

As our deliberations progressed, a “wish list” of capabilities from those inside and outside of our group began to develop. As an example, a UDS attorney made a request of our Committee for capabilities that would be useful to him. The attorney wished for the ability to display maps and other information from a query of the GIS based solely on landowner names. His request appeared to be reasonable because he would often get calls from landowners complaining about the pipeline. The callers would be mad, and they often threatened lawsuits. To respond to these calls, information would be sought in a manual, difficult, and time consuming way. With a GIS available to him, the attorney hoped to enter a name into his computer and quickly be able to see landowner information while that person was still on the phone. He hoped to see maps of the pipeline crossing that person’s property as well as right-of-way documents pertaining to that tract. Our attorney was hoping for great things from the GIS Committee.

As previously mentioned, the IT department at UDS had been developing an information system for our “Diamond Shamrock” and “Total” convenience stores. UDS management and the developers of this system wanted for the Committee to consider it as our solution. The convenience-store system had a nice graphic interface to a database, and its developers were willing to add functionality for our use. We tried to envision this system working for us, but we were very concerned that it was not map-based. We were convinced that a GIS was what we needed rather than the text-based system we had been shown. The management of our pipeline system requires maps and other information that are geographic in nature.

Members of the GIS Committee had ideas and desires of their own for GIS functionality. As the Chair of the Committee, I had something of a vision myself for this system. I felt strongly that we should at least maintain the functionality of our CAD-based document management system. We had been scanning right-of-way documents for use in the old system for years. We had thousands of pages of right-of-way documents already in digital form. It was quite necessary for our committee to select a system that would make best use of these documents. I also liked the idea of “zooming in” on a map, seeing the pipeline in that area, and finding links to the documents. It was important to me to upgrade to a GIS package that worked this way.

In addition to functionality, the committee was very concerned about the cost of any system that we might recommend. While our GIS Committee was doing its work, the merger of the two companies forming UDS, Ultramar and Diamond Shamrock, was being digested. There had been another acquisition, Total Petroleum, affecting our company’s cash flow as well. In the uncertain atmosphere of reorganization, funds for all projects, including ours, were tight. However, we moved methodically ahead hoping to overcome the obstacles to our task.

The Intranet Option
As the GIS Committee was beginning its deliberations, some of our members were exposed to an Internet GIS program from Autodesk. Because we used AutoCAD already at UDS, we felt fairly comfortable in looking at a GIS product from Autodesk. The product was called MapGuide and was shown to us by Topographic Mapping Company. The developed application we were shown was a GIS for a pipeline system. And, among the capabilities demonstrated were hypertext links to documents from a base map of the pipeline system. The fact that MapGuide ran in a browser like Netscape’s Navigator or Microsoft’s Explorer was also appealing to us. It appeared that the MapGuide system would allow us to use the documents we had already scanned. It would also allow us to use them as we had originally intended. Since the program ran in a browser, it seemed obvious to us that it was easy to learn and easy to use. “Ease of use” was very important to us.

After discussion and deliberation, the GIS Committee determined that we wanted others at UDS to see MapGuide. We especially wanted the UDS developers of the convenience-store system to see the difference between a GIS and a text-based system. The Committee assembled a meeting with the IT developers, UDS attorneys, managers from several different areas of the company, and our pipeline group. We arranged for Topographic Mapping Company to make a presentation to this group. Once the GIS with its map interface to data was shown, the text-based system seemed much less capable. The IT group was impressed with the use of Internet technology as well as the map interface to pipeline data. As a result of that meeting, consensus among our managers moved steadily in the direction of Internet GIS.