Distribution utility enterprise integration - A new paradigm
Chuck Howard
President, IT Project Manager
Geographic Information Technology, inc.
101 Inverness Dr. East, Suite 130
Englewood, Colorado 80112
Phone: 303-708-9352
Fax: 303-708-9356
E-mail: choward@,geoit.com
Andy Schlegel
GPU Energy, 2800 Pottsville Pike
Reading, Pennsylvania 19640-0001
Phone: 610-921-6487
Fax: 610-939-8516
E-mail: aschlegel@m u.com
The paradigm shift
What Has Charuzed?
If a paradigm shift is a change so great, that we need to rethink the way we frame our questions,
not just how we respond to them, then one is occurring in the North American utility right now.
The change is pervasive, and it would take longer than this session allows for us to examine it
carefully, so we will narrow our focus on the information technology part of the change.
At the center of the change is utility acceptance of enterprise resource planning (ERP) concepts
and products. Five years ago, it would have been hard for anyone to believe that any utility
would be replacing all their major business systems; customers, work, materials, financial,
human resources, at the same time in favor of a single product to meet these systems critical
needs. Yet today, the sales figures from providers like ERP, People Soft, and Oracle tell us that
over 200 utilities worldwide have started down that path. This change has had a big impact on
AM/FM/GIS project and products; mostly positive.
Why The Change
There are many reasons for the change occurring now. However, four stand out above the rest:
the move to open competition among utilities, the millennium bug, a need for more integrated
solutions, and downsized IT staffs. Competition has driven executive to realize that problems
associated with the business can not longer be addressed by increasing staffs. The must be
resolved with more efficient work processes supported by good tools; including IT tools. The
Y2K issue arose during the struggle to identify solutions for the first. When faced with the risks
and the costs for these first two issues, complete replacement began to seem feasible. The ERP
vendors then had two very appealing messages; a single solution to all these systems
requirements will produce a more integrated result, and product solutions require far less IT
support than do designware based or custom developed solutions.
The integration promise is perhaps the one that has had the most impact toward supporting the
paradigm shifi. Executives have known for years that they have paid a price for the loose
integration of their legacy systems. They are demanding more today. Many of the companies
making the change feel so strongly about the value of more integrated solutions that they have
allowed only minimal input from the people who used to decide what products would be
purchased. They feared that people lower in the organization would value integration less than
best of breed functionality.
Impact on AM/FM/GIS
There has been an impact on AM/FM/GIS implementations. In a few cases, projects were
delayed due to budget constraints. However, more often than not, ERP initiatives have helped
get GIS projects approved. When executive decide spend the money to do ERP, it becomes
apparent that GIS is complementary and can be done about ten percent more. In short, GIS looks
small by comparison to ERP.
The other noticeable impact is that when GIS is done with ERP, a higher level of integration is
expected, with both ERP and other systems such as outage management. Many executives want
to see tight integration among all systems that service the field work force and those systems
being a "bolt-on" to ERP. This is a whole new challenge for AM/FM/GIS projects. It demands
careful planning and knowledge of the ERP function and interface points.
GPU Energy has implemented a filly integrated solution of ERP, GIS, Outage Management, and
Mobile Dispatch. They have done it in a very short time. We have a lot to learn from their
experience.
