Distribution utility enterprise integration - A new paradigm
On-Line Desian
We are implementing an On-Line Design system which will be utilized by our 180 designers in
60 different locations. This product will provide us with:
Design alternatives
Quick and consistent layout of GIS facilities and changeouts
Integrates the data maintenance process
Generates design order, and cost estimate reports.
It will be integrated with the ERP Work Management system to provide:
List of jobs for the designer to work on
Creation of FERC settlement rules
Material lists
Estimated costs/hours
The magic of On-Line Design lies in the compatible unit library and provides:
Rule base association of compatible units to facilities
Provides macro unit functionality
Recognizes cost at compatible unit level
Supports multiple cost (dead, gloved, stick) and activity types (install, retire, transfer)
Easy data loads for data maintenance
We will also be utilizing the On-Line Design system as our tool for integrating the GIS objects
with the ERP technical equipment. This will provide us the following:
Defining the objects that need to go to ERP
Needs to handle serialized equipment
Roll forward facility status
Delete GIS facilities no longer required
Clean up GIS alternatives
The biggest issue in implementing On-Line Design is the Work Management interface. We had
a difficult time getting the requirements for the interface detailed. The ERP team did not have
the details required for this interface until late in the project, which delayed work on this effort.
The Disconnect product was going to provide the functionality required, but was going to be
specialized code. We also had to insure that the GIS data model was consistent with the ERP
data model for the fields we were going to keep in sync.
OMS - Outage Management System
During the early stages of our Outage Management system design phase we switched vendors.
This created some confusion early on and delayed the detailed design until we understood what
the new OMS product would include, how it would work, and knowledgeable personnel on the
product. We also were looking to interface this product with ERP Customer Care System (CCS)
which also was difficult in getting the details of this system since it was still in a design phase.
The system will be integrated with our ERP Front Office product and the ERP Work
Management product and will handle all trouble and street light orders. We are planning on
dispatching both of these types of orders using the OMS product and also have it interface with
our Computer Aided Dispatch system. The detailed knowledge of the system architecture of
ERP was the biggest stumbling block that we encountered in the integration of these systems.
Computer Aided Dispatch.
We are implementing Computer Aided Dispatch as part of the overall project. We will dispatch
trouble calls and streetlight orders to 65 trouble trucks mostly in New Jersey. This project
started prior to the decision to go with the OMS product and months before the details were
known of what ERP required for trouble and street light orders. They were going on the
impression that whatever data they collected in the field manually, they should collect using the
mobile data terminals. This proved to be troublesome when you needed to integrate this system
not only with OMS, but ERP. Even though the data was being collected in the field, there was
not always a clean data stream back to ERP. We had to reevaluate the scope of this product and
insure that it would work with OMS and ERP implementation.
The schedule
From the beginning of the project we had a very aggressive schedule to implement the various
products along with ERP. The initial kick-off of the project was October of 1997 with it really
not getting underway until late November. The team was initially two different project teams
being the GIS and Outage Management teams with two different implementation partners. This
was later changed to one team and was also integrated into the ERP project team. The plan is
detailed below:
November 98- Start data conversion from GFIS to new GIS.
February 98- Map Maintenance using new GIS and ERP integration
March 98- Online Design going live in field
March 98 -Go live with OMS using legacy CIS system for trouble calls only
June 98 -Go live with OMS interfaced with ERP CCS and WM
June 98 -Go live with CAD interfaced with OMS
Conclusion
The conclusion to all of this is Don't Go Swimming Alone. Insure that you take a buddy with
you or in this case insure that you have a lot of buddies with you. We believe we have a created
a team of buddies that have our best interests in mind. We are utilizing GEOIT as our
implementation manager for both the GIS and OMS projects and they are also providing us with
technical and architectural resources. Our On-Line Design vendor is providing us technical
assistance along with implementation management for their products. We have another vendor
providing the conversion services along with technical assistance for the Disconnect product.
We feel they all are working with our development staff to create a project team that is working
on a project that will make GPU Energy a leader in the ERP and GIS integration.
