A practical approach to work-management integration
Stephen Boyd
Senior Principal, American Management Systems
4114 Legato Road, Fairfax, VA 22033
Introduction
It is widely accepted that work-management systems (WMS) pay for themselves by reducing
operating costs within transmission and distribution (T&D) business units. However, there are
additional benefits that can be gained within the organization through thoughtful integration of the
WMS with existing corporate systems.
The practical approach suggested in this paper combines experience gained during the
implementation of several T&D WMS solutions – including both package and homegrown solutions.
This paper is directed toward managers and project teams who are endeavoring to gain those
additional benefits from their WMS that come through integration. The intended audience includes
those organizations who are implement ing a WMS package (such as Logica’s WMIS, Severn Trent’s
STORMS or IBM’s WAMS), who are integrating an existing package into their corporate IT systems
or who are enhancing their existing WMS application.
The paper begins with a discussion of the business drivers for implementation of WMS solutions and
how integration helps to meet those business challenges. It then guides you through the following
steps in a structured approach to defining a practical interface model (using electric T&D as an
example):
- Set clear scope boundaries.
- Understand the capabilities of your existing systems.
- Understand how documents currently move the data.
- Construct an Information Flow Diagram of the current integration model.
- Analyze the interface points and set integration priorities.
Benefits of Work-Management Solutions
Business Drivers
The success of WMS projects, as with all information-technology projects, is measured by how well
they satisfy the business drivers. The business drivers for WMS projects in today’s environment can
be viewed in five categories:
Increase Customer Service. WMS solutions are often expected to position the organization to
commit to and keep appointment dates and times with customers, Additionally, it is expected that
they provide accurate and timely information about that work to all employees who interact with
the customers.
Reduce Operating Costs. Utilities expect WMS solutions to reduce material and labor resource
costs. They should reduce material inventory in warehouses by employing stricter construction
standards and allowing materials to be provided on a just-in-time basis. They should also allow
company and contractor labor resources to be deployed more effectively across the organization.
Track Costs More Effectively. The WMS solution should provide detailed and timely
information to the various accounting systems. The detailed work results of the WMS should
provide the capability to roll costs up from a variety of perspectives. The amount of money that
is currently charged to overhead accounts and blanket work orders each year should decrease
through the use of WMS features such as advanced time reporting.
Manage Corporate Assets. Managers want to increase the effective life of each piece of
equipment through proactive maintenance and to provide accessible asset/facility data to
employees via the WMS so that they can make intelligent and timely decisions.
Build a Sound Technical Platform. Forward thinking organizations are seeking WMS solutions
that are part of component-based architectures that feature products over homegrown
applications. They want to implement product solutions that allow them to take advantage of new
functionality with each new product release.
The Benefits of Intem-ation
These business drivers cut across multiple departments and systems within the company and
successful WMS projects must employ interfaces strategically to meet the growing business demands.
WMS project teams need to look holistically at the way in which their system will interact with other
corporate systems. Successful integration means that the WMS project team must incorporate
members from other systems and departments into their project.
The rewards are worth the effort because a successful WMS integration provides benefits to
departments throughout the organization such as:
- Providing key work information to operational personnel across multiple systems,
- Eliminating manual system interfaces performed by clerical personnel.
- Minimizing the costs of redundant data entry.
- Eliminating stand alone and redundant systems.
- Reducing errors caused by transcribing and recentering data.
- Reducing the volume of hand-written forms through automation.
- Capturing data one time and at its source as often as possible.
- Allowing multiple systems to launch work requests.
- Allowing multiple roles to provide accurate status to customers about their work requests.
