Work Management/GIS Integration: The Next Generation
Dena Champy
NEES companies, 25 Research Drive
Westborough,MA01582
Christopher M. Costanza, Cheryl E. Trudel
The Palmer Group, 400 Pinnacle Way, Suite 430
Norcross, GA 30071
Introduction
Integrating GIS with other systems can be one of the more challenging and rewarding goals of a
GIS implementation. Integration can be challenging because GIS as well as other business
critical systems are intrinsically complex, and combining them exponentially increases their
complexity. Integration can be rewarding because the combined systems can provide
fimctionality that goes beyond the sum of their parts. The recent efforts at the NEES companies
(NEES) provide an example of the issues surrounding such an endeavor. The purpose of this
paper is to review the experience of NEES and TPG so that the reader may gain an
understanding of some of these issues, and learn some of what is involved in integrating GIS and
Work Management. Note that although the work management system developed for NEES is a
custom solution, the integration issues are just as applicable for commercial work management
products.
While GIS provides a solid base of data for managing assets, integrating with other systems
dramatically extends and enhances the return of investment (ROI) they provide. The recent past
has seen extensive discussions on the advantages of integrating GIS with other systems.
Corporate Accounting, Customer Information, Employee Information, Warehouse, Work
Management; all can either be enhanced by geospatial orientation or can provide valuable GIS
support data. Work Management spans many of these other systems. If the GIS holds your asset
information, Work Management provides the means to keep that asset information accurate and
timely. The Engineering Design process is much more efficient because it is now based on the
facilities actually in the field. Design work is done on the map based on materials that are really
in the warehouse. The tasks to be performed on those materials are assigned to employees
prepared to execute them. In turn, the result is a GIS landbase with an accurate history of
additions and changes to facilities.
For clarity, some definitions: ‘GIS’ is defined by GITA as a “technology [that] links items
displayed on a map with records (called “attribute data”) in a database.. .“ A complete GIS
system usually includes AM/FM (automated mapping and facilities management) which “means
exactly that: to automate the mapping process and to manage facilities represented by items on
the map.” So, when we refer to the GIS, we speak of a system that contains a landbase context of
geographic data, into which the user can enter and maintain geospatial facilities.
A Work Management System is one that provides tools to manage work, material, and crew data.
The data is usually complex, and has multiple sources and destinations. For example, to manage
the ‘internal’ side of the work, we setup the system with ‘catalogs’ of defined materials, tasks,
and labor resources. Through the design process, the system enables us to assemble instructions
for performing work at a place and time with certain materials; these instructions take the form
of work orders or sketches, material issues, etc. After work is complete, the system contains a
record of the work performed, in the form of time sheets, “as-built” sketches, etc. To manage the
‘external’ side, we enter customer requests for work that our business is prepared to satisfy,
design and perform the work, and report to the customer and to other systems that the work is
complete and may be turn on, billed, etc.
Brief Historv of Work Mana~ement with the WIN Ar.mlication at NEES
The Palmer Group has been working with NEES for over a decade to create, extend, and refine a
work management application. This application, named WIN for’ Work Order Information
Network’, was originally developed as a character-based application accessing a relational
database. Since its inception in 1988, the application has undergone numerous enhancements and
metamorphoses, the latest of which is WIN3. WIN3 is Oracle and PowerBuilder based.
An important item to note is that since WIN has been used and continually refined and advanced
for ten years, it is highly evolved. Over time, numerous segments of NEES’ business processes,
and the WIN application that supports them, have changed, grown, and been fine-tuned. The
impact of this on the GIS integration was that it required extra effort and coordination to make
WIN ‘compatible’ with the GIS. Due to the way GIS graphics operate, it was even necessary to
eliminate some functionality in the WIN2-to-WIN3 migration. The point is that not everyone
needs or desires a work management system with the depth of WIN; work management can take
whatever scale is appropriate for your business. It’s important to acknowledge that if you’re
trying to integrate an existing work management system with GIS, the more developed the
existing work management system is, the more inherently complex the integration.
WIN encompasses all aspects of work management. It is a well-tuned, complex, business-vital
application, fully integrated into NEES’ legacy environment. WIN3 consists of primary modules,
external interfaces, several background processes, and extensive procedures to facilitate
communication with the GIS application.
