Building a strong foundation for the future

Many papers and articles have been written, and will be written, on the subject of the power of geospatial technology and it’s positive impact on the overall corporate decision making. Given the fact that 80%, or more, of data relates to location and, the ever increasing functional and inter-operable capabilities of geospatial solutions, we should not be surprised that what used to be predominantly an “island of automation” is rapidly becoming a major component of the “enterprise” solution.

This paper however, attempts to address some common and basic issues which, if considered, would increase your chances of creating a strong foundation for the future automation initiatives within your enterprise. The focal point of our discussions will concentrate on the project organization, processes, data and decision making relative to or plant assets; the examples will be from an electrical distribution utility environment, but may apply to other utilities and organizations.

Project Organization
A lot has been said that technology alone can not, and does not ensure success. Considering the functionality, “openness & integratebility” of current geospatial technology offerings, most key strategic automation initiatives have a large degree of dependencies, which require corporate coordination and prioritization. Also, since most of automation initiatives are in fact “business transformation” initiatives, it would seem logical that a senior executive sponsor for all automation initiatives be, for example, a VP Business Transformation, reporting to the President or a Senior VP of a given business unit. Similarly, since most of the key automation projects require support and participation by the same SME’s (i.e. Subject Matter Experts), the effective project organization may look as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Organization for corporation Business Transformation Initiatives

In the opinion of the author(s), the “type” of competencies of key people, and their origin within the organization has a great deal of impact on the overall acceptance and success of these projects.