A process must be established for identifying and organizing existing data records for use in the new GIS
Bradley Grabowski
Convergent Group, 6399 South Fiddler's Green Circle
Suite 600,Englewood, CO 80111
(Presented at GITA Conference XXIV with)
Karl M. Weber
Louisiana Gas Service
Introduction
Many considerations must be taken into account when planning utilities transition
to a GIS, a new GIS platform or a merged GIS to combine merged utility
companies. The focus of this paper will be on the transition to a new GIS and
merged GIS systems. The technology that drives our industry, in this case the
GIS technology, changes at significant speed. Every one to two years there are
major changes to the software by the vendors which in turn causes us to take
another look at the data that resides both in and out of the GIS and the other
systems that are directly supported by this data or has direct links to the data.
Technologies such as outage management systems (OMS), work management
systems (WMS), work integration managers (WIM), distribution planning systems
(DPS), maintenance and inspection (M&I), etc., are playing an increasing role in
the utility industry. How do these technologies integrate or interface with one
another, and how or what data is needed by each to support their role? What
data is needed by OMS and where does it come from, what is the integration
between M&I and GIS, and what makes sense?
To make these difficult decisions companies need a strong corporate vision of
where they want to position themselves in the deregulated marketplace. This
vision will help to drive them forward and utilize the technologies and the
integration of those technologies to support their business focus.
As you can see, data is only a piece of the driving force to accomplish these
large projects. Obviously there are other things that have not been mentioned
here including internal and external resources, project funding, business cases,
project management needs, etc., but this is a good start to understanding the
implications of such an undertaking.
The objective of this paper
The objective is to establish a process for identifying and organizing existing data
records for use in the new GIS and possibly other technologies as mentioned
above. This would include existing digital GIS data, external databases that may
or may not directly interface with the GIS, document imaging systems, paper
records, external data sources (governmental agencies, vendors), etc.
The data source definitions
If you have been through this process before you know that great pains were
taken to establish the source documents for the GIS you were building. Since
then you have tried to maintain the GIS and have tried to keep up with internal
processes that support the GIS and processes that the GIS supports on a
day-to-day basis. But things have not gone as planned. Budgets have been
reduced, employee count is down, and now there is a new GIS technology. Along
with the technology refresh is the merging of data from another company's GIS
and systems to your company's environment.
This feels and sounds overwhelming based on your previous experiences,
doesn't it? It can but it doesn't have to be. Developing a process and identifying
the source data required to complete this project is what's important. Along with
this understanding, the corporate strategy for the next few years will help you and
your company create a successful implementation.
Start this data source identification process by putting together a strategy to
support and identify what the data sources are, who the owners of the data are,
how they use the data, and where and how the data is stored. The list that you
will build to describe the data sources will become long and will continue to grow
as the discovery process unveils source after source.
The following terms are defined for this project:
- Data Source - any paper or digital reference that is used to support daily
operations and reporting requirements in the utility. The source must
pertain to company assets, or must be able to relate to assets that can be
represented geospatially or to geospatial land information. Examples may
be current GIS databases, work orders that describe utility facilities
(design and as-built information), inspection data that references facilities
(paper/databases), specific types of facility records such as valves
databases, regulator databases, electrical equipment databases, etc.
- Owners of the Data, - Are they the ones who maintain the data or the
users of the data or both? For this paper we will use both.
- Data Storage - is the data stored in a database, and if so where is that
database? Is the data in a paper record, again if so where is it? If they are
paper are these records original or duplicated somewhere else, such as
film, photocopy, or in a document imaging system?
If you have already been through this process, go back to your original lists of
sources as a starting point. Most likely some of the original sources were
converted to the GIS in the first or second go-around and others may have
stayed in their same format or they may have changed to another type of source
document. Paper records might have been filmed or scanned to an imaging
system or a database may have been created to support the internal processes
better. Regardless of their history they are still a source.
The other piece of the puzzle is that the same type of data resides within the
merged or acquired company. The advantage you have is that you know the
utility business and all utilities have to have similar types of records to support
their operations. Go back to your definitions and be a detective to find those
sources. Creating alliances in the other organization will be a benefit to the
overall success of the project.
