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Integration of work management some issues

Robert Trotter
Logica, 365 West Ash Ave
Decatur, IL 62526


Introduction
The implementation of an integrated Work Management and AM/FM/GIS (WMIS/GIS) has many benefits to a utility in managing assets. While there are many benefits, it is a large project that has an impact on a large part of the company. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the steps that are typically required to implement an integrated WMIS/GIS solution in a utility. This paper also discusses the impacts of a new system and helps the utility planning to implement such a system to consider ahead of time the things that will need to be decided and done. The WMIS/GIS should be a corporate effort strongly supported by upper management and the Information Services (IS) department. The user must be a part of the process and must provide strong support and buy in to this new way of doing business. The installation of a WMIS/GIS should start with an examination of existing systems, procedures and paperwork. Users should examine the major functions: interfacing with customers, writing work orders, designing projects, scheduling work, procuring material, construction management, maintenance management, etc. The users must then decide how best to operate. A project team made up of users and IS people should look at all of company's areas and see how they work; chances are that some areas will need to operate differently. Find the best practice and adopt it for the entire company, then review it for further improvements.

The issues that will be discussed include business case, project considerations, interfaces, corporate impacts, risk management and other implementation considerations. Consideration of the impacts of these issues at the beginning of a project can help insure that the integration will be done effectively, on time and budget.

Business Case
Business cases are very important in getting the budget approvals for implementing a WMIS/GIS system. While it is usually very important to have a good business case that shows an economic payback for a new system, the non-economic improvements are also very important and need to be captured. Often it is the non-economic benefits such as customer service improvements that tip the scales in favor of doing the project. It is also important to tie the implementation benefits to the strategic issues. The transmission and distribution (T&D) expense for capital improvements and maintenance is second only to the cost of generation in most electric utilities. In gas utilities the cost of the distribution system is a bigger part of the cost. Only in recent years have utilities begun to change processes that have been in place twenty years or more by re-engineering and automation of the core utility processes. To survive and better yet, prosper in the new paradigm of competition requires that utilities consider immediate process changes, new organization structures and new technologies to achieve operational excellence. This leads to improved customer service and customer loyalty. Customers able to choose between suppliers will base their decisions on price and service. Using computer technology as a strategic asset offers four primary advantages. First, customer service will be more responsive and the costs reduced in all areas of operations. For example, a request for new service can usually be handled with one phone call. A customer's questions about the status of requested service restoration during a storm can be answered immediately; and work can be planned and scheduled more easily. Second, resources, both human and physical, can be utilized more effectively. For example, maintenance and construction work can be addressed "just in time" based on a known need date. Purchasing can be better controlled, allowing reduction of inventory. Redundant work and mundane clerical tasks can be eliminated.

Third, installation of WMIS/GIS provides an opportunity to review processes and practices throughout the utility. Many work methods in use may not have changed for some time. Also, the installation of new technology can encourage employee participation. Employees know what their work requires, what customers want, and how processes could be changed for the better. Their knowledge should be tapped. Fourth, records can be consolidated, thus improving timeliness, accuracy and availability. This will also reduce the cost by not having to put data in multiple databases. Clientserver technology is in place, but in many cases, high volume applications are used sparingly. It is difficult to fill requests from the operating areas for systems or for information. Departments, such as operations, do not have some of their major functions computerized. There is a transformer file, a pole file, a street light file and so on; but they require that a piece of paper be sent to a data entry operator for input. With the paper system, it is not easy to know when changes have been made but with an automated system the work request is tracked until all changes have been done. This helps assure that only up to date reports are sent out While most utilities are aware of potential savings, it is difficult to come up with an easy plan for change. Each utility has a unique situation, and no single plan could satisfy everyone.

The qualitative value of a WMIS/GIS system is easy to talk about, but it is more difficult to define the quantitative value. Some of the savings discussed above are hypothetical and assumptions are easy to make. Your savings will depend on several variables, such as:
  • Where are you today in work practices, automation, and union agreements?
  • What is the company's service territory and what are the characteristics of that territory?
  • Are you installing only a WMIS package or is it integrated with a GIS system?
  • How willing are you to interface the legacy systems to WMIS/GIS?
  • Will WMIS become the driving force for new systems, utilizing all the capabilities?
These and many other issues and subtleties sometimes make it worthwhile for a utility to bring in an experienced consultant. Often a knowledgeable consultant can help the utility to maximize the benefits, educate senior management, establish business drivers and prepare a business case while avoiding pitfalls, allowing for quick planning and successful implementation.

Selection of WMIS/GIS software
Many times people who are planning to purchase a work management system and/or a GIS will start with a blank piece of paper and attempt to define in great detail all the functionality that they need. This detailed specification will be included in the RFP. This often includes long checklists that they ask each bidder to answer. The bidders of course will give the most favorable answer they can. Some times these check lists are so detailed that they may assure certain minute details but make it difficult, if not impossible to get the overall solution that is needed.

If a checklist is developed it may be good to include future functionality that the vendor expects to have or functionality that you may want in the future. The future functionality should be a small part of the decision, but it may be important. Another thing that is important is how well the prospective vendors support their software after the implementation.

One suggestion when installing an integrated system is to look at it as installing a WMIS/GIS solution. These systems are large and effect a large part of and organization. As we point out later in this paper there are a number of organizational impacts that must be taken in to account if the Owner Company is to achieve the greatest benefit from the implementation.

Another consideration in selecting the systems is how well do they fit together and work to compliment each other. Have they been integrated before? Such things as being able to enter data one place and have it useable by all the other systems. The selection also needs to be based on whether they will fit in with the processes that are in place and how willing the company is to change processes. The best solution is often a combination of changing the processes and finding an integrated system that fits close to the current or proposed processes. It is good to have an open mind about changing processes.

It must be kept in mind that no system will do everything. It will be necessary to make trade-offs to find the solution that does the best job overall. One of the difficulties that seem to be a part of these implementations is that there are people in any organization that want to automate what they do and not to have an automated solution that meets the objectives of the project. (This last sentence should be re-worded to make it clear.) One concept in the selection process may be best of breed selection. This means that it is important to find the software platforms that come the nearest to meeting your needs and have a strong company behind them that is dedicated to maintaining and improving their software. 'Best of breed' will not be the same for every utility's solution.

The selection process should also evaluate the performance of the systems where they are already installed. While the performance of the system is an important consideration, the performance of the implementing companies is also important. This is true whether they are the individual companies that supply the software or an integrator. Another thing to keep in mind is that when you check references, the list will be the people that the vendor thinks will give them a good reference. Another observation about references is that when a user company gives a reference, it is a testimonial about how well they did as well as the vendor who helped them install their system. It takes a good Owner Company team as well as a good vendor team working together to make a successful implementation. If the vendor is good and the Owner Company does a poor job the project may fail. If the vendor is poor and the Owner Company is good the project may fail.

Interfaces With Other Systems
Some of the biggest benefits come when the WMIS and the GIS system are interfaced with the other company systems. This helps share the data and it improves the integrity of the data since it allows for inputting it once and if an error is made it can be corrected in one place. Various vendors do interfaces in different ways such as tables, API's, templates and custom built. While each of these methods work, it may be one of the factors to consider when deciding on a vendor. The Owner Company needs to keep an open mind about these approaches until they evaluate each in their own environment. The Owner Company also needs to realize that it will have a considerable amount of work to do when it comes to interfaces with the existing systems. The interfaces will have to be mapped and data will need to be formatted to work with the new interface.

Corporate Impacts
This section discusses the organizational impacts that a large project may have on the company. Several of the impacts are not directly related to the software. They are, however, very important considerations when installing one or more of these systems. This does not mean that the software chosen is not important, but it does mean that there are more things to consider than just the software. Some of the things that must be considered and made a part of the project plan are people, standards, work tracking, training, advisory teams and risk management. The goal is to make the Owner Company aware of these and suggest some things to do that will help lead to a project that is completed on time and within the budget. The project must also attain the goals for improvement in quality and productivity that were expected when the project was approved.

The following diagram shows some of the topics that must be considered when planning a large information system project of this kind. The vendor can supply the software and help in designing and implementing the system. The Owner Company however must manage the total project, which includes the software along with infrastructure, organization, culture changes, and data input. The vendors usually can assist in those parts of the project that are the responsibility of the owner but they cannot make the decisions required to make the changes happen. All the items included in the diagram are necessary to make up a complete project.


Understanding and managing all of these project components is important in managing the risk involved in a large project. The goal in reviewing these issues is to make the project team aware of the corporate impact of WMIS/GIS and to suggest ways to address that impact.
  • People

    • The installation of a large system such as Work Management and/or AM/FM/GIS may have a big impact on people in the organization. In many cases jobs will change. The change in jobs may be what people do or how they do it. Many people have fears of losing their jobs or of having to learn a new way of doing their job. There is greater fear for some because of the need to learn to use computers. If jobs are lost, even those who remain will have feelings of guilt because they are still working and their coworkers are not. They may also have fears that they may be caught in the next round of reductions. It is very important to consider the need to deal with the people issues early in the project. The project plan must include things that are needed to help employees deal with the changes and buy-in to the new processes being put in place.

    Part of the work that will be changed will usually include employees who are in unions. They will be governed somewhat by the union agreements that are in place. Many times these will need to be changed and an early start with this will facilitate getting the new agreements in place in time for the change. Many times there is a reluctance to bring the union management into the picture at an early date, but the sooner they become part of the change the better chance there will be to get their buy-in. It is often a good idea to make union employees part of the team that is designing the new processes. This makes for an open understanding of the changes, reduces the fear of change and the input can be very helpful to the successful implementation of the project.

    If you expect to get the best results from the installation of a new Work Management and/or GIS system, you must gain the support of the end user. It is very important to get buy-in from those people who will use the system on a day to day basis. There are a number of things that can be done to facilitate that. Early involvement with the project will help them understand what is going to be done, thus reducing the fear of the new system. These same end users can help with the design of the new system, making it better and at the same time make them feel a part of the change that is taking place. If the end users do not buy into the changes it will be much more difficult to get the full benefit out of the new system in a short time. It is a good investment to work on the buy-in during the implementation phase of the project.

  • Standards

    • The installation of a Work Management and/or AM/FM/GIS system provides for an opportunity to improve the standards at the utility. When a work management system is installed, compatible units are required. One of the things that compatible units facilitate is standardization of the material assemblies used to construct facilities. This requires a change in the way materials are ordered, thus making it more difficult to make changes in the field. This often provides an opportunity to reduce the number of items in inventory as well as helping to reduce the quantity of the remaining items.

    In many companies, there are differences of opinion between operating and engineering people on what should be used for various installations. Ways need to be found to work through the differences to gain mutual acceptance of materials and work methods. This will help to reduce the stress within the organization as well as reduce the overall cost of operations. One way to do this is to establish joint teams to decide on standard materials and work methods.

  • Work Tracking

    • These systems will provide much more information about the facilities and the work than the typical utility has had before their implementation. Work management will provide information that will help determine productivity, costs of various installations and leadtime on a project. Much more will be known about how much work is assigned and how much work is unassigned. This will help with setting priorities, assigning work to crews and the assignment of equipment such as trucks, diggers, and trenchers. It is important to include all work that is done if you are to know the upcoming workload and availability of equipment.

  • Training

    • Training is one of the most important success factors in the implementation of large systems such as Work Management and AM/FM/GIS. The training must be high quality, targeted to the particular group being trained. Since people from several parts of the company will use the systems, they will need training tailored for the specific needs of their job. Work Management and AM/FM/GIS systems are large, complex systems and even with good training, the student will learn much more after having the classes and using the system. One way to help this is by having the instructors return with the class members to their work place and help them when they first start to use the system. This is an extra requirement on the training resources, but if the new users can become proficient in the use of the new system on a faster learning curve, the extra cost of training will be recovered in a short time. This type of after class support will be important in getting the new users to buy in to the benefits of the new way of doing business.

    It should also be pointed out that the timing of the training is important. As most people are aware, if this type of training is done too early, most of what is learned will be forgotten by the time it is used. It is therefore imperative that training be done just before the system is implemented so that what is learned is used immediately. This, along with the after class support mentioned earlier, will assure a fast track to efficient use of the new system.

    One thing that should be considered when setting up training is that it will be an ongoing process. Even after the new system has been implemented, new people will be trained and current users may need to be trained on any future changes to the system.

  • Advisory Committees

    • Since the effect of installing a WMIS/GIS system impacts a large part of the T&D organization, it is important to have advisory groups from the different levels of the company. The purpose of these advisory groups is to provide proper guidance and input to the design and implementation of the system. It also provides an understanding of what is going to happen by various groups in the organization and facilitates buy-in to the project and its benefits. These advisory groups should be from levels such as management, first line supervisors, designers, and clerks.
Risk Management
One of the best ways to reduce risk on a large project, like those being discussed here, is to develop a good project plan. It is important to take the time needed to develop a plan that includes all the steps required to complete the project on time and within the budget. Consideration must be given to the resources required to complete the project. These resources include money, people and facilities. A total project plan, which includes work of the Owner Company and the vendor, is a must. A separate plan and schedule for the vendor and a different one for the Owner Company will provide an opportunity for the two not to be on the same track as the project goes along. There should be only one schedule, which includes both the owner and the vendor. It is important that both parties meet their milestones since if one fails it will impact the other and cause the project to extend in length.

The area that creates the largest opportunity for increasing the cost and lengthening the schedule is increases in scope. That is why it is very important to define the scope at the beginning of the project and take steps to make sure that it does not expand as the project is being completed. There may be things that come up during the course of the project that need to be changed, but they should only be changed after a review and a management decision is made that they are proper. The project management must be alert to the "insignificant" changes that come up. If these are not evaluated properly they may have a sizable impact on the overall project.

Hardware Issues
The integrated systems that are being installed today are usually using distributed computing as the platform. The use of client server may be new or at least not widely used in some companies. The evaluation of the network and how it is to be installed is very important in the implementation of an integrated WMIS/GIS system. Existing PC's should be used as much as possible. For some of the applications they will be adequate. Some may need an upgrade of memory. The work stations for the GIS will be bigger and will probably have to be purchased for that purpose. Nearly all the WMIS/GIS systems are based on an Oracle database. This may be a consideration when deciding on the implementation.

One of the most difficult parts of hardware and network systems is the distribution of the GIS data. The amount of data transferred is large and sizing of the network will require an evaluation. It is important when setting up the implementation project to plan a study of the network requirements. In most implementations there will be a need to expand the network capability. One consideration in setting up the GIS database is to put the data as near as possible to the major user. This will reduce the amount of data transferred across the network.

System Integrator
An integrator will be required when the decision has been made to install an integrated WMIS/GIS that is interfaced with other systems in the company such as materials, financials, outage management and etc. There are different choices that an Owner Company has in regards to this. They can do it in-house, hire an experienced integrator or do some of it themselves and hire outside experience for part of the work. A major advantage to employing an integrator is that they have done this before and can be held accountable for the completion of the project on time and within the budget.

The goal must be to provide an integrated system that meets budgeting and functional issues. If this is truly the goal, it implies that compromises may have to be made. The Owner Company will need to make decisions about some of the functionality and what can be given up to meet the schedule and budgets. Keeping a project on schedule will do a lot to help keep it within the budget. If the schedule is extended, it will require more resources and it sometimes allows for additional functionality to creep in to the system. The development of a project plan is one way to manage all the parts to the implementation of a large integrated project. It must include all the work that is planned and resource requirements for the total project. This means that the plan should include the resources of the integrator and the Owner Company. A good project plan includes a description of the work to be done and a schedule of when it is to be done. The benefits and importance of the schedule will be discussed later. Early in the project it is important to begin developing a roll out plan for the implementation. This is important, as will be discussed later, because it helps early to begin to identify the problem areas.

An integration project will have a number of systems involved at various levels. This means that even if each component works as it is supposed to, the integrated system may not. The development of a comprehensive test plan is one of the tools that can be used to assure that the proper testing of the system is accomplished. This will assure that the integrated system functions as designed.

When using an integrator to help complete a project, there are a number of scenarios that can be used. It is very important to define the role of the integrator. The relationship that the integrator is to have with all other parties on the project must be defined and understood by all. The integrator can provide all the functionality as a prime contractor, in which case he will have direct control over the subcontractors. The relationship with the Owner Company and how they will work together will need to be defined. If the subcontractors are hired directly by the Owner Company and the integrator is asked to oversee their part of the project, everyone will need to be aware of what the authority of the integrator is. This is a difficult situation, but can be accomplished with proper preparaton and understanding on the part of all participants.

Project Management
The Owner Company must have a project manager that has overall responsibility to manage the implementation of the WMIS/GIS system. The Owner Company Project Manager must coordinate the efforts of the vendor and the efforts going on within his/her company. Sometimes companies try to split up the responsibilities of project management based on areas of expertise. This usually doesn't work very well. The vendor's Project Manager is responsible for executing the project with quality, on schedule and on budget, managing day-to-day scheduling and coordination of the vendor project resources. The Project Manager works closely with the Owner Company Project Manager and provides them with regular status reports and other information needed to support logistics and enable effective resource coordination throughout the project.

Conclusion
The evaluation, selection and implementation of a WMIS/GIS system is a large project that impacts many facets of a company. In this paper we have discussed some of the issues that are a part of the project. While this provides a very high level overview of some of the issues, it should be pointed out that each implementation has issues that are specific to it. The primary point here is that recognizing the issues in the planning stage and putting them in the equation improves the probability that the implementation of a WMIS/GIS will be successful and that the expected benefits will be achieved.
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