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Integrating OMS and mobile enabled WMS: Synergies and challenges


Tadeo H. Schultz
Geographic Information Technology, Inc. (GeoIT)
101 Inverness Drive East, Suite 130
Englewood, CO 80112, USA
Phone (303) 708-9355 ext 119
Email: tschultz@geoit.com


Abstract
OMS (Outage Management Systems) rely on network based GIS (Geographic Information Systems) to assist electric utility workers in the prediction and restoration of outage jobs. OMS systems require both accurate GIS data and timely trouble call information to perform their job and must therefore interoperate with other systems such as WMS (Work Management Systems) typically via dedicated interfaces. WMS are invaluable tools for managing and tracking the workload and for optimizing resource allocation problems such as matching crews to jobs in a timely fashion and then tracking their progress. WMS systems with mobile components provide even greater benefits by extending data gathering and processing capabilities into the field. The integration of OMS and WMS is therefore very desirable and if it is done successfully it results in a seamless system where the OMS and WMS work as cooperative components. This paper reviews both integration challenges and benefits. Technologies and methodologies which can assist and streamline the integration process, are discussed. Guidelines for successful integration are given and examples from successful implementations are presented.

Introduction
The ‘triad’ comprised by OMS (Outage Management Systems), GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and Mobile Enabled WMS (Work Management Systems) can be of extreme value for complex organizations such as utilities in the streamlining of their operations by providing timely and accurate data and in the improvement of customer service and customer care. The reliance on these systems is central to the successful operations of these organizations and therefore much attention and resources is allocated towards the successful implementation and deployment of these systems. This paper reviews and itemizes the primary benefits that can be realized through successful integration. Implementation strategies are presented from the a software architecture and applications integration perspective, against the backdrop of the constantly changing ‘technological landscape’. If one were to summarize the benefits of the triad they could be:


Naturally these would interoperate seamlessly via networking and integration components.

Background
Deregulation in the utilities industry is forcing these companies to work more efficiently in order to compete more aggressively and effectively in the marketplace. Increased customer satisfaction translates to increased profitability and market share. Competitive marketplace and customer care concerns have forced utility companies to increase their expenditures in GIS, OMS, and WMS as these technologies continue to provide increases in operational efficiency.

A review of these diverse applications follows:

GIS – This discipline has steadily grown from its modest beginning in the 1960s as a mainframe based tool for land use planning to its current stature because maps are a powerful tool for conveying and organizing information. They represent the quickest way of conveying spatial information and relationships non-verbally. GIS gives a virtual map with the additional capabilities of spatial queries and data edits at the click of a button. In today’s information rich world GIS provides another important function. GIS can serve as a way of organizing data about physical objects as a function their location and the location of other related objects. This technology is therefore very useful to any organization such as a utility that maintains and operates physical infrastructure and the related virtual information. In their GIS databases utility companies can maintain virtual networks that accurately depict the spatial Distribution of their customers, distribution circuits, and gas mains or any other physical asset of interest.

OMS - Typically these systems are seen as applications which utilize the GIS as their backbone. OMS systems are designed to utilize spatial networks to predict the location and potential scope of a reported outage. Incoming trouble calls received from a customer care system are utilized by the OMS in conjunction with the spatial network data supplied by the GIS to infer the extent and location of an outage. Dispatchers will assign the appropriate personnel who in turn will confirm or dismiss the prediction when they arrive on the scene.

MWMS - These systems particularly the mobile enabled variety allow organizations to efficiently manage their workload by optimally matching the work force (crews) to the load (jobs). In order to do this optimally this systems utilize constraint based algorithms that take into account such factors as crew and job locations provided by a GIS or GPS, skills and materials needed for the job and scheduling constraints. More importantly mobile enabled WMS take advantage of mobile computing equipment and sophisticated wireless communications to maintain constant voice and data links with the dispatch centers.


Technology
Technological advances pertinent to our topic are those dealing with interoperability and telecommunications particularly in wireless networking and mobile computing. New software development and applications integration technology are also important. The following summarizes the more noteworthy ones.

Mobility
A recent white paper by IDC has identified the mobile worker, the proliferation of distributed web based apps, and the usage of intelligent wireless mobile computing devices as ‘the third paradigm of computer usage’ (IDC 1998). The explosive growth of mobile computing has truly been phenomenal. Some estimates for the number of mobile workers worldwide are as high as 108 million by the year 2001. Sales figures for handheld devices in the U.S. are expected to exceed 14.1 million in 1999. This figure does not include laptop or notebook computers. The phenomenal growth of the Internet and the World Wide Web is undoubtedly fueling this trend. Equally as provocative has been the rapid rise in wireless communications, and the accompanying services, i.e., digital and cellular voice and data, paging, email, fax, and Internet access. (Schultz 1999)

Mobile computing capability in the field has naturally become an integral part of WMS. According to the FFA Magazine, by the end of 2001, 33 percent of large and medium corporations will be implementing Mobile Workforce Management applications and providing field/sales personnel with wireless communications device to stay competitive. (MDSI 2001)

Wireless communications
The ability to connect to a corporate Intranet or the World Wide Web from anywhere without the requirement of physical wires is what makes wireless communications so valuable and mobile WMS applications possible. Essentially wireless communications involve the usage of radio waves as the transport layer. Many possible choices exist ranging from dedicated wireless LANs to two-way wide area packet data networks. Table 1 summarizes wireless communications options.


Software Technologies
Advances in the technologies used to implement and integrate applications are facilitating the deploying of complex systems. The two areas which hold the greatest promise are discussed here :

Software Components - Component based software (ActiveX, Java/JavaBeans), distributed objects and the emerging standards (DCOM, CORBA) are revolutionizing software development. As more organizations adopt this technology many of today’s software development issues, i.e., interoperability problems, development cost, will become greatly diminished. Component based development has finally delivered on the OOP promises of true reuse allowing delivers to concentrate on requirements unencumbered by programming details.

Messaging and Data Exchange – Messaging and Data Exchange technology are mechanisms for enabling interoperability of applications. They are revolutionizing applications integration. Perhaps the most significant benefit of messaging technology is that architecturally disparate systems can be quickly ‘tied together’. The developers of the two systems need not agree on any internal details other that the content of the messages exchanged. Table 3 summarizes some of the currently available choices and approaches in messaging and data exchange.


Standards – By adopting the usage of standardized APIs in software development interoperability between applications can be greatly increased and facilitated. Programmers specializing in particular application areas by becoming proficient in standard APIs can become more productive. In addition certification programs can guarantee proficiency. The following list reviews some industry standard APIs that are noteworthy from an applications integration perspective.
  • CORBA – Common Object Request Broker Architecture, Standard for Distributed Object Programming
  • COM/DCOM – Common Object Model /Distributed Common Object Model.. A Microsoft standard for object oriented interprocess and distributed process communication.
  • SOAP – Simple Object Access Protocol developed as an open RPC protocol using XML, is becoming widely used and accepted.
  • J2EE – Java 2 Enterprise Edition Platform – The subset of Java APIs designated by Sun Microsystems as the core required for most Enterprise level programming. Certification for core competency is also offered.
  • WAP - Wireless Application Protocol. Industry wide standards and specifications for the development of applications that operate over wireless communications services. The WAP forum conducts conformance testing for client APIs
  • Bluetooth – A specification for small form factor low cost wireless connectivity for mobile computing, mobile phones, pagers, intelligent appliances and other hand held devices.
Integration Models
Whereas most OMS/GIS/MWMDS systems can be classified as client server by their very nature the degree of integration that can be attained can be classified as ranging from loosely coupled in the case of legacy systems that are exchanging a limited amount of information to tightly coupled in the case of distributed object based systems. The following classification defines three basic application integration models:
  • Interprocess Communication Based (IPC/RPC) - Systems and or applications to be integrated must support IPC/RPC based APIs that can be used to ‘link together’ the two systems. In reality all integration efforts have an IPC/RPC component, but in most other cases details about IPC/RPC are abstracted within a component such as a messaging tookit. In the case of IPC/RPC based integration effort no abstraction exists and the integrator is dealing with these details directly.
  • Messaging Based – Message passing APIs are used to integrate the two systems. The message data contain functional details typically in the form of transactions.
  • Distributed Object Based - Objects from separate systems can be tied together via some Distributed compliant framework such as CORBA or DCOM
In most cases, regardless of the model the integrator will usually implement a listener or broker component to act as the bridge. If the systems are not legacy systems and are being developed in tandem a more direct approach that eliminates the need for a listener component could be taken.

Integration Strategies
The following case histories, compares and contrasts two different integration scenarios. The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed, and conclusions and recommendations are presented.

Case 1 : Integration of Smallworld PowerOn 1.5 with MDSI Advantex
PowerOn is a constraint based object oriented outage management system, which sits on top of Smallworld GIS. The MDSI Advantex system is a transaction based MWMS systems. Both systems offer APIS and mechanisms for integration that are IPC based.

Tasks:
  1. A C language sockets based broker/listener program was written to handle the transaction traffic between Advantex and PowerOn.
  2. A SW Magik transaction engine was written to accept and process incoming and outgoing transactions from PowerOn
Results:
  1. A large number of transaction types were addressed/supported. This allowed for a moderately high degree of integration between the two systems.
  2. Working at the IPC socket level means that the programmers must take into account low level details that are addressed by newer technologies.
Case 2: Integration of Smallworld PowerOn2.5 with MDSI RM
In this case the major difference was the adoption of MQ series as the messaging component. Also the system utilized 3 standard message types which in turn broke down into 10 transaction based on status information.

Tasks:
  1. A ProC MQ Series compliant listener program to handle message traffic between the MQ and the Oracle DB.
  2. A SW engine to process messages incoming and outgoing messages stored in the Oracle DB.
Results:
  1. Utilizing MQ eliminates the need for the programmer to worry about low level details. Message delivery and availability is guaranteed.
  2. Fewer number of transactions means that the systems are not tightly coupled and could more easily get out of sync. This could be remedied by ‘enriching the message content’ (i.e. support for more error codes, status codes etc.)
Conclusions
The following lists some useful observations and guidelines for the prospective integrator.
  • Relying on technology such as messaging will be very helpful in that the programmer need not worry about low level details, however, other factors may dictate what technology and tools are available for the job
  • Integrated systems that support a large number of transactions may appear to be desirable however they will require longer time to implement, test and deploy.
  • A message based integration effort offers additional flexibility in that the informational content of messages (status codes) can be modified without incurring the additional overhead of supporting new transaction types.
  • Good design practices are essential when specifying transaction between systems. Semantic differences between the two systems could have undesirable side effects. Utilizing design techniques such as state transition diagrams and use cases can be very helpful.
  • The importance of thorough testing cannot be overstated. Begin testing early and often. Test while development is ongoing and preferably against the actual systems and not stubbed functions or simulators if possible.
References
  • Gunton, N., SOAP: Simplifying Distributed Development, Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #328, September 2001, pp 89-95.
  • Hume, R., Short Message Services Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #329, October 2001,pp 62-70
  • MDSI, Wireless Enablement 101 for Service-Oriented Companies, April 2001, 4p
  • MDSI, Wireless Empowerment and Single Source Simplicity,April 2001,11pp
  • Motorola, 1995, Wireless Data Communications: An Overview, 16 p.
  • Motorola, 1995, Wireless Data Communications: The Choices, 27 p.
  • Olofson, C.W., Kusnetzky D, and Hwang D., 1997, Putting the Enterprise in the Palm of Your Hand: Occasionally Connected Database Technology from Sybase: An IDC White Paper, 98 p.
  • Schultz, T., Mobile Geospatial Applications a New GIS Paradigm, GITA Annual Conference XXXIII, March 2000,9p
  • Sessions, R., 1998, COM and DCOM: Microsoft’s Vision for Distributed Objects, 492 p.
  • Shapiro, A. L., 1996, The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge and changing the World, 284 p
  • Wireless Application Protocol Architecture Specification, WAP-210-WAPARch-20010712,
  • Wong, H., Jini and Network-Enabled Devices: Dr. Dobb’s Journal, #301, July 1999,pp 21-25.
  • Wood, D.,1992, The Power of Maps, 248p.
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