Distributed GIS Data
Dana J. Kahle Wisconsin Electriz 333 W. Everett St. A259 Milwaukee, Wi. 53201 Abstract The value of GIS data is in its ability to be used by the enterprise. To be successful, GIS data must be made easily available and usable for Marketing, Planning, Design, Construction, Maintenance, Analysis and Asset Management. “In house” or “in the field”, the requirements are similar. Packaging and distribution of GIS data in the electric utility industry historically has been a challenge. From what data to distribute, to the method of distribution, to the training of the GIS data user, there are a number of paths one can take. In these times of technical know-how and willingness to embrace the technology, balancing the user needs, the cost and future direction of GIS data packaging and distribution is essential. This “Case Study” explores these considerations and develops a GIS data viewing specification, a GIS data distribution process, a GIS viewing tool for multiple and varied user needs and platforms, an implementation plan and the importance of communication and partnering with users and vendors to develop a solution that works for the enterprise from a business operations perspective. Oou Situation In 1996, WEPCO was in the process of changing technologies from one GIS vendor to another was in place. The former technology relied upon the creation of hpgl plot files to convert to aperture card images to be viewed at reader/printers in various locations. There was a plan in place to distribute a homegrown data viewing application built on the future technology to “UNIX kiosks” in the locations where the reader/printers were being utilized. At the same time all office employees were being rolled out to a network using Microsoft Windows 3.1. This seemed to be diverging corporate strategies that needed to be brought back on track. At that time there were approx. 40 aperture card reader/printers in various stages of disrepair and a process which occurred not so faithfully on a monthly schedule that would result in files created, a disk cut and mailed to a vendor to have aperture cards made and returned for distribution to our 40+ sites and 100+ users. This process was, if it were to be maintained, a costly venture. At the time the reader/printers were approx. $20k each and the process costs were larger than they looked on the surface. The creation, handling and filing efforts were made more evident when our company went through a reengineering of sorts with the elimination of many clerical positions that were in charge of the maintenance of the aperture cards (filing). The process had to be streamlined and accomplished with fewer people along with addressing the accuracy and timeliness issues had to be addressed. This was an opportunity to provide a solution that improved the process and introduced the business users of GIS data to electronic viewing. The Business Driers & Solution In 1996, with the opportunity to have a network connected GIS viewer at people’s desktops, the “UNIX kiosk” idea, was shelved. This was due to it’s inability to be extended beyond the UNIX kiosks to the field with a platform built on UNIX when all other devices in the user community were based on DOS and Windows 3.1. Graphic requirements were in place from the older platform's production of hpgl plot files. The generation of an electronic view of GIS with the same detail that was captured in the hpgl plot files was needed. The old GIS system was in place and a bridge was needed to span the time between systems with a GIS viewer that potentially could view both geographic information systems. The thought was to view the hpgl files electronically if possible. The continuation of the existing process of hpgl plot file creation was needed along with the creation of a process to view the new system maps at the same time. This would eliminate the need to send the hpgl plot files to a vendor, create, distribute and file the aperture cards in their appropriate card decks. A contact was made with a vendor, who could provide the software to view the hpgl plot files electronically. They came to our office to show us their capabilities. Before they left the meeting, they were showing us our hpgl plot files electronically. This was an instant success with the people in attendance. It was an opportunity to get up and running in an electronic viewing environment very quickly. Using this viewing technology, a newly installed network and a clever navigation GUI was built in house using Microsoft’s Excel. Viewing our entire territory maps from the old GIS was accomplished within a month. The new GIS data plots were added to the viewer in the next few months and the GUI was delivered to approx. 800 network-connected users and 100 laptop users. A GIS strategy began to be geared towards creating the hpgl plot files out of the new GIS system to fulfill the user requirements. The extensive use of annotation throughout the previous map products made the task of creating new hpgl plot files or any view that was satisfactory to the user almost insurmountable. The product was “locked in” to producing the same quality and quantity of graphics that were in place for decades. This was the driver that steered the product away from the “automated text placement from attribution” data viewing products that the GIS vendors were suggesting. There was not and is not an acceptable attribute text placement utility on the market today that would accommodate the large volume of text required by the business to prevent overlapping. User placed annotation would be the standard as it was in the past. A scheme was developed to capture the annotation through the plot process to populate the database. This would allow for the automatic capture of text for it’s graphic placement and it’s manipulation during maintenance to make it readable. This still is an ongoing task and could potentially take years to recover. Next Generation There was a growing user community that had business requirements that were not satisfied by this viewer approach. They wanted a seamless viewing strategy with the capability of some user view control through the use of layering. In 2000, the next step was taken to satisfy these users. Since the electronic viewing of the hpgl plot files was possible, and these were regular, scaled geographies that plot files were being created for, it was possible to stitch these together and create a seamless view using this viewing technology. This provided the opportunity to map the pen calls out of the hpgl plot files to layers in the viewer. Since there was a process in place that created the plot files and prepared them for viewing, the same process was used to create the plot files that were the input for the WEPCO viewer project. The viewer system also views both WEPCO geographic information systems along with images attached to features and/or geography or unattached images. This also was an opportunity to add tabular GIS data and CSS (customer) data to the viewing scheme by associating the data to the geography by it’s x,y location. This integrates company data under one application while the maintenance and storage of the data takes place in its native applications. The interfaces are extractions from the native databases and do not cause the native applications to have any performance issues. The viewing database is insular from the native databases. Communication & Iimplementation Communication and solicitation of user requirements is critical to the success of this kind of project with a user community of this size, variety and dispersion. During the user requirement determination stage of this project, areas were targeted that would provide an accurate barometer for proceeding with development and implementation of this project. This included Marketing, Planning, Design, Construction, Maintenance, Analysis and Asset Management. Meetings took place with these groups to provide demonstrations of the application along with an opportunity for the users to give feedback. The requirements and opportunities were determined in concert with these groups. The “Joint Governance” committees were involved in requirement determination. This was a group composed of represented and non-represented people that had a stake in the project. Phase I In 2000, WEPCO piloted the viewer with “Milwaukee Underground”. These were construction people that installed and maintained the manhole and conduit system in the dense areas of the cities. These people had special requirements because of the density of their geography and the varied source data that they needed to get their job done. This allowed for the extension and testing of the viewer application and it’s functionality. The project included the development of the viewer application and the rollout of 11 laptops to the Milwaukee Underground lead people. This would provide remote access to GIS and save time. Prior to the viewer rollout, a lead person may make as many as 6 trips back to the main office per week to get a copy of a map, which was needed, in the field. An example: If you assumed 6 trips a week at 2 hours per trip for 12 leads at $30 per hour, that’s over $200,000 per year. The business case for distributed data is more than compelling. A total of four 2-hour training sessions for the Milwaukee Underground people were developed. This ended up to be a template for future training. The 2-hour sessions worked out well from an academic perspective. This gave the trainer and the user time to regroup before the next session and time for the users to do some practicing on their own between sessions, which they did. Some of these people were not computer literate and needed to start off at a very basic level just to turn the computers on, log in and navigate to the application. This was the extent of the first session. Next, application training began and went smoothly due to the simplicity of the application and the fact that the data the application provided was similar to the map data they were used to using. During the second 2-hour session, it was apparent that these people were engaged and excited about the application. When it came time to take a break, after 1 hour, some people, in lieu of a break, stayed in the room and continued to explore the application. By the time the third 2-hour session came around, people were there early to the session with the laptops open and almost all were engaged in looking at the data and discussing the application before class started. These were construction people who were not exactly sold on the prospect of a computer in their trucks. After the training was complete the users were supported by a business support person along with IT support. There were few problems, if any, with the implementation of this pilot. After a few months a “town meeting” session was held with these users and upper management. The praises of the project were heard and upper management got a first hand look at what had been accomplished. This provided the direction to move forward with a much broader implementation. Phase II An extension of the application was made to our corporate network. Most users were already computer literate people who were using the Excel front end GUI to view maps. All of these people were given immediate access to the WEPCO viewer application. The network user community had grown to approx. 1400. A training plan was developed which included a “Support / Training Manual” and a “Training Schedule”. The approach taken with these people was to conduct a 2-hour training session for the “Basic Users” and two 4-hour training sessions for “Power Users” and “Trainers”. “Power Users” were solicited in our Service Centers to help support and promote the application. The names of the “Power Users” were published in the “Support / Training Manual”. That way, if anyone needed a question answered they could contact the local area “Power User” for the first line of support. WEPCO also utilizes a common “IT Help Desk Support Group”. Some of the business groups decided to train their own people. The business unit personnel were trained and they in turn trained their users. This fostered ownership of the application. Phase III In 2001 an extension of the application went to the “Trouble Personnel” and other field personnel. To date, there are 65 laptops deployed to the field with an additional 100 laptops to be deployed to the field by the second quarter of 2002. Also included in this deployment are 9 PC’s in “Project Trailers” throughout our territory. This extension utilized the same training and deployment strategy as the “Milwaukee Underground” deployment. Application & Data Maintenance Based on user feedback, the application functionality is scheduled to be updated each month. This will continue for the next few months as viewer functionality is fine-tuned. The data that is extracted out of GIS and CSS is done currently on a weekly basis. A daily update of GIS data and a weekly update of CSS data are planned for the network users. A monthly update via CD distribution is planned for the laptop users. This is scheduled for January 2002. Continuous Improvemment Looking to satisfy the business need for GIS data viewing, monitoring new technology and it’s potential should be a continuous process. Knowing when to move to a different technology is to know your business requirements, data and vendors technology (in that order). | ||
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