Dynamic Enterprise Integration in the Energy and the Utility Industry
Paul J. Yarka Vice President, Global Information Technology Services MWH Global, Inc. 370 Interlocken Boulevard Suite 300 Broomfield, CO 80021 Phone: (303) 410-4000 Fax: (303) 533-1940 Email: yarka@qwest.net Introduction Today’s utility industry continues to undergo substantial change with a backdrop of slowing electric and gas utility industry consolidation, water utility privatization, and global deceleration of deregulation. Energy and water utilities are placing stronger emphasis on overall business cost reduction, the creation of new revenue opportunities, and renewed emphasis on customer service and customer care improvements. Despite regulatory, privatization, and customer process-related uncertainties, many energy and water utilities are incrementally progressing their pursuit of the digital energy or water enterprise. The digital enterprise is a process-centered organization that places emphasis on flexibly and dynamically optimizing and integrating the customer process-related “front office,” the engineering and operations “mid-office,” and the businessenabling “back office.” In a digital water or energy enterprise, the front office, mid-office, and back office are seamlessly and flexibly integrated, thereby allowing information to flow smoothly and unimpeded throughout the enterprise. Process-centered organizations and their management require broad employee understanding of key business processes along with relevant process-enabling integrated systems. Key technology strategies that are receiving increasing IT investment are tools, processes, and evolving standards that support the digital enterprise goal of process and technology integration. With these IT investments, utilities are seeking dynamic and flexible enterprise and inter-enterprise integration within organizations, between customers and a utility organization, and between utilities and their business partners. The preferred current technology strategy is enterprise and inter-enterprise integration that is supported by process- and workflow-enabling Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Business to Business Application Integration (B2BAI) platforms. Dynamic Enterprise Integration Dynamic enterprise integration is a combination of reactive, flexible, and adaptive business processes, technology tools, integrated systems, and integration platforms that can serve a current utility enterprise business model and an evolving and future virtual utility business model. An energy or water virtual utility business model that is currently evolving is one that combines best-in-class internally managed and best-in-class externally managed business processes into a seamless business model that optimally serves shareholders, customers, and employees. In the virtual utility business model, internally and externally operated business processes are integrated via an Internet backbone. Internal business processes and enabling systems are specifically integrated using EAI platforms. External and internal business processes and enabling systems can and will be further integrated using evolving B2BAI standards and technologies. Another way of looking at the evolving virtual utility business model is to envision a goal of best practices that combines internal human resources, business processes, and enabling integrated systems that address what a specific utility does extremely well. Now and in the future, utilities are seeking external service providers that deliver best-in-class business processes or parts of best-in-class business processes at which they excel. A virtual utility today could potentially incorporate: internally provided design, planning, operations, maintenance, inspection, trouble call handling and other key processes. A virtual utility might include externally provided customer service, customer care, field service, construction, vegetation management, and other key processes. The virtual utility of today and tomorrow combines internally and externally managed business processes and enabling integrated systems into a single automated business entity leveraging best-in-class capabilities actually provided by the utility and its virtual business partners. This is actually happening today at various levels and to varying degrees in distribution and asset-focused energy utilities. In the United Kingdom, for example, “wires” owners are leveraging asset operators and their service providers to perform all required asset management business processes associated with operating a wires-related business and associated facilities and equipment. The drivers of cost control and increased focus on customer service and customer care are, in particular, driving dynamic enterprise integration and the evolution of virtual utility business models. In the case of an asset-focused energy distribution company, utilities have been leveraging pre-cursor virtual utility business models for some time. Now with the productization of EAI and B2BAI platforms and standards, technology is playing an increasing role in supporting energy and water utility business priorities. In both current and evolving utility business models, dynamic enterprise integration is critical to enabling IT projects. Dynamic enterprise integration will allow utilities to support required and ongoing business process change and integration. In addition, the “dynamic” element maps well to the evolving virtual utility business model, as best-in-class business process providers will come and go, as the utility’s business objectives and priorities evolve over time. Enabling Technology Platforms and Process Integration EAI and B2BAI platforms and associated standards will be reviewed in the associated presentation as enablers of dynamic enterprise and inter-enterprise integration. Both of these technology platforms, their providers, associated standards, and other application technology vendors’ support for integration platforms are changing rapidly, as both major platform categories will continue to evolve from service platforms to product platforms. Enterprise Application Integration is an IT strategy and enabling platform that enables unrestricted sharing of data and business processes among any connected applications and data sources in the enterprise (Linthicum, 2000). Process automation is a supported service that is provided as an additional component of an EAI offering. Business process automation is normally implemented as another technology and business-enabling layer that allows EAI technology administrators and their business counterparts to centrally define and manage workflows, business process threads, and even business processes. In almost real time, it is currently possible to measure business process performance and throughput. In other words, EAI workflow tools can be used to measure current business process performance, change business processes, and re-measure the performance of the altered business process against the original benchmark. EAI workflow tools have the potential of becoming the ultimate business and IT management tool for enterprise process change. XML XML, eXtensible Markup Language, is a key enabling integration standard for current and evolving EAI and B2BAI platforms. XML is well known as a strategic approach for exchanging self-describing information between applications and businesses. The Geography Markup Language (GML) is a rapidly evolving OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) standard for spatial data exchange and interoperability. GML, according to OGC, is specifically an XML encoding for the transport and storage of geographic information, including both the geometry and properties of geographic features (OGC, 2001). Some of the spatial industry’s leading vendors are implementing EAI interfaces to their spatial platforms that leverage the GML standard. The importance is that this evolving standard will enable the exchange and integration of spatial data across multiple and different platforms that support unique spatial data models. Utility Industry Trends During 2001, Southern California Edison, Kansas City Power & Light, PacifiCorp, Florida Power and Light, and Cinergy gave significant conference presentations on their approaches to and experiences with dynamic enterprise integration. All of these presentations were focused on a variety of electric and/or gas distribution company applications, particularly in conjunction with energy deliveryrelated IT initiatives. Others, including KCP&L, Cinergy, Rochester Gas and Electric, have published aspects of their approaches to trading systems that leverage a combination of EAI, B2BAI, and process integration-oriented B2BAI. Utility industry-oriented trading and procurement exchanges also leverage EAI and B2BAI strategies and platforms. Many other utilities are pursuing prototype work to gain familiarity with enterprise integration strategies and platforms. Enterprise integration is one of the more common IT trends that utilities are investing in at this time. At the GITA 2002 meeting, we will present an up-to-date summary of utility industry status and trends regarding dynamic enterprise integration strategies and programs that have been undertaken across the energy and water utility industry. The purpose of this summary will be to provide current industry-specific, dynamic enterprise integration activity awareness. Summary Regardless of the slowing economy, the energy and water utility industries continue to be faced with major cost control, new revenue opportunity, and customer-focused business drivers. In response to these drivers, medium and large utilities have been making significant investments in EAI and B2BAI. Dynamic enterprise integration, incrementally achieving the digital energy or water enterprise, and leveraging the benefits of a virtual utility business model are the objectives of these investments. This paper and accompanying presentation address the current status and future vision for dynamic enterprise integration in the utility industry, why EAI and B2BAI platforms and standards are today’s increasingly preferred approach to process-enabling systems integration, and current status and future vision for utility enterprise and inter-enterprise integration. References
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