Allegheny power's AM/FM upgrade: Exceeding user expectations
Gina M. Newhouse, Shawn P. McDonough GE Smallworld Allegheny Power 800 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, PA 15601 Abstract Allegheny Power (AP) is an electric and gas utility that serves approximately 1.7 million customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and Ohio. Allegheny’s AM/FM system has over 300 users in approximately 50 Service Centers. New electric designs are entered into AM/FM as “proposed” by a Lines Engineering Designer. As-built facilities are updated after construction through an interface with the Work Management System. This system has been in use at Allegheny Power since early 1998. Allegheny’s AM/FM system also provides data to the Outage Management System. In mid-1999, Allegheny Power began to investigate an AM/FM system upgrade. The upgrade was necessary to support newly acquired gas company facilities and also to get enhanced Designer tools. This upgrade would require significant cooperation with the Work Management and Outage Management systems. Allegheny had been through a prior AM/FM rollout in 1998 and many of the lessons learned during this effort were applied when planning the system upgrade. Examples include contract negotiations, data model selection, user commitment, change management, training and rollout. The rollout of the new system will be completed in December 2001. Introduction Allegheny Power provides nationally recognized customer service to its 1.7 million customers, in part, through its use of integrated technologies. Allegheny Power is the energy delivery business of Allegheny Energy, delivering low-cost, reliable electricity and natural gas to customers in parts of Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. Reengineering the Corporation Prior to 1996, Allegheny Power operated as three separate companies – The Potomac Edison Company, Monongahela Power Company and West Penn Power Company. In 1996, a reengineering of company functions was completed in preparation for competition in the energy industry. The new company needed to be lean enough to remain competitive, customer-focused and technologically advanced. In 1996, the three operating subsidiaries - The Potomac Edison Company, Monongahela Power Company, and West Penn Power Company - began doing business under the name Allegheny Power. The reengineering brought about a change in the way Allegheny Power does business. Allegheny was forced to answer the questions – Why are we in business? What is our purpose? What do we need to do to survive in the changing utility industry? The answers to these questions led to a significant change for Allegheny – managing by process. Managing by process meant that it was time for Allegheny Power to look at the main reason they were in business – to serve the customer and keep the lights on. Three major operational processes were defined as Ensure Reliable Service, Respond to Service Request and Restore Service. Once these processes were defined, the next step was to define the technologies that would make these processes work as efficiently as possible. Corporate functions were consolidated and a new customer service center in Fairmont, W.Va., was established to handle all customer service issues and requests. A new job title was created – Lines Engineering Designer. This employee would be responsible for meeting the customer, designing the job and working as a team with a Lines Manager and the line crews to provide service to the customer. During the reengineering process, it was determined that implementing integrated technologies would help Allegheny Power to operate more efficiently and provide an increased level of customer service. The three main technologies identified were an Automated Mapping/Facilities Management System (AM/FM), an Outage Management System (OMS) and a Work Management System (WMS). Teams were created in June of 1996 to implement these technologies. Since staff reductions had already taken place, it was crucial that these technologies be implemented as quickly as possible – the time frame established was 18 months. Allegheny Power Before Reengineering Before the reengineering in 1996, the three operating companies performed their work by function – a task oriented approach. Customer Service Representatives met with customers and initiated contracts. Engineering Technicians designed the jobs but had little contact with the customer. Line crews built the jobs as specified. There was little teamwork between the departments. There was an approval process that needed to be followed before work could be passed from one department to the next. Little responsibility was given to the employee. This type of environment increased the amount of time necessary to get electric service to the customer. There was very little technology use in the three operating companies. West Penn Power and Monongahela Power used paper maps that were manually updated by mapping clerks after the job was built in the field. Potomac Edison had a similar process but used an AutoCAD mapping system. In all three companies, the mapping clerks were sometimes used to help the Engineering Technicians design jobs, so the mapping backlog would increase and the maps would become out-of-date. Customers called the local Service Center to report outages and representatives at the centers would manually group the trouble calls according to geography. This manual process was used to determine the approximate location of the source of trouble and line crews were notified by radio of the location. The Service Center would call the customer back after service was restored to verify that the lights were back on. Customers also called the local Service Center for new service requests. Engineering Technicians used a mainframe-based cost-estimating tool for their designs and there was no Work Management System. Work was initiated and tracked using a paper system. Utilizing Technology to Support the Processes It was determined that implementing technology would streamline the processes and lead to increased customer satisfaction. The three main technologies were identified as AM/FM, Outage Management and Work Management. This paper will focus on the implementation of Allegheny Power’s AM/FM System. Allegheny Power;s First AM/FM System In June of 1996, a team of eight – five engineers and three technicians – was formed to implement the new AM/FM system. The platform had been chosen and a contract had been negotiated with an applications vendor to provide a user-friendly Designer tool to be used by the Lines Engineering Designer (LED). The new AM/FM system would have an interface with the Work Management and Outage Management Systems and would automatically update the maps with as-built information upon completion of the work. The team had an incredible task before them to implement the system in 18 months. In June of 1996, the West Penn Power and Monongahela Power maps were still on paper. The Potomac Edison maps were still in AutoCAD. All of the maps were out-of-date and stacks of backlog job prints needed mapped. It was determined that the Monongahela Power maps were so far out-of-date that they were deemed unusable and a field inventory was the only option. A data collection vendor was hired and work began to inventory the 500,000+ locations in the mountainous - terrain that made up Monongahela Power. This field inventory was completed by the end of December 1997. Local mapping contractors were hired to enter backlog onto the paper maps in preparation for data conversion. Data conversion vendors were hired to scan the paper maps into digital format and to write data translators. Allegheny Power completed the data conversion of the Monongahela Power and West Penn Power maps in 1997 and the Potomac Edison maps in 1998. By December of 1998, all of Allegheny Power’s 35+ Service Centers were using the new AM/FM system to enter jobs. The interfaces with Work Management and Outage Management were in place and Allegheny began reaping the benefits of its integrated technology solution. Lessons Learned – Contract Negotiations Allegheny Power learned the hard way that time and material contracts are not the way to go. In working with the software applications vendor, it was difficult to get a useable product without spending additional money for “enhancements” that should have been part of the core product. Software contracts should be written so that the client pays for the software upon acceptance of the tool. This ensures that the vendor adheres to their end of the agreement. Lessons Learned – Field Data Collection It is a good idea to notify the community that a field inventory is taking place – perhaps through a bill insert. Customers became concerned when the field collectors were seen along their property lines. The field collectors should carry proper ID and an informational flyer describing the work that they are doing. Since Allegheny was working within such a strict time frame, a penalty clause was applied to the contract. This ensured that the field collection would be completed on time. However, since not enough Allegheny Power resources were allocated to perform spot checks, this resulted in missing data that was not found until years later. It is important to perform spot-checks and apply quality assurance/quality control methods. Lessons Learned – Data Conversion Never underestimate the manpower needed for data conversion efforts. Make sure that your source data is as clean and as up-to-date as possible before you begin. Make sure the maps show the correct circuit and substation names and make sure that circuit phasing is complete. It is a good idea to hire retired employees as contractors to do field checks – they know the area and they know the business. College students can be trained to enter backlog and field check information onto the paper maps. Lessons Learned – Data Cleanup Again – never underestimate the manpower needed. Once the data is converted, it is a good idea to use field engineers to help you validate the connectivity of the circuits. This gives them a chance to learn to use the new AM/FM system – and they have contacts at their local offices to perform additional field checks if necessary. Make sure you have a Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) application to verify the connectivity of the circuits. This tool should check for disparities such as loop conditions, phase mismatches, “islands” of data and duplicate facilities at a single location. If you have an interface to an Outage Management System, this can be used as an additional data quality check. Outline your rollout schedule in advance and clean the data one Service Center at a time – by circuit. Lessons Learned – User Training Know your audience. In 1996, Allegheny Power was just starting to put a computer on every employee’s desk. By the time AM/FM rollout began, many users were still uncomfortable with using a PC. It is recommended that before you begin AM/FM training, see that all users have basic knowledge of using a computer. Communicate your training schedule – but not too far in advance. Allegheny made the mistake of communicating the training schedule for its 150 Lines Engineering Designers too far in advance. When software bugs forced a delay in rollout – the training had to be rescheduled. Changing the training schedule multiple times gave the users a bad impression of the system. It is a good idea to wait until the data for a particular area is cleaned and ready to go before scheduling the training. Also make sure that the software is ready to go. Ideally, you will want your users to leave the training class and begin using the software immediately. Have the training away from the user’s normal work location. There are too many distractions with on-site training. Get them away from their normal work environment. Never underestimate the number of days needed for training. Yes – four days is a long time for an employee to be away from the office – but if four days are necessary to complete a thorough training class, then this is what should be done. Shortening the class to one or two days will only force you to schedule refresher-training classes and spend more time at the Service Centers during rollout. Lessons Learned – Service Center Rollout If at all possible, roll out your Work Management System and your AM/FM System as close together as possible. If this is not an option, then it is best to rollout AM/FM first. At Allegheny Power, the Work Management System was implemented one year prior to the AM/FM system. Users got very comfortable with completing a hand-drawn sketch and designing all of their jobs in Work Management. Once AM/FM was rolled out, specific rules were outlined that specified which jobs should be done in AM/FM and which could still be done in the WMS. For example, any job requiring a new pole location would need to be designed in AM/FM and passed to the WMS for estimating. If not, then the automated As-Built completions process would fail because the new location designed in the WMS would not be found in AM/FM. The rules were changed just when the user began to get comfortable with the Work Management System. These rule changes reflected badly on the AM/FM system – it was causing the user “more work”. Rollout of the AM/FM system should immediately follow training. Ideally, the user would leave the training class and begin using it the next day. If there is too much of a time delay, the user will forget the basic functions learned in training. Provide on-site support during rollout. Have members of the AM/FM team be on location during the first week of rollout. Communicate to the users the days that you are planning to attend and make sure they have some work to be entered into the system. If possible, resolve any network issues before rollout. Work with the network group at your company and arrange for them to test the network as far in advance as possible. The AM/FM Upgrade - Exceeding User Expectations In 1999, Allegheny had been using their new AM/FM system for more than one year. The team had met the goal that was established after the reengineering to implement an AM/FM system. Users were beginning to get familiar with the Design Tools and requests for enhancements were rolling in. The AM/FM platform software was in need of upgrading, but custom data model changes in Allegheny’s model made it a risk to attempt an upgrade. Software support issues from the applications vendor made this risk even more severe. Upgrading the platform software would require additional work from the vendor to ensure the stability of the Design Tool. The existing time and material contract that was in place would make this task very costly and time consuming. This forced Allegheny to consider a Design Tool and Data Model upgrade with a different vendor. User attitudes toward the AM/FM system were negative due to the time delay in implementing bug fixes and enhancements. Users also felt that their ideas and opinions were not considered during the planning phase of the original project. These issues led to client dissatisfaction with an already difficult technology implementation. System upgrades to the Work Management System would break the interface applications and users would see the errors when using the AM/FM system. In order to move Allegheny Power forward, Allegheny Power needed to take a step back and reevaluate the direction in which they were heading. A vendor was chosen to evaluate Allegheny Power’s AM/FM System and make recommendations on what step to take next. Is it best to pay the existing vendor to upgrade the software and take the risk of future software support issues? Should Allegheny Power write their own software in house? Or contract with another applications vendor to perform the work? Allegheny Power began working with their new applications vendor in late 1999. In this project, the contract was written so that Allegheny Power paid for the applications upon acceptance. The user community was involved in the project from the start in hopes of achieving user commitment. Detailed specifications of the applications were outlined and agreed upon before development began. Payment was made after Allegheny accepted the delivered software. This is how Allegheny Power exceeded user expectations. The new software rollout will be completed in December of 2001. So far, the users are accepting the software with more faith than before. Additional lessons were learned with this most recent rollout. Lessons Learned – User Commitment This time, an AM/FM Upgrade team was created. It was made up of the AM/FM team, representatives from WMS and OMS and members of the user community. Two team leaders were named – a technical lead who had AM/FM knowledge and a business lead who had field knowledge. Lines Engineering Designers and Planning Engineers were also involved in the team. The team was involved with the project from start to finish. The vendor held “Gap Workshops” at Allegheny Power to discuss the differences between the “off-the-shelf” software and Allegheny’s needs. All team members participated in these discussions. Software testing took place at the software vendor’s site and at Allegheny. A Lines Engineering Designer was utilized to assist with the testing. This accomplished the main item that was lacking with the initial rollout – User Commitment. More Lessons Learned – Data Model Development It is crucial that the data model is finalized before data conversion begins. Allegheny Power and the software vendor did a good job of ensuring this. Also, Allegheny Power contracted the writing of the data translator to the vendor and completed the migration on their own with assistance from the vendor. Detailed specifications are very important. Even though more attention was given to specifications this time, some things were still missed. It is crucial that you outline in great detail exactly what you are expecting in the specs. Do not assume anything. More Lessons Learned – System Architecture It is a good idea to implement security with your software. This is the best way to manage software images and ensure that users can only access what they need. Assess whether cache servers will work for your remote sites. Sometimes data network issues may exist and it would help to consider a thin-client infrastructure. More Lessons Learned – User Training This time, Allegheny utilized a training consultant to provide documentation and courseware. Of course, the documentation needed to be customized to include Allegheny’s business process, but it was a big help. The consultant also provided Power Point presentations that could be used in the training classes. Allegheny Power also made sure that the vendor was on-site during the first training and rollout sessions. This ensured that if a problem were to arise, it could be corrected immediately. Review the basics with your users. Make sure you spend plenty of time on basic GIS functionality and teach the data model from the ground up. This will definitely help you later when providing user support. Use realistic example problems in the training – get some actual jobs from the Designers and use them in the training. Include a few difficult ones, too. Allow an entire day for the users to practice with example problems. This will reinforce what they learned in the training. More Lessons Learned – System Rollout Communicate the training and rollout plans with the Service Center management. One of the downfalls in the first rollout was that the management felt they were left out of the process. They were not notified of the schedule and when the users complained about shortcomings of the system, they would sometimes tell their employees to go back to the pencil and paper way of doing it. It is extremely important to have the commitment of management prior to rollout. It is recommended that a meeting be held to give them a system demo and discuss the training and rollout plans in detail. Communicate with each other. During rollout, it is important for team members to communicate any bugs or system defects to a designated team member who will forward these on to the vendor. If these are communicated, another team member may be able to suggest a workaround for in the meantime. Test the printers. This was an unexpected one. Some of the printer drivers were not compatible. This is something that can be tested before rollout. Summary In summary, Allegheny Power has learned a lot from their two AM/FM rollout experiences. In order to exceed your user expectations, it is most important to get their involvement and commitment from the start. Communication is also a key factor in getting the support you need from management. Allegheny Power is now in a position where enhancements can be implemented on a timely basis and new applications are being developed monthly. Allegheny is exceeding user expectations. | ||
|
|