Implementing arm systems? – Don’t forget the process changes
Robert L. Trotter
Executive Consultant
Spirit Business Solutions, LLC
356 West Ash Avenue
Decatur, IL 62526-1708
Telephone (217) 877-3759
Email: trotterr@msn.com
Abstract
To survive and prosper in the new paradigm of competition, distribution utilities are required to
consider the impact of process changes, new organization structures, and new technologies to
achieve operational excellence. Some utilities are becoming companies that deliver energy to
customers who have contracted for energy from other suppliers. Many are in the process of
installing new Asset and Resource Management Systems (ARM) and integrating them with
existing legacy systems. While some of us feel process reengineered to death, the processes must
be reviewed enough to ensure that the new systems and the integrated legacy systems support the
processes required to do business. The processes should also be reviewed throughout the
implementation to obtain the full benefit from the implementation. While integrated systems
improve the utility’s ability to deliver power, even greater improvement can be realized if they
properly support the asset and resource management processes. A properly integrated solution
will reduce paper work, improve the delivery cycle, reduce the overall cost of power delivery,
and provide better decision making related to power delivery. This paper identifies the benefits to
be gained by reviewing the processes at the outset and during implementation so that integration
of an ARM solution can deliver expected results.
Introduction
To survive and prosper in the new paradigm of competition, distribution utilities are required to
consider the impact of process changes, new organization structures, and new technologies to
achieve operational excellence.
Some utilities are becoming companies that deliver energy to customers who have contracted for
energy from other suppliers. Many are in the process of installing new Asset and Resource
Management Systems (ARM) and integrating them with existing legacy systems.
The primary system component parts of an integrated asset and resource management system are:
- Outage Management System (OMS)
- Customer Information System (CIS)
- Mobile Dispatch System
- Geographic Information System (GIS)
- Work Management System (WMS)
- System Control and Data Acquisition System (SCADA)
- And often Mobile Computing
While some of us feel process reengineered to death, the processes must be reviewed enough to
ensure that the new systems and the integrated legacy systems support the processes required to
do business. The processes should also be reviewed after selecting a vendor, during
implementation, and after implementation is complete to obtain the full benefit from the
implementation.
While integrated systems improve the utility’s ability to deliver power, even greater improvement
can be realized if they properly support the asset and resource management processes. An
integrated solution will reduce paper work, improve the delivery cycle, reduce the overall cost of
power delivery, and provide better decision making related to power delivery. This paper
explores the benefits to be gained by reviewing the processes at various points of
implementation.
Five process reviews will be discussed:
- Justification for a project
- Process review when producing a request for proposal
Process validation review during implementation
- Follow-up process review after one year
- Decision making processes
