Enterprise and Mobile GIS--People, Process, and Technology Paradigm
Electrical and Gas User Group - EGUG Fall Meeting
Enterprise and Mobile GIS People, Process, and Technology Paradigm Nargis Ladha, Hydro One Jeff Schick, Miner & Miner October 2005 Lake Tahoe, CA
Agenda • Hydro One overview • Recent GIS Accomplishments • Case Study – ArcFM • Lessons Learned • Summary
Introduction We are a Transmission & Distribution company delivering electricity in Ontario • •
• •
•
We are one of the 10 largest electricity utilities in North America Our shareholder is the Ontario Government and we are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board We are geographically the largest LDC serving 75% of the province We own 97% of the transmission grid in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province with almost 12 million residents. We have 4,000± employees, most being scattered across the province in some 150 locations
Hydro One Inc. • We have assets spread over a very large
geographical area 640,000 square km
• Our Customers • • • •
Large Industrial Customers: 114 Remote Communities Served: 19 Retail (homes, farms, seasonal, small business): approximately 1.2 million Municipal Utilities: 92
Awards “Hydro One recognized for their Mobile ArcFM GIS implementation” 2004 ESRI Canada Award of Excellence
“A new solution reduces the time and cost of managing the real estate assets of one of North America’s largest power transmission networks.” 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Award of Excellence
“Hydro One has been able to cost effectively deliver field data directly to employees' workstations across the province.” Finalist 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Award of Excellence
…plus Hydro One president’s awards in 2003, 2004, 2005
Our Approach • Continued focus on core competencies • Investing in employee education and • • •
training Working closely with regulatory and community bodies Taking a leadership role in the energy sector Leveraging technology to enable improvement . . . Enterprise GIS seen as key enabling tool
Enterprise + Mobile Systems Two levels of GIS systems: Enterprise: viewing,
updating, querying, analysis and reporting
Mobile: in-field designing for new connections, distribution asset data collection, electric line clearances, etc
Recent GIS Accomplishments
Synopsis of recent GIS projects: Enterprise Infrastructure and Data Integrated Real Estate Information System (IREIS) Transmission Line GIS (TLGIS) Wood Pole Data Collection Helicopter Inspection Program for Transmission Lines 6. Distribution Design using ArcFM 7. Data Exchange Agreement with MNR 8. Outage Management (ORMS) integration 9. ACPi and WEP integration projects 10. GIS upgrade and enterprise data consolidation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Case Study - ArcFM at Hydro One • • • • • • •
•
One of the largest ArcFM implementations – anywhere. Currently running ArcFM 9.0.1 and ArcGIS 8.3. Over 250 mobile design units making new designs in the field daily using ArcFM Designer. 40,000 Designs per year done in the application Over 54 field business centers making use of ArcFM over Citrix environment Deployed on large Windows and HP-Unix servers capable of handling such large user base. Typically, over 10,000 active versions and designs at once (majority composed of outstanding edits from field that have not been posted to the default version of the geodatabase) Completed training of 300 Designers in April 2004.
Infrastructure – Data (New Design Using ArcFM) z Benefits of ArcFM at Hydro One z Earlier distribution design process was timeconsuming and required several round-trips to site to get client approval. (Distances of upto 400 km one-way) z New design process allows design and estimation to be done at site using GPS and Design tool – data is now saved in enterprise database.
Performance and Usability Improvements On one hand… • We implemented a complex project on-time and on-budget! On the other hand… • One year later the project required a concerted 6-week effort to improve performance, reliability and usability
Challenges • Corporate Culture and Change
Management • Technical
Corporate Culture and Change Management • The ArcFM Designer implementation constitutes a
•
• • •
large change in the technician’s everyday work practices and required skill-set The implementation has revealed inconsistencies in business processes and a resulting desire to standardize roles and responsibilities. Adoption vs. resistance Job descriptions Issue identification and prioritization
The People Challenge •
•
• •
Most technicians feel that the ArcFM system helps them do their job and that they have a good working knowledge of the system Most also feel that they need additional training and many express frustration over past problems in using the system. Hydro One is planning a training assessment and development of refresher courses Communication of technical changes in business language
Technical Challenges • Implementation of Leading Edge Software • Performance • Process Optimization • Closing the Design Edit Cycle • Diagnostic tools - Statistics • Design Conflicts
Closing the Design Edit Cycle •
An electrical connection design is sketched in the field by our field technicians using ArcFM mobile designer. This design then flows through a number of states before being definitively committed (posted) to the ArcSDE geodatabase: InInDesign Design
Mobile Mobile
Pending Pending Approval Approval
Approved Approved
Rejected Rejected
•
• •
Pending Pending Payment Payment
As-Built As-Built Editing Editing
Ready Ready To Topost post InInConflict Conflict
Designs tend to accumulate in the ‘Pending Payment’ state because clients may take up to six months to pay. Designs may be ‘forgotten’ in this state. Designs also accumulate in the ‘In Conflict’ state when conflicts are found. Goal: Post all valid designs to the geodatabase in order to leverage the products of the design process for future use. Delete or archive designs that don’t get built.
Diagnostic Tools – Statistics •
Graphic illustration of how designs accumulate. (note: Many designs are completed in the summer months and are pending payment at this time of year)
Diagnostic Tools – Statistics •
Graphic illustration design aging with colouring by design state
Design Conflicts • It is a challenge to detect and properly
resolve conflicts with our very long edit cycle (up to six months). • Timely reconcile, conflict resolution, and posting are vital to the maintenance of our geodatabase – Reconcile/Post service in place for automating this process
One Year Into Implementation • Issues identified one year after
implementation –
Technical Issues • Performance • Cost Estimating
Commitment of Business Benefits – Communication – Training –
The Team – Hydro One – Nargis Ladha point of
contact – Inergi – Miner & Miner – Jeff Schick point of contact – ESRI Canada – ESRI Inc – Approximately 11 people involved
The Task – Time frame approximately 30 days
(CIO direction)
• Improve application performance
and usability • Address outstanding application issues • Identify areas for improvement (business process and usability)
The Trip to Belleville Field Business Center (FBC) • Review issues • Review Workflow • Listen to feedback • Create a foundation
for an action plan
Results SDET Feedback from Second Belleville trip – Improvements across the board to
performance – Pushes are going smoothly – An accepted solution – now this needs to be communicated – There were dramatic performance improvements within three weeks – positive feedback from the FBC clerk on application performance improvements
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Business Process Issues – Increased communication within the business: as an
– –
– – –
example, the ADET’s may not know what the FBC is doing during their process Need easier way to print obligations sheet. Design year defaults to 2004. Need to change default design year to 2005 and update costs accordingly for 2005, 2006. A lot of factors go into how many layouts are done per day and the amount of time to do them Need a business person in place to maintain CU’s and related costs in the application Saving the data
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Business Process Issues – Recommend automating FBC import, print,
and save process – The Rate Class field can be removed if the findings by Hydro One are that no designs are in progress that need the old Rate Class information – Discussion on all ADET’s using template tools – Making as-built changes to the design after construction so information from the field is accurately represented in the database
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Training Issues – The SDET’s stated that they received training to start
– – – –
up the application, but received no subsequent training and may only be using partial application capabilities Need a training plan and refresher training for the application Training for FBC/temps hired needs to be improved Recommend training of GIS support staff on version management in the Hydro One enterprise environment SDET’s stated that different centers have different skill levels, and training has stopped
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Hardware Issues – The overall preference of Tablet PC’s was the
Panasonics over the Xplorer tablet PC’s. Main reason – the keyboard – There are no workstations in the trucks. This is a factor affecting user acceptance – Ergonomics of using the new mobile hardware needs to be reviewed properly
Currently undertaking a review of Tablet technology
Cost Benefit Evaluation Considerations: Tablet purchase cost relative to laptop is in the • range of 3:1 Laptop breakage in extreme field conditions • present significant expense to the business in productivity loss and maintenance costs User comfort with the selected toolset will drive • productivity
Cost Benefit Evaluation
Outputs • Which roles are best suited to Laptops and Tablets based on the highest cost benefit • What program changes could effect better performance for field users • Determine future Tablet deployment and refresh standards for business planning purposes
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Issues Addressed by ACPi Project – Large Design (200-300 poles) not done in
Designer because data needs to be manually duplicated in Passport for these jobs. ACPI will automate this process – Re-entry of CU data for large designs is an issue
ACPi Integration - Data Flows
Results Observed Performance Improvements Issue Performance of the Cost Estimate Tool Performance of the Cost Estimate Tool large design (Orion Report vs. second Belleville trip) Save Design Create Design Import Mobile Designer Data Clicks on User/Work List Reconcile versioned design
Performance Improvement Before Fix After Fix 12 seconds 2 seconds 286 seconds 15 seconds 280 seconds 26 seconds 55 seconds 55 seconds 20 minutes
90 seconds 15 seconds 11 seconds 11 seconds 6 minutes
Highlight of Technical Issues Resolved – Cost Tool Issues – Performance Improvement gains on mobile
tablet and enterprise
•
Next Steps / Recommendations – Implement a quarterly process for on-site
reviews – Automate job package printing process – Training/Refresher training for trainers, ADETS, SDET’s, and FBC staff – Cost Tool Usability Enhancements – Review the need for all of the buttons on the tablet PC – Agree upon a support model moving forward
Next Steps / Recommendations – Further training – Management of conflict resolution – Review method for addressing “obsolete” designs – Review business process for moving designs through
Hydro One workflow as effectively as possible – coordinate design session to accomplish this – include ACPi representation
Lessons Learned • Regular trips to field to gain additional • • • • •
feedback on application and processes Focus training and retraining program Standardize Processes across business centers Post implementation support Business Ownership needs to be well defined Minimize Customization and update business processes
Summary
• We have had our trials and tribulations from
a people, process, and technology perspective. • Hydro One is reaping benefits after working through performance, business process and change management issues related to implementation of new technology and the accompanying changes to corporate culture.
Enterprise and Mobile GIS People, Process, and Technology Paradigm Nargis Ladha, Hydro One Jeff Schick, Miner & Miner October 2005 Lake Tahoe, CA
Agenda • Hydro One overview • Recent GIS Accomplishments • Case Study – ArcFM • Lessons Learned • Summary
Introduction We are a Transmission & Distribution company delivering electricity in Ontario • •
• •
•
We are one of the 10 largest electricity utilities in North America Our shareholder is the Ontario Government and we are regulated by the Ontario Energy Board We are geographically the largest LDC serving 75% of the province We own 97% of the transmission grid in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province with almost 12 million residents. We have 4,000± employees, most being scattered across the province in some 150 locations
Hydro One Inc. • We have assets spread over a very large
geographical area 640,000 square km
• Our Customers • • • •
Large Industrial Customers: 114 Remote Communities Served: 19 Retail (homes, farms, seasonal, small business): approximately 1.2 million Municipal Utilities: 92
Awards “Hydro One recognized for their Mobile ArcFM GIS implementation” 2004 ESRI Canada Award of Excellence
“A new solution reduces the time and cost of managing the real estate assets of one of North America’s largest power transmission networks.” 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Award of Excellence
“Hydro One has been able to cost effectively deliver field data directly to employees' workstations across the province.” Finalist 2004 Canadian Information Productivity Award of Excellence
…plus Hydro One president’s awards in 2003, 2004, 2005
Our Approach • Continued focus on core competencies • Investing in employee education and • • •
training Working closely with regulatory and community bodies Taking a leadership role in the energy sector Leveraging technology to enable improvement . . . Enterprise GIS seen as key enabling tool
Enterprise + Mobile Systems Two levels of GIS systems: Enterprise: viewing,
updating, querying, analysis and reporting
Mobile: in-field designing for new connections, distribution asset data collection, electric line clearances, etc
Recent GIS Accomplishments
Synopsis of recent GIS projects: Enterprise Infrastructure and Data Integrated Real Estate Information System (IREIS) Transmission Line GIS (TLGIS) Wood Pole Data Collection Helicopter Inspection Program for Transmission Lines 6. Distribution Design using ArcFM 7. Data Exchange Agreement with MNR 8. Outage Management (ORMS) integration 9. ACPi and WEP integration projects 10. GIS upgrade and enterprise data consolidation 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Case Study - ArcFM at Hydro One • • • • • • •
•
One of the largest ArcFM implementations – anywhere. Currently running ArcFM 9.0.1 and ArcGIS 8.3. Over 250 mobile design units making new designs in the field daily using ArcFM Designer. 40,000 Designs per year done in the application Over 54 field business centers making use of ArcFM over Citrix environment Deployed on large Windows and HP-Unix servers capable of handling such large user base. Typically, over 10,000 active versions and designs at once (majority composed of outstanding edits from field that have not been posted to the default version of the geodatabase) Completed training of 300 Designers in April 2004.
Infrastructure – Data (New Design Using ArcFM) z Benefits of ArcFM at Hydro One z Earlier distribution design process was timeconsuming and required several round-trips to site to get client approval. (Distances of upto 400 km one-way) z New design process allows design and estimation to be done at site using GPS and Design tool – data is now saved in enterprise database.
Performance and Usability Improvements On one hand… • We implemented a complex project on-time and on-budget! On the other hand… • One year later the project required a concerted 6-week effort to improve performance, reliability and usability
Challenges • Corporate Culture and Change
Management • Technical
Corporate Culture and Change Management • The ArcFM Designer implementation constitutes a
•
• • •
large change in the technician’s everyday work practices and required skill-set The implementation has revealed inconsistencies in business processes and a resulting desire to standardize roles and responsibilities. Adoption vs. resistance Job descriptions Issue identification and prioritization
The People Challenge •
•
• •
Most technicians feel that the ArcFM system helps them do their job and that they have a good working knowledge of the system Most also feel that they need additional training and many express frustration over past problems in using the system. Hydro One is planning a training assessment and development of refresher courses Communication of technical changes in business language
Technical Challenges • Implementation of Leading Edge Software • Performance • Process Optimization • Closing the Design Edit Cycle • Diagnostic tools - Statistics • Design Conflicts
Closing the Design Edit Cycle •
An electrical connection design is sketched in the field by our field technicians using ArcFM mobile designer. This design then flows through a number of states before being definitively committed (posted) to the ArcSDE geodatabase: InInDesign Design
Mobile Mobile
Pending Pending Approval Approval
Approved Approved
Rejected Rejected
•
• •
Pending Pending Payment Payment
As-Built As-Built Editing Editing
Ready Ready To Topost post InInConflict Conflict
Designs tend to accumulate in the ‘Pending Payment’ state because clients may take up to six months to pay. Designs may be ‘forgotten’ in this state. Designs also accumulate in the ‘In Conflict’ state when conflicts are found. Goal: Post all valid designs to the geodatabase in order to leverage the products of the design process for future use. Delete or archive designs that don’t get built.
Diagnostic Tools – Statistics •
Graphic illustration of how designs accumulate. (note: Many designs are completed in the summer months and are pending payment at this time of year)
Diagnostic Tools – Statistics •
Graphic illustration design aging with colouring by design state
Design Conflicts • It is a challenge to detect and properly
resolve conflicts with our very long edit cycle (up to six months). • Timely reconcile, conflict resolution, and posting are vital to the maintenance of our geodatabase – Reconcile/Post service in place for automating this process
One Year Into Implementation • Issues identified one year after
implementation –
Technical Issues • Performance • Cost Estimating
Commitment of Business Benefits – Communication – Training –
The Team – Hydro One – Nargis Ladha point of
contact – Inergi – Miner & Miner – Jeff Schick point of contact – ESRI Canada – ESRI Inc – Approximately 11 people involved
The Task – Time frame approximately 30 days
(CIO direction)
• Improve application performance
and usability • Address outstanding application issues • Identify areas for improvement (business process and usability)
The Trip to Belleville Field Business Center (FBC) • Review issues • Review Workflow • Listen to feedback • Create a foundation
for an action plan
Results SDET Feedback from Second Belleville trip – Improvements across the board to
performance – Pushes are going smoothly – An accepted solution – now this needs to be communicated – There were dramatic performance improvements within three weeks – positive feedback from the FBC clerk on application performance improvements
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Business Process Issues – Increased communication within the business: as an
– –
– – –
example, the ADET’s may not know what the FBC is doing during their process Need easier way to print obligations sheet. Design year defaults to 2004. Need to change default design year to 2005 and update costs accordingly for 2005, 2006. A lot of factors go into how many layouts are done per day and the amount of time to do them Need a business person in place to maintain CU’s and related costs in the application Saving the data
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Business Process Issues – Recommend automating FBC import, print,
and save process – The Rate Class field can be removed if the findings by Hydro One are that no designs are in progress that need the old Rate Class information – Discussion on all ADET’s using template tools – Making as-built changes to the design after construction so information from the field is accurately represented in the database
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Training Issues – The SDET’s stated that they received training to start
– – – –
up the application, but received no subsequent training and may only be using partial application capabilities Need a training plan and refresher training for the application Training for FBC/temps hired needs to be improved Recommend training of GIS support staff on version management in the Hydro One enterprise environment SDET’s stated that different centers have different skill levels, and training has stopped
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Hardware Issues – The overall preference of Tablet PC’s was the
Panasonics over the Xplorer tablet PC’s. Main reason – the keyboard – There are no workstations in the trucks. This is a factor affecting user acceptance – Ergonomics of using the new mobile hardware needs to be reviewed properly
Currently undertaking a review of Tablet technology
Cost Benefit Evaluation Considerations: Tablet purchase cost relative to laptop is in the • range of 3:1 Laptop breakage in extreme field conditions • present significant expense to the business in productivity loss and maintenance costs User comfort with the selected toolset will drive • productivity
Cost Benefit Evaluation
Outputs • Which roles are best suited to Laptops and Tablets based on the highest cost benefit • What program changes could effect better performance for field users • Determine future Tablet deployment and refresh standards for business planning purposes
SDET feedback from second Belleville trip Issues Addressed by ACPi Project – Large Design (200-300 poles) not done in
Designer because data needs to be manually duplicated in Passport for these jobs. ACPI will automate this process – Re-entry of CU data for large designs is an issue
ACPi Integration - Data Flows
Results Observed Performance Improvements Issue Performance of the Cost Estimate Tool Performance of the Cost Estimate Tool large design (Orion Report vs. second Belleville trip) Save Design Create Design Import Mobile Designer Data Clicks on User/Work List Reconcile versioned design
Performance Improvement Before Fix After Fix 12 seconds 2 seconds 286 seconds 15 seconds 280 seconds 26 seconds 55 seconds 55 seconds 20 minutes
90 seconds 15 seconds 11 seconds 11 seconds 6 minutes
Highlight of Technical Issues Resolved – Cost Tool Issues – Performance Improvement gains on mobile
tablet and enterprise
•
Next Steps / Recommendations – Implement a quarterly process for on-site
reviews – Automate job package printing process – Training/Refresher training for trainers, ADETS, SDET’s, and FBC staff – Cost Tool Usability Enhancements – Review the need for all of the buttons on the tablet PC – Agree upon a support model moving forward
Next Steps / Recommendations – Further training – Management of conflict resolution – Review method for addressing “obsolete” designs – Review business process for moving designs through
Hydro One workflow as effectively as possible – coordinate design session to accomplish this – include ACPi representation
Lessons Learned • Regular trips to field to gain additional • • • • •
feedback on application and processes Focus training and retraining program Standardize Processes across business centers Post implementation support Business Ownership needs to be well defined Minimize Customization and update business processes
Summary
• We have had our trials and tribulations from
a people, process, and technology perspective. • Hydro One is reaping benefits after working through performance, business process and change management issues related to implementation of new technology and the accompanying changes to corporate culture.
