Project Highlights:
- NorthWestern Energy
- Headquartered in Sioux Falls, SD
- 775,000+ electric and gas customers in MT, SD, and NE
- Provides electric services to Yellowstone National Park
Northwestern Energy (NWE) implemented ArcGIS Indoors, Esri’s indoor mapping and space management software, for comprehensive office space and building management. The software provides a centralized location for storing, managing, and sharing floor plan information in GIS. This information is helping the organization streamline space management workflows and will soon be used to reinforce employee safety and security.
The NWE Facilities Management team partnered with UDC to design, develop, and deploy an ArcGIS Indoors solution according to its unique management workflow needs. The initiative included collaborative workshops with a fully configured demo to gather requirements for NWE’s applications, data, and workflows; iterative configuration and testing cycles; and knowledge transfer activities.
Streamlining Facilities Management
The ArcGIS Indoors technology empowers the Facilities Management team to manage NWE’s interior building areas more efficiently by visualizing the organization’s shared space occupancy in near real-time. Before ArcGIS Indoors, the team had challenges locating available office spaces, managing occupancy assignments, and reserving temporary workspaces within a single interface. Combining the building’s digital as-built layouts with ArcGIS Indoors’ data management and GIS mapping capabilities, the team can more easily collaborate to reserve hotel spaces and manage occupancy assignments.
The solution implemented will also help NWE with its emergency planning and procedures. No legacy system or digital process has been in place to verify the number of employees who may be working in the office on a given day. Since COVID, many employees work a hybrid or remote schedule, making it challenging to determine which employees are in the office at any given time. Using the ArcGIS Indoors solution, NWE will have a much better understanding on who may be in a particular building. In case of fire or other emergency, the building occupancy information will help NWE determine who is in the building and quickly pinpoint employee work locations for emergency personnel.
Tailoring to NorthWestern Energy
The ArcGIS Indoors solution was customized to meet NWE’s unique business and operational needs. This entailed developing custom mapping symbology, an ArcGIS Pro toolbox for team members who periodically update the building layouts used in ArcGIS Indoors, and an occupant import script for connecting with required employee information from SAP.
Custom Symbology
To help NWE’s ArcGIS Indoors users easily recognize open or occupied spaces, UDC built ArcGIS Arcade expressions to customize the mapping symbology. Distinct colors are used for hotel and office spaces and to indicate vacancy and occupancy assignment status. The out-of-the-box pop-up information panel was configured to show additional space metrics by building and floor, including space measurements and quantities.
Floor Plan Import Tools
To streamline legacy editing workflows for the Facilities Management team, UDC developed custom ArcGIS Indoors geoprocessing tools for ArcGIS Pro. These tools enable the team to import AutoCAD floor plans, publish them as maps within the Indoors Viewer web mapping application, and refresh them as needed when floor plans change.
SAP Occupant Import Automation
UDC engineered a script to import needed employee information from SAP. Updated every 24 hours, this automated script helps maintain the currency of eligible occupants and contact information to support accurate occupancy reporting and booking.
ArcGIS Indoors Implementation
ArcGIS Indoors was implemented over three phases: requirements gathering, development and testing, and deployment. During requirements gathering, an ArcGIS Indoors sample environment provided by UDC for exploration contributed to the requirements and design of a right-fit solution for NWE. The sample environment was fully configured in ArcGIS Online (AGOL) using publicly available floorplans. The ability to assess the real-world capabilities provided NWE with a good understanding of ArcGIS Indoors and its possibilities. This exploration effectively helped NWE determine its application, data, and workflow requirements for a strong kick-off at the project’s initiation.
The ArcGIS Indoors initiative coincided with the organization’s ArcGIS Utility Network implementation, which also contributed to project success and aligned with NWE’s company strategy. Leading both initiatives, UDC effectively bridged the different businesses, teams, and environments to ensure compatibility and scalability of the multiple Esri components.
The ArcGIS Indoors Implementation project included:
- Conducting requirements gathering workshops
- Developing a Requirements Traceability Matrix to drive the design documentation
- Building out applications and functionality through iterative cycles
- Configuring web applications for Space Planner and Indoor Viewer
- Customizing the solution to fulfill NWE business requirements
- Holding knowledge transfer sessions and creating step-by-step documentation on solution operation and maintenance
- Performing iterative testing
NorthWestern Energy’s initiative to modernize its facilities management with ArcGIS Indoors has provided efficient workflows for managing workspaces and improved emergency planning processes.