UDC’s Data Assessment Program includes using our HEIDE tool to provide a highly automated way to test and check your data for migration readiness. HEIDE is short for High-Fidelity Export Import Data Exchange. Using this multifunction tool makes transformation to Esri’s new model as simple and automated as possible. It reduces your lift and timeline and ensures all your existing GIS data can be leveraged to its fullest in the Utility Network model.
A successful migration requires understanding of the new model for the different commodities you may operate at your organization, understanding of your utility’s unique starting point with regards to data, workflows and systems, and a defined set of goals for how your utility will use and work within the GIS going forward to receive the most return from your investment. The UDC Data Assessment Program helps to meet all these requirements for your utility plus provides the planning and hands-on experience to keep you moving forward to production implementation.
Whether or not you decide to go to the Utility Network model, either now or in the future, there is great value to your organization gained from improving its GIS data now. Complete and accurate data is key to safe operations, improved customer satisfaction, and ensured reliability. Better data will support advanced web applications and system integrations as well as enable all sorts of analytic capabilities for your utility — leading to improved efficiency, effectiveness, and enhanced business processes.
GIS Data, Utility Network, and Your Utility
What challenges does your team face each day that could be remedied or supported with better GIS data?
What questions do you have regarding Utility Network migration?
What would a Utility Network readiness plan mean for you?
Consider how better, more complete data can impact different roles within your utility and how having a robust migration plan in place would benefit your team. The following personas highlight some of the issues and concerns experienced and communicated by our clients regarding their GIS data and Utility Network migrations. Learn more about how the Data Assessment Program could make a difference in your organization through the experience of these individuals.
GIS Business Management >
GIS Business Manager: Carmen
Carmen is the GIS Business Manager for her utility’s mapping department. Her team is responsible for verifying and maintaining geospatial network connectivity in her organization’s GIS as well as confirming that legacy data attributes are populated and accurate. As a manager, she is accountable for ensuring that her mapping technicians’ edits and updates in the GIS are current with engineering specifications and adhere to her utility’s mapping quality standards.
Carmen’s utility uses the GIS to feed other downstream business processes. She knows that other departments in her company rely on the data her team maintains to make informed management decisions. Carmen also knows that current gaps in workflow and user interface contribute to inefficiency as well as lower quality work from some of her mappers. For her company’s vision for migration to become reality, the quality of the GIS data will need to be improved to meet the model requirements of the Utility Network. Although Carmen recognizes that her utility’s maps need to be cleaned up before making the transition, she is unsure of what steps would need to be taken by her team.
With her busy schedule, Carmen has not had time to research the benefits and capabilities of the Utility Network. She has a wish list of functionalities she would like her team to have in the new model but is not sure if these are realistic goals or, if they are, when they could be implemented.
Creates Plan for Optimal Results
Through the UDC Data Assessment Program, Carmen would learn how the Utility Network and ArcGIS Pro could be leveraged to their fullest for her specific utility and team. A plan would be built with Carmen, defining specific migration goals for what is possible for her utility and team now and what could be possible in the future. This plan would provide migration options for Carmen’s utility, based on improving functionality now or building out the functionality post-migration. Additionally, the data assessment would determine the manpower required for data remediation, framing the deployment plan around her department needs.
Enhances Processes
Assessing the current state of her utility’s data and workflows would identify which assets and general processes need to be addressed or implemented to support Utility Network readiness and migration to meet Carmen’s goals. Improving processes her team uses day-in and day-out would greatly increase the efficiency of posting and editing for her technicians.
Improves Data Quality
With a robust data health report, real metrics would be provided to Carmen showing all errors and error types in the GIS data. Carmen and her team would be able to run queries to fix the incorrect or incomplete data. In addition to getting her utility ready for the migration, cleaning up bad data in the GIS would in turn improve the data quality of other downstream business systems that are fed by the GIS, allowing her utility to establish the GIS as a ‘single source of truth.’ Moreover, the efficiency and quality of work orders posted by her team would increase with better data.
Relieves Training Stresses
Included with the Data Assessment Program, Carmen’s team would receive training in ArcGIS Pro and the Utility Network using their utility’s GIS data and processes. This hands-on experience would allow her technicians to experiment with the advanced tool functionality the Utility Network provides, including advanced tracing and enhanced workflows and user interfaces. Since Carmen is new to the technology herself, having an experienced trainer that understands the nuances of ArcGIS Pro and the Utility Network would help to streamline training for her team.
Supports Change Management
Carmen knows that some of her technicians do not like change and would rather continue updating the maps the same way they always have. By giving her technicians the opportunity to use ArcGIS Pro and the Utility Network prior to migration, Carmen would be letting her team get comfortable with the new technology before the shift – resulting in a smoother transition. This would also ensure that any changes affecting individuals on her team are addressed appropriately and effectively before migration, rather than after the fact.
Integrity Management >
Integrity Manager: Marty
Working in the integrity management sector of his utility, Marty is responsible for ensuring his company remains compliant with DIMP and MAOP regulations. To do so, he verifies data completeness, analyzes data discrepancies, oversees risk management efforts and the tracking and traceability of pipe and plastic materials, and confirms that utility assets are correctly used and connected. He also responds to pressure and MAOP concerns from the DIMP team.
For Marty, these tasks can be tedious when it comes to DIMP reporting. Oftentimes, it’s hard to create these reports if data is missing or inaccurate.
Advanced Tracing Functionality
Validating GIS connectivity and circuits is crucial as these function as the primary sources for network topology and connectivity data. By tracing functionalities of pressure networks and subnetworks, the data assessment tools would identify invalid points and connectivity issues within his utility’s GIS data. As a result, his utility’s GIS Business Manager, Carmen, and her team could resolve the duplicates and missing junctions.
Improved Data Quality
The Utility Network would enable on-the-spot QA/QC validations for the GIS, driving a higher degree of quality as Carmen’s team updates the GIS. With better quality data, Marty would be able to respond to DIMP concerns more confidently and accurately. Additionally, reliable data would help him make better departmental decisions.
Enhanced Risk Management
During the data assessment, geometries and attributes would be validated within the GIS as well as null values identified, allowing Marty to report on and make informed risk-related decisions for his utility more securely.
Accurate Reporting
With data no longer hindered by duplicated and missing features, Marty can create detailed reports for DIMP, as well as more precisely and assuredly respond to concerns from the DIMP team. Additionally, Marty could develop dynamic reports with the supplementary in-line inspection and Utility Network capabilities the Data Assessment Program brings.
Operations Management >
Operations Manager: Liz
Within Utility Operations at her company, Liz manages and supports electric grid operations and modernization initiatives. She also oversees electric business critical functions including vegetation management, mobility, and work management. Liz leverages her utility’s GIS data to make decisions during outage and power quality events. Consequently, her decisions are impacted by the quality of the data.
Liz’s ultimate goal is to have an ADMS, fed by her utility’s GIS data, to help manage operations. In order to get to that point, Liz needs to determine if her utility’s GIS is ADMS ready – since she knows that low data integrity can hinder ADMS implementations and functionality at utilities.
Determine ADMS Readiness
For Liz to assess how ready her utility is to enable the ADMS suite of advanced applications, she’ll need to evaluate how accurate her utility’s GIS is. A full data health report would identify how accurate and complete the GIS data is overall and by category, allowing Liz to evaluate her utility’s readiness.
Verifies Data Accuracy
Due to the errors in her utility’s GIS, Liz is not able to verify data accuracy at any given moment, which can be a problem when she is managing outages. An action plan would provide Liz with recommendations for improving her individual utility’s GIS data quality and completeness, ensuring a consistent flow of quality data from the GIS to other business systems.
Supports Zero Data Latency
Zero data latency is required by an ADMS system to perform automated schemes. Each data point received by the ADMS must be validated. With ‘dirty’ GIS data, the time spent validating each point increases. If data latency cannot be achieved due to too many inaccuracies, then the ADMS will be unable to operate automatically.
Builds Strong Data Governance Foundation
A solid data governance foundation for ADMS is crucial in providing new capabilities required by an ADMS program. The data verification tools in the Data Assessment Program would identify the data accuracy and data completeness of the GIS, creating a strong foundation for the advanced capabilities of the ADMS to function.
Executive Management >
Executive Manager: Jared
As an executive member of his organization, Jared is responsible for ensuring that operations across all departments line up with his company’s strategic vision and plan. He oversees the creation of company performance goals as well as short-term and long-term objectives for his organization, relying heavily on data driven by the GIS. As a result, his decisions are only as good as the quality of his utility’s GIS data.
After reading up on the advantages of the Utility Network, Jared believes that migrating now would align with his company’s present and future goals. Although he wants to start the process of migrating his utility, he’s unsure of the steps to get there or the tools to use. He’s also unsure whether his utility’s data can currently support a migration effort or if a data remediation plan would need to be implemented first.
Jared needs a structured approach to evaluate where his company’s data quality is currently at and where his company can realistically go within the Utility Network. Having a dynamic plan would allow Jared to realize the effort of his vision and whether his organization could support that effort currently or if steps would need to be taken to meet the model requirements of the Utility Network first.
Reduced Risk of Migration
Planning for migration in advance enables Jared to make informed migration-related decisions for his organization with the data to support those decisions. With a customized plan designed for his utility with specific migration goals and limiting factors, Jared would know exactly what to expect – with no surprises.
Structured Approach
With a comprehensive Utility Network Readiness Plan, Jared would have a step-by-step guide as well as recommendations for completing data remediation and fully migrating his utility, allowing his utility to meet his strategic goals for operating within and using the Utility Network and ArcGIS Pro.
Improved Management
Through a robust data health report and executive summary, Jared would be able to analyze patterns in his utility’s data health, helping him to make better-informed decisions for his company and customers.
Strategic Vision
The UDC Data Assessment Program would provide Jared with the tools necessary to build a strategic vision for his utility, creating a plan for long-term success.
