Eagle Technology Case Study

2011

Esri Flex viewer streamlines Watercares Supercity amalgamation

Abstract Watercare, NZs largest water company, was challenged by Aucklands supercity amalgamation. Overnight their asset base would grow from 35,000 features to well over a million. Now, thanks to Eagle Technology, Esris ArcGIS platform and a Flex-based map viewer, Watercare has ramped up their performance significantly and now provides faster, more accurate Customer Care to the public and more flexible access to all asset information for all Watercare staff across the corporate intranet. Watercare, New Zealands largest water and wastewater management company, relies upon Esris ArcGIS platform for a wide range of applications. Its probably safe to say that without GIS, we wouldnt be able to run the business as efficiently as we do, says Neville Perrie, GIS Manager at Watercare Services Limited. And an important component of our GIS capabilities is our customised Flex-based map viewer. This viewer ties all of our GIS functions together and provides a common, standardised map-based view of our infrastructure across the enterprise. As an asset-based organisation, we need to know exactly what we own and operate as well as the status of each asset. Esris ArcGIS platform and the Flex-based viewer provides exactly that, to all of our staff and from any browser. Watercare is responsible for all aspects relating to the quality of the public water supply and wastewater network throughout Auckland. Each day, the company supplies around 370 million litres of drinking water to around approximately 1.3 million Auckland customers covering 340 square kilometres. The company draws water from around 40 sources, treats it and delivers it to homes and businesses via a vast network of pipes. Watercare also operates a wastewater network, receiving wastewater from across Auckland. The vast majority of wastewater is treated at Watercares main plants at Mangere and at Rosedale on the North Shore. Amalgamation Watercare was re-established on 1 November 2010 as part of Aucklands Supercity amalgamation initiative. Before amalgamation, Watercare supplied bulk water to the six regional water retailers (Metrowater, North Shore City Council, Manukau Water, United Water, Rodney District

Why Watercare selected ESRIs ArcGIS platform and Eagle Technology: Watercares seven years of experience with Esris ArcGIS platform; Adoption of Esris ArcGIS platform amongst half of LNOs ensured fast and efficient database and application integration; Seamless integration with Hansen Asset Management software; Flex-based GIS viewer would provide single interface into GIS and asset information; Eagles particular expertise in Flex map viewer development and implementation.

Benefits for Watercare: Faster, more accurate answers to public inquiries from Customer Care due to improved response times, cleaner interface; Fewer duplicate call-outs due to improved access to updated incident reports; Customisable, up-to-date mapbased interface of asset information - available to all Watercare staff - provides a common view of infrastructure across enterprise; Scaled up without any performance degradation as asset register exploded from 35,000 features to 1.1 million features virtually overnight; Provides stable platform for further development.

Auckland: Epsom Stand Alexandra Park Greenlane West Epsom 1023 Ph: (09) 639 0600 Wellington: Level 5 135 Victoria Street 6011 Ph: (04) 802 1400 www.eagle.co.nz

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More Information: For more information regarding Geographic Information Systems and Esri products contact : Greg Dillon-Price Phone: +64 9 639 0695 Mob: 021 979 845 email: gjp@eagle.co.nz For more information regarding Eagle Technology's products and services go to: www.eagle.co.nz or phone +64 9 639 0600 (Head Office) Council, Waitakere City Council), called Local Network Operators (LNOs) which in turn supplied the water to customers in the Auckland region. Watercare absorbed the assets and business relationships of those six retailers as part of the amalgamation. Overnight, Watercares asset register exploded from 35,000 features to 1.1 million features. We had been using Esris ArcGIS IMS (Internet Map Server) platform for seven years, says Shaun Naidoo, Senior GIS Specialist at Watercare, and it was reaching the end of its supported lifecycle. We also knew that we would be consolidating the GIS assets of the six LNOs as part of the amalgamation process. Half were already using Esri software and the other three employed different systems. It was an auspicious time to undertake a major upgrade. Standardisation on Esris ArcGIS 9.3.1 The decision was made to standardise all operations on Esris ArcGIS platform. We upgraded to ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, ArcSDE 9.3.1 and ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1, continues Naidoo. We undertook a data conversion process to translate all of the LNOs GIS data to Esri format. In addition, we incorporated some of the best practices that the LNOs had developed over the years as well. An extra incentive to standardise on ArcGIS is that is has a seamless interface with our Hansen Asset Management software which meant that we could see Hansen data from our GIS screens. As we added more data layers, such as imagery and topography, the response times for our ArcIMS viewer had slowed, says Naidoo. So we took advantage of the opportunity to enhance our browser-based map viewing capabilities as part of the upgrade process. Auckland Regional Council (ARC) had developed a public facing map viewer based on Esris Flex Map Viewer template and generously allowed us to use the code as the basis for our own Flexbased viewer. We engaged Eagle, our Esri technology partner, to help us with the customisation as they had expertise in that particular area. Added functionality We took the Flex-based map viewer that ARC initially provided and added additional refinements such as customised widgets and enhanced key word search capabilities to the Watercare Flex viewer, says Fraser Hand, Eagles Flex specialist. We also advised on database optimisation including reducing scale dependencies and streamlining the indexing process. The result has been a more user-friendly, faster performing viewer. Watercares Flex-based viewer is now the standard GIS interface across the enterprise. Anyone within the organisation now has access to the same GIS and asset data from their browser, says Perrie. The two groups that benefit most, Operations and Customer Care, can pull up any asset, look at any particular attribute and update the record quickly and easily. For instance, if there is a call open and a crew has been dispatched, the Customer Care rep can see this immediately and not send another crew. This has significantly reduced the number of duplicate call outs. Faster, more accurate The Flex-based viewer is much faster in response time, even though we track more than a million objects, adds Naidoo. We can search on any number of valuesID number, address, attribute, etc, quickly and easily. Plus we have automated some updating functions and customised reporting routines as well. And the clean interface and up-to-date data mean that Customer Care reps can quickly provide more accurate information to the public. Its all about tracking assets, concludes Perrie. With ArcGIS and the Flex-based map viewer, we have a single, integrated window into our asset base. GIS is a critical component of our entire operation and our upgraded solution will provide us with a stable platform upon which to add even more value in the future.

Auckland: Epsom Stand Alexandra Park Greenlane West Epsom 1023 Ph: (09) 639 0600 Wellington: Level 5 135 Victoria Street 6011 Ph: (04) 802 1400 www.eagle.co.nz