It is all about the Data. To Manage the Assets, the Data must be Right. To plan for system expansion, the baseline data must be right. To maintain the system, the data must be right. Stadtwerke Augsburg's (Ausburg, Germany) more than 1700 engineering, finance and operations personnel needed to approach managing the utility's infrastructure assets in a way that allowed them to address urgent problems — such as outages and customer-service complaints — while also planning for the area's growth and fulfilling the utility's ongoing business functions. This diverse group of professionals needed to draw on data from the utility's other departments and be confident that the information was accurate and up to date.

Stadtwerke Augsburg is an independent public utility with many assets on its plate: electricity, gas, water, heating and local public transit for the 275,000 residents of Augsburg, located in south-central Germany. So, the assets range from electric transmission lines to water piping to bus stops.

Stadtwerke Augsburg planners began searching for a comprehensive solution to the utility's data and asset management challenges. Those tasked with finding an answer knew that the solution must benefit the whole organization, from field crews to marketing and sales executives to asset managers to technicians. Moreover, the solution had to be easy to understand for all users, immediately useful, built on proven software and functionalities, and clearly distinct from earlier incremental solutions. And, it had to deliver on three key results: save time, save money and improve an already robust customer-service operation.

THE DATA PROBLEM

Administering a complex landscape of files created using Microsoft Access and Excel applications, and an Adabas database to manage technical data about the assets, required a great deal of staff time for maintenance activities such as correcting errors and resolving redundancies.

Field crew technicians who responded to customer-service or disruption calls recorded their reports by hand. With many reports being created manually every day, there was usually a delay between the report being produced and the data being entered into one of the many data sources back at the headquarters. This delay created a disconnect between the information on the network and the facts on the ground. It also led to redundant entries when technicians from the field entered similar or duplicate reports. These issues cost Stadtwerke Augsburg time and money, as mistaken or duplicate data had to be corrected manually.

Another challenge faced was the transition from a paper-based paradigm to an IT environment. In addition to all the technical data stored in various sources and the customer information in the SAP (Walldorf, Germany) system, the utility still had significant amounts of data stored in hard copy. Thousands of maps for water lines, gas lines, transit assets, and customer and neighborhood service areas meant huge time and material costs. Each time a customer-service representative or field technician needed to make changes or updates, it involved a trip to the cadastral department to update the records. That department then spent more time and materials reproducing and distributing the new versions.

The limited access to important information also impacted the utility's ability to respond to its customers. A customer inquiring about a service disruption or requesting immediate service would have to contend with delays as customer-service representatives hurried to consult with engineers and field crew technicians about the status of the customer's service. Information about which part of the network was affected or which neighborhood or customer needed to be contacted was time consuming to track down. The information resided either in physical documents in another department or in transition between one isolated server and another.

THE SOLUTION

Everyone recognized that a centralized and comprehensive IT solution would resolve many of the current challenges. In addition to implementing an integrated platform to share infrastructure data across the organization, Stadtwerke Augsburg needed to ensure that the transition was quick and easy.

Based on its criteria — ease of use by many different types of users, interoperability with existing and industry-standard databases, and scalability to meet future growth — Stadtwerke Augsburg chose a solution that drew on its workforce's experience with proven software platforms. Engineers and asset managers, highly familiar with software products like AutoCAD, were aware of Autodesk's (San Rafael, California, U.S.) capabilities in producing tools that had real and immediate benefits in the field and in the office.

In 2002, Stadtwerke Augsburg implemented the Autodesk Topobase infrastructure design and management solution along with an Oracle (Redwood Shores, California, U.S.) database. The new system allowed the utility to integrate all the data from the assets and then maintain the data in real time. The engineers began by migrating data from all their existing databases, stored in isolated silos across different departments, into one centralized database. Thanks to the consolidation of information, employees from across the organization were now able to work on a single, secure platform to access real-time information.

The following year, the utility integrated its SAP IS-U module into the Topobase solution. That SAP module, which contains valuable customer data, was previously used only by finance and customer-service professionals. Now technical teams could easily gain information about house connections from SAP for use in engineering projects.

In 2006, Stadtwerke Augsburg continued its integration of data by linking its SAP PM module to the Topobase system. By making plant maintenance data part of the centralized data accessible to all employees, finance planners were able to draw on Topobase technical data in their calculations. This gave the utility a broader understanding of existing assets and invested capital, and facilitated better planning of new assets.

THE POWER OF INFORMATION

Topobase, built on AutoCAD Map 3D and Autodesk MapGuide software applications, combined with the Oracle database, allowed Stadtwerke Augsburg's employees to consolidate their as-built and design data into a single, central, spatial-information database. Because of its user-friendly and straightforward interface, Topobase quickly became a valuable asset to users across the organization, not just those with technical expertise in GIS and CAD software.

There are more than 350 Topobase users. Since 2002, the database has grown to more than 53 million entries displayed in 120 Autodesk MapGuide layers across 13 different modules. Utility managers now have accurate and real-time data about electricity, telecommunication, natural gas, drinking water, city traffic and heating assets.

Stadtwerke Augsburg has seen benefits across the organization, from sales and marketing professionals to field technicians and finance planners. Customer-service agents, who used to pore over paper maps and navigate many data sources, now have all the timely and accurate information in one place. Tasks that once took hours to complete are now done in minutes. For example, customer-service representatives in the past needed more than 30 minutes to answer asset location-related questions for customers; these questions now can be answered in less than a minute. By empowering customer-service representatives with the same tools and information given to technicians and operations executives, customers are benefiting. These time-savers mean a more efficient operation and better customer service.

Marketing and advertising teams, tasked with subscribing new commercial and residential customers, are also enjoying the comprehensive solution to asset management. Utility outreach and advertising plans used to be based on maps with highlighted routes on them. Now data on a specific neighborhood is available right away on a visual map with potential customers located. This allows the utility to be more strategic with its marketing budget and tactics.

But it may be the field crews who have seen the biggest gains since switching to an integrated infrastructure information solution. For example, field technicians combine the Autodesk MapGuide views with their TomTom vehicle navigation units (where assets are entered as points of interest) to map out the quickest route to the disturbances and customer-service calls. Once in the field, these technicians can access Topobase data on their GPS-enabled mobile devices and visualize the assets around them. As they walk with the device, their position and the assets surrounding them move in sync.

Even finance managers and planners are seeing the benefits of a comprehensive approach to asset management. They can use Topobase to gather data from the Oracle database on fixed assets and invested capital. This information allows finance planners to plan more strategically for design, construction and maintenance costs for each new asset, by giving them a broader view of their physical assets, the condition they're in and the maintenance needs they'll be facing down the road.

EMPOWERING SUCCESS

Stadtwerke Augsburg has seen a positive return on its investment in the new asset management solution. Engineers and technicians found the software quick and easy to implement, and straightforward to learn and teach to other users. Less time spent implementing and training meant lower transition costs up front and a shorter time to increased productivity.

By integrating technical data from across the organization, Topobase has allowed its users to view assets and gather information from many levels of detail. Asset managers can view the big picture to make better decisions, while customer-service agents and field crews can access detailed data, street by street or one neighborhood at a time.

Stadtwerke Augsburg's asset managers have improved their system each year since the implementation in 2002. Just recently, they added information about Augsburg's 800 bridges, important data that affects their asset management across a number of modules. And they have their sights set on adding GIS data on the city's wastewater system next.

The leaders of Stadtwerke Augsburg are pleased with their integrated system. Employees are happy and more productive, and they continue to add functions and improve data, building the business while providing excellent customer service. The decision to implement a centralized and comprehensive system is a key contributor to this organization's ongoing success.

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Jürgen Biedermann joined Stadtwerke Augsburg in 1992 as project manager of GIS. He is currently head of the documentation and IT-service department with 19 professionals, responsible for company-wide GIS, and all kinds of map information for the gas, water, electricity, telecommunication and long-distance heating networks. He holds a master's degree in engineering. juergen.biedermann@stawa.de