Enterprise GIS Implementation
North Wales Water Authority, PA
Consisting of two phases, the Enterprise GIS implementation for North Wales Water Authority (NWWA) is considered to be cutting-edge in both approach and project design. Enterprise GIS brings significant return on investment for NWWA, as it will increase data accuracy regarding elements such as hydrants, pump stations and wells while identifying missing and inconsistent source data.

Phase I involved initiatives relating to data conversion, such as comprehensive inventory of all existing data sources, the customization of ESRI water data model database design and specification of the hardware, software and network components needed to implement an enterprise system in its entirety–from graphic feature captures to field data collection–and development of application and supporting maintenance packages.

When completed, this ESRI-based GIS will support NWWA’s daily mapping, customer service, infrastructure management, and engineering planning/design work flows.

GIS-Based Enterprise Asset Management System Master Plan
City of Richmond, VA - DPU
The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities (DPU) contracted with Timmons Group to develop a Spatial Information Systems Master Plan capable of supporting the multiyear implementation of a GIS-based Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) System. The resulting EAM supports the life-cycle asset management activities of DPU’s water, sewer, natural gas and street light infrastructure. The master plan defines the geospatial and infrastructure management needs of the City’s four different utility operations while providing a five-year implementation plan focused on early returns on investment.

Phase I of the master plan included a review of industry-wide best practices that will serve as a benchmark upon which DPU’s core application requirements, implementation strategies and critical success factors will be measured. Business drivers, workflows, and data/application requirements are being determined through a series of interviews with over 30 individual staff members representing DPU’s various utilities, divisions and groups.

Phase II of the master plan focused on identifying the core geospatial applications to be implemented over the initial five year period. A scalable system architecture and design was developed to support the deployment of the core applications. Additionally, a detailed financial analysis was performed and will investigate initial implementation costs, ongoing system maintenance costs, anticipated efficiency improvements and cost savings and a determination of the anticipated pay-back period. Phase II deliverables also included a management plan that recommends an organizational structure as well as staffing and training requirements.

Enterprise GIS implementation, Modeling, and Business Process Analysis (BPA) for Asset Management Selection and Datastream 7i implementation
Artesian Water Company, DE
Artesian Water Company (AWC), the utility subsidiary of Artesian Resources (NSDQ:ARTNA.O), contracted with Timmons Group in 2005 to design, develop, and implement an ESRI ArcGIS-based Enterprise Geographic Information System (GIS). The scope of the implementation included business process analysis and improvement of facility mapping and asset management related activities; water and sewer data model development and database design (SQL Server); water and sewer facility GIS data migration, conversion, and spatial adjustment (AutoCAD to ArcGIS); software installation, configuration, and end-user training; custom data maintenance and viewing application design, development and configuration; and hydraulic model integration, calibration and analysis.

Additionally, AWC has asked Timmons Group to facilitate the integration of the water and sewer GIS databases with the existing Peoplesoft ERP business application. Finally, Timmons Group also assisted in the solicitation, evaluation, selection, and implementation of an EAM solution targeted to replace the company’s existing Hansen solution. Through detailed review and analysis of several CMMS software applications, facilitated by Timmons Group, AWC selected Datastream 7i as their new EAMS.

Enterprise Asset Management System
City of Richmond, VA
Timmons Group implemented a GIS-based Enterprise Asset/Work Order Management System for the City of Richmond, Virginia Department of Public Works (DPW).  DPW undertook this significant project to integrate a variety of disparate legacy asset management and work order applications / business processes as well as improve its daily operating efficiencies and increase its level of service to customers.  This project will also establish a comprehensive inventory of all public works assets and will achieve American Public Works Association (APWA) accreditation for public works best management practices.  The Scope of Services included the following:

Requirements Analysis & System Design - Conduct a series of implementation planning workshops for the purpose of defining critical success factors, work processes, data needs, work order/service order protocols, reporting requirements, etc.

Existing Data Analysis - Review and analyze each of the existing data sets that will need to be integrated with the new asset/work order management system.

Database Design - Develop the customized UNITRANS and Cityworks (www.azteca.com) database design required to support linear referencing and asset/work order management activities within the City’s existing ArcGIS Geodatabase.

Legacy Application Discovery & Interface Design & Implementation - Perform a detailed review of the multiple legacy applications resulting in a Functional Requirements Document (FRD) capable of supporting the development of the required application interfaces (customized programming).

Base Implementation - Install, configure, tune, test, load, etc. the base Cityworks asset/work order management solution throughout the department. 

Asset Capture – TRANSMAP (www.transmap.com), a strategic Timmons Group asset management partner, deployed state-of-the-art van-based image capture and terrestrial photogrammetry techniques to locate all of DPW’s above ground assets visible within the public right-of-way of an approximately 1,000 mile road network.  All of the signs, signals, sidewalks, guardrails, pavement sections, etc. location and condition information were extracted from the images, loaded into the ESRI geodatabase, and configured for use with the Cityworks CMMS application.

Timmons Group is currently assisting DPW with the organization-wide adoption of the new system through provision of configuration enhancements, coaching of system administrators and end-users, as well as the development of both standard and enhanced custom reporting solutions.  For more information on this and all of our Enterprise Asset Management capabilities, contact Ed Singer, Infrastructure Solutions Manager at 804.200.6500 or ed.singer@timmons.com.

Conversion and Development, Applications Development Services
Henrico County, Virginia
The Henrico County Department of Public Utilities contracted with Timmons Group to post water and sewer as-built updates to the existing County water and sewer GIS feature classes, capture sewer laterals for the entire county, and QA/QC existing digital sewer infrastructure.

The conversion was performed using ESRI’s ArcSDE 9.1 with Microsoft’s SQL Server 2000 as the back-end database. By using ArcSDE versions, Timmons Group was able to effectively manage a multi-user multi-tiered editing environment. Technicians are utilizing an internally developed ArcObjects application that uses existing lateral stations to correctly place and attribute each lateral. Attributes include station, elevation, depth, length, main id, parcel address, downstream manhole id, and downstream manhole distance.

Over 650 as-built plans were scanned for capture. The project utilized geo-referenced scanned water and sewer sheets to accurately place utility data with associated attribution. The digital conversion process captured all information pertaining to property, right of way, easements, connections, services, meters, vaults, hydrants, valves, pipe alignment and material into an existing water and sewer feature class in accordance with the standards established by the Department of Public Utilities.