Metropolitan Utilities District’s Ron Schell, EAM manager, and Lindsay Dreckman, GIS manager, will share what they have learned from the very beginning of their GIS implementation to their current trials and tribulations of integrating SAP and GIS. They will also discuss their decisions to have a better mobile GIS solution to complement their SAP mobile solution, along with their current Open Text integration solution and their continuing road map to better their SAP and GIS mobile applications.
The format for Thursday, July 16 at 10 a.m. CT will include:
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Brief welcome and kickoff from ASUG
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Hot-topic discussion led by ASUG members Ron Schell and Lindsay Dreckman from Metropolitan Utilities District
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The discussion will focus on:
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Transition from paper to GIS (go-live)
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GIS in the field and services to use
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SAP Geographical Enablement Framework and needing SAP and GIS to sync
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GIS disconnected and where to go in the future of integration
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Sharing of recent wins or successes, along with resources utilized
Gain visibility into the challenges and successes other SAP customers are experiencing, and acquire new ideas for real-world solutions.
If you are experiencing challenges and would like to lead your own case study, fill out the survey here.
Think Tank Insights:
- Biggest reason to go from paper to GIS was for the ability for the field personal to make decisions in a timely and accurate manner. Make better decisions, they can then talk to the customer and talk through adjustments, make work orders, etc. live and the personnel do not have to get into contact with a superior to talk through requests and questions. This process took a couple of years but made a huge difference.
- In their GIS, they couple with SAP so that they know the equipment data (i.e. operating protocol, last service to machinery, etc.)
- On an iPad their field reps have everything they need to process their job. It streamlined everything in a mobility mindset.
- When you use GOE and GIS on SAP, when you start doing Data Migration, it really makes you clean your data, and if not, it really shows you where your data is bad. IF you do not have good data going into this transition it bring it to the forefront and highlights it for you. Bad data = messy data for the most part. This is a major lesson learned and data cleansing is something you can do to help proactively plan for a transition like this.
- Lesson Learned: Make sure your roadmap is flexible because you will have to make adjustments, you may have to spread some money elsewhere, but by having it flexible you are allowing yourself the ability to make changes and be able to pivot while staying on track with your main or original project. Flexibility is very important when planning!
- Amanda, ASUG: Upcoming Think Tanks and Offerings from ASUG
- Utilities Series - July 31 Midwest Central Chapter will host
- Utilities Series - Aug. 17 LES
- EAM influence council will begin in the Fall as well
- Ron, Metropolitan Utilities District: A potential roadblock that came up with the iPads was actually around larger people with hands that don’t allow for easy usage of the iPad interface, investing in stylists or using voice commands has actually been a very worthwhile investment. As funny as this sounds, this is an important item to think about.