Southwest Gas: integrating and automating ARM for the office and field
Southwest Gas
Summary
Logica has supported Southwest Gas through several related projects:
- 2002 awarded Systems Integrator contract for implementation and integration of Asset and Resource Management (ARM) Solution that included Work Management, Asset Management, Compliance Tracking and Mobile Computing
- 2002 awarded three year Solution Maintenance contract to manage ARM solution
- 2003 delivered two new applications for Asset Management and Compliance Tracking
- 2003 System fully operational in first division
- 2004 ARM solution operational in three of five districts; all districts will be implemented in late 2004.
Background
Southwest Gas Corporation is principally engaged in the business of purchasing, transporting and distributing natural gas to residential, commercial and industrial customers in the southwestern United States. Southwest Gas employees 2,491 employees and serves more than 1.4 million customers in Arizona, Nevada and California. The company added 63,000 customers last year, making it the fastest-growing natural gas distribution company in the nation.
Because of this growth, they want to streamline construction and maintenance activities, do a better job of coordinating all resources, and obtain cycle time reductions in their processes. They see office and field-base work management, integrated with other enterprise systems, as being the solution to achieve these goals.
Selecting the right solution
Southwest’s requirements were for a solution that would improve business processes; better manage the growing gas compliance and maintenance requirements that regulators are imposing; and enhance the mobile environment so it could be used to increase the efficiency of maintenance repair activities, inspections, surveys and field design.
In December 2001, Southwest partnered with Logica to build, install and integrate the ARM Solution, which included work management, asset management, DOT code compliance activity management and additional mobile capabilities for the operations side of the business.
In addition, a requirement that was critical to the ARM’s success, but the least visible, was putting in place a forward-looking integration architecture that would interface this new solution with the CIS, Dispatch and Financial systems. ARM became the vehicle to facilitate integrating new capabilities with existing “legacy” information systems. The integration provides a re-engineered, customer-focused energy distribution work process. This means that various departments within Southwest have access to valuable information on a timely, as-needed basis without having to sort through the traditional workflow paper trail and/or placing phone calls to various people involved in the process to determine the current status.
Going forward
Upon complete rollout of the new ARM Solution, Southwest expects to gain efficiency along with enhanced accuracy in many areas of Gas Operations. While the details are considered company confidential, improvements will come from the following major areas:
- Automated code compliance scheduling; (when a capital job is closed, compliance inspections will be automatically scheduled)
- Elimination of redundant data input
- Reduction in the use of paper forms and paper maps
- Improved timeliness and accuracy of gas compliance information
- Streamlined business processes
- Improved management of all utility resources
Logica
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- Mission critical operating at the heart of the client's business.
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