I was asked to appear at a city council meeting when I ran electric operations for a power company. Residents packed the public session. They weren’t happy. They pointed to a rash of power failures from the past few weeks. I assured the residents that we were taking their reliability issues seriously. The underground cables were old. But we had a program in place to replace them. The crowd groaned.
The more vexing issue was the condition of the city streets. Residents had been giving the council heat for potholes and poor street conditions. The council committed to improving things by instituting an aggressive repaving program.
My Power Company Wasn’t Helping Matters
Two days before the city council meeting, my crews had showed up on one of the streets that had recently been repaved. The smell of tar was still in the air. The residents had endured one of the worst streets in the city for years. The street had potholes, cracks in the pavement, and ruts that could cause a car to move sideways. To quote one of the long-suffering citizens, “For two glorious days, we had a brand-new street. Then they showed up.” They, of course, were us. City council and residents wanted to know why my power company was ruining their beautifully paved street just two days after taxpayer dollars had been paid to pave them.
The simple answer: lack of communication.
I agreed to repave the full street section we had just recently ruined. And I agreed to have better communication with the city. Yet, despite my best efforts, we continued to experience a lack of coordination. We tried the old form of communication. We emailed spreadsheets. The city did the same. The regularity of emails was sporadic. We couldn’t tell what had changed from the last spreadsheet. Unless the spreadsheets were updated in real-time, we could never be sure we had the most up-to-date information. Both parties trudged along, sometimes coordinating, other times not.
What Does This Have To Do With GIS?
A lot.
We had a GIS and the city had a GIS. What if the two collaborate? What if the power company consumed the paving schedules from their GIS in our GIS? And what if the city consumed a web service for our digging work orders? This concept is what we at Esri call a system of engagement. Simple. Web services would allow our GIS to appear to have the data from the city stored directly in our GIS. In reality, it is not. The beauty is that whenever we change our respective paving areas, the other party sees it instantly. Further, since the GIS shows the exact extent of the paving and digging on a digital map, we could have precise information about where the conflict could arise. Then we could ask the GIS to show where the digging and paving are in the same place.
ArcGIS is a GIS that provides not only a system of record, like the paving schedules but the technology to break down communication barriers, so organizations and departments can share information and collaborate in real-time. Teams, departments, and companies can securely and seamlessly share map-based information. This notion is what makes cities smart - breaking down communication barriers. Coordination among all parties. Collaboration to save rework, money, and aggravation. If we can do this among utilities, we can also help inform the public. What if a small shop owner has a grand opening? But the utility also plans to dig up the street right in front of the shop. Or what if a couple is planning to walk down the aisle on the once-in-a-lifetime ceremony, only to have the wedding march accompanied by a jackhammer?
ArcGIS answers utility constituents (customers, regulators, the media, other utilities, first responders) a simple question. What’s going on right now, right here, and when?
More Information is Always Better Than Less
Imagine if a utility could simply publish a live web map on its website, showing exactly when and where utility work would happen. Then customers would know if there would be work near them. Some utilities do that now. Peoples Gas of Chicago has a live website driven by ArcGIS that tells its customers where work is happening. Check it out at: https://accel.peoplesgasdelivery.com/company/main_replacement.aspx. ArcGIS provides an easy way to communicate, collaborate and coordinate.
For more information on how ArcGIS fine-tunes customer engagement, click here.