By Bob Meador, Manager Business Development/Utilities, Geographic Data Technology, Inc.

Commercial data sets allow utility companies to leverage existing investments in AM/FM systems to help create a street centerline landbase that can be used enterprise-wide. By leveraging previous investments, a landbase allows a utility to create a single unified system that services multiple departments and needs. This session will discuss how to create a landbase for applications such as vehicle routing, dispatch and tracking, outage management, billing, CIS integration, geocoding, marketing and acquisition analysis.

We will be looking at three specific areas. The first part will address generic issues that utilities face with the use of commercial data as a landbase. The second part will address how standardizing and centralizing a utility landbase can reduce costs and increase efficiency. The third part will address maximizing the return on an AM/FM/GIS investment using commercial data.

Utilities need real time updating capabilities for work order posting as they typically receive information on new streets and subdivisions prior to anyone else. Rarely is real time updating achieved, and most companies have a backlog of up to six months in updating the landbase. Commercial data providers are now providing custom feedback loops allowing more advanced turnaround times and more advanced delivery mechanisms such as transactional updates and soon to come online editing. The Community Update program, co-sponsored by Esri and GDT, is a good example of the progress being made today in providing proven landbase updates.

Utilities have long stressed the need for positionally accurate street centerline data as the landbase component of the AM/FM/GIS program. This level of quality (+/- 20ft – 30 ft) has not been available commercially for the full coverage areas desired, so many utilities have developed their own landbase via aerial photogrammetry or kluging together various local sources of varying quality data. This was expensive and required an extended delivery schedule, adding years to the implementation of an AM/FM/GIS. Today, new tools such as realignment of existing data using registered DOQQ or better imagery allow relatively quick, cost effective positional enhancement of commercially available street centerline data. This not only provides a "ready to go" landbase, but one with intelligence associated with each street segment.

In dealing with numerous utilities over the years, it is very apparent that each department has different needs and therefore most utilities use a variety of formats or platforms within the organization. This means separate expenditures for landbase and other intelligence features needed to support the various applications. Commercial data providers today support multiple formats allowing the same data set to be used throughout the organization that not only can minimize the overall cost, but also provides a common point of reference.

Many utilities need custom products to meet their specific needs. These custom products include items such as building footprints, house points, actual address ranges, custom formats and custom boundaries. In the past, commercial data providers could not accommodate these requests as they generally provided a "vanilla" product that fit general customers needs but didn’t offer the custom features needed by utilities. With today’s technology, however, commercial data providers are actively engaged in providing solutions to meet the customers needs. Point addresses can now be accommodated in the database as can actual address ranges. Enhanced by geocoding technology, these features are ever more valuable when routing or dispatching, for example.

As mentioned previously, landbase development is a difficult, expensive and time-consuming process. Commercial data providers can minimize the efforts of utilities as they have already established landbase source relationships at the county level and have, in many cases, already licensed the local data set for use in their product. Through this process the commercial provider uses their standards to ensure the quality and consistency of the data. This enables the utility to reduce its interaction to one data source with a consistent quality product. Many utilities believe they have a highly accurate landbase because they pieced together accurate sections mixed in with less accurate ones, but in fact the overall quality far exceeds +/- 50 ft.

Commercial data providers are capable today of managing the updates of the landbase. With the utility providing the feedback of where and when changes are occurring, data providers can update the database in a timely fashion. As satellite imagery comes of age over the next 12 months, change detection will become more realistic and cost-effective. Outsourcing the landbase maintenance to a qualified data partner can free up resources and add additional value as commercial providers focus on improving not only the streets but the attributes as well. Routing attributes, ZIP code changes, and demographic information all require maintenance best left in the hands of experienced data compilers.

It is very common to see multiple departments using GIS today. Unfortunately, it is also very common for there to be a lack of communication between groups as each have their own agendas and work requirements. Each department purchases its own solution because of its specific needs and timing. In many cases, landbase data is purchased on a project-by-project basis. Working with a commercial data provider can reduce redundant purchasing, introduce interoperability and sharing of data among applications and provide the same look, feel and level of quality for all departments, applications, GIS formats and geographic coverage.

Companies that have made significant investment in their current landbase can benefit significantly from adding attributes to their data, which provides a means to leverage the investment across the enterprise. This needs to be done in such a way that the integrity of the existing facility data is maintained. Some commercial data providers today have developed sophisticated tools that can populate your positionally accurate core data set with attributes. Conflation technology moves the commercial data set to match the utility’s geometry with no impact on the customer’s data. This has been done at Florida Power & Light and Public Service of Colorado with high quality results. A further benefit is the seamless transition into the areas surrounding a company’s service territory. It also provides a way to improve the landbase accuracy over time as areas become more developed.

The basic premise here is that virtually all AM/FM/GIS landbase installations lack intelligence; have limited use for applications; have limited geographic coverage; and significant investment is required for new landbase development. They are designed very well for the facilities maintenance applications but are not easily used for other basic applications. Commercial data’s value is address intelligence, seamless nationwide and international coverage, immediate delivery and cost effectiveness.

Multiple Layers are available to support different applications. Street Centerlines can support outage management, facilities management, vehicle tracking and navigation, marketing, economic development, customer service, and enterprise wide usage. Postal information can support marketing and customer service. Census information can be used for marketing, economic development and customer service. Water features help with visual map appeal, can help locate high-risk customers and assist with proactive outage management programs. Tax departments can benefit from municipal and political boundaries while call centers, marketing and customer care departments can use communication boundaries.

Some of the significant applications supported are:

• Mobile data dispatch/service technician routing : routing attributes, address ranges, link with GPS receivers and real-time dispatching capabilities
• Outage management: routing attributes, address ranges, shorelines
• Marketing: demographic variables, postal, census, & address intelligence
• Economic development: demographic variables, postal, census, & address intelligence
• Customer service: address intelligence, demographic variables, link with OMS to establish historical background, and improved information dissemination to clients
• Corporate growth and competitive strategy: contiguous, nationwide and international coverage

 Robert Meador is GDT's director of business development for the utilities industry. Before joining GDT, Meador marketed engineering, construction and technical consulting services to commercial and government clients. He also served as vice president of Photo-Cad Services, Inc., a Stone & Webster Engineering Corporation subsidiary, marketing GIS services to gas and electric utilities.