Using GIS in utilities is a necessity for quite some time now. Planning for expansion must follow development in the field where new consumption is likely to take place, so one needs to know demography, urban plan elements, development of industry and other facts, and GIS can give that fine balance between needs and expected return on investment – and assist marketing in efforts to increase the score. Then design is expected to follow the aproved plans, but also to meet the needs of as-built network database records, and CAD just isn’t good enough for that, so GIS again is the right answer. Operations departments need to know where network equipment is installed and when, as well as where are points of supply to be able to secure uninterrupted service to consumers. They can find it in GIS. If however an interruption in supply occurs, GIS is here to aid in determining where the damage occurred, how serious it is, how many service staff needs to go fix it and how soon will people and businesses be back in service. To avoid frequent outages and leaks, which can increase the operation costs significantly, the maintenance departments need to know what parts of the network are soon to be replaced or visited for control. They must, of course, have right to access the network and it is the land management department that takes care of rights of way, leases, land purchases and sales. And many more activities in utilities can benefit from using GIS.

Though utilities have traditionally use desktop mapping, CAD and GIS, they now recognize the emerging need to consolidate disparate databases scattered throughout the organization, to integrate with other systems like ERP and SCADA and make GIS a mainstream and mission critical technology.

If you feel such a need, turn to GDi GISDATA solutions and consultancy services. The experience from numerous utility GIS projects, powerful technology platforms and partners, and custom applications built upon the platforms make GDi GISDATA best choice to assist you in building a GIS that will make your company more successful.