{"id":6470,"date":"2016-02-23T08:05:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T16:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/?p=6470"},"modified":"2016-02-23T08:05:19","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T16:05:19","slug":"simultaneous-access-with-the-location-platform","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/simultaneous-access-with-the-location-platform","title":{"rendered":"Simultaneous Access with the Location Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Smashing Information Silos and Connecting People with the Data They Need<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhen I worked for the power company, I liked to ride around town with my colleague Paul.
\nPaul was a troubleshooter, an on-call worker who hung out in his bucket truck, waiting for something to go wrong on the grid. While the job may sound like a cakewalk, troubleshooters were almost always busy. Once someone reported a problem, Paul would get a call from the dispatcher and then race to the location of a power failure. He would quickly locate where the failure occurred; radio in an assessment of the damage; and, if possible, fix the problem.
\n\"\"<\/a>
\nMany of the issues troubleshooters encountered were caused by tree limbs falling on the exposed lines, causing a short circuit and blowing a fuse. Another common problem occurred when unwitting squirrels would use the power lines as a convenient path from one source of nuts to another. (The squirrels usually didn\u2019t make it.) Each time, Paul would uncover the burned tree limb on the ground, or find the fried squirrel, then figure out which fuse blew and replace it. Problem solved in most cases.
\nIn other, more complicated situations, such as someone crashing into a pole, Paul would contact the dispatcher to send a line crew. Paul was often the point person, who determined how long the job would take. To make such an assessment, he needed to know everything about the electric network\u2014the location of each switch, transformer, lightning arrester, and sensor; the asset sizes; and how the network was connected. Ultimately, he needed authoritative data from the company\u2019s geographic information system (GIS)<\/a>. And what he needed most was access to up-to-date information.
\n
\nMe, Myself, and My Maps<\/strong>
\nOne day while riding around with me, Paul came upon a line switch that didn\u2019t look right. There was no reported power failure, but he wanted to investigate it. He hesitated. He clearly didn\u2019t want me\u2014the boss\u2014 to see something. But I probed and he finally came clean.
\nPaul reached under the seat of the truck and pulled out a huge stack of papers. They were worn map sheets and feeder maps, which were either created from the GIS or original, hand-drawn maps. A feeder map shows the electric grid overlaid on a normal map of streets. The map sheets had very neat red markings all over them.
\nNaturally, I asked him why he kept a private set of feeder maps. He knew that I had been the champion of the company\u2019s GIS project. He broke the news that many of the troubleshooters kept their own set of maps. They didn\u2019t trust the mapping department or the GIS to keep the maps updated. Plus, the mapping department didn\u2019t put all of the important stuff on the maps, such as some hazards. He figured that if he handed over the map sheets, his life and work would get more complicated and perhaps less safe.
\nI couldn\u2019t blame Paul. The mapping department was carrying a large backlog of work. Often, when they printed a new map sheet, it wasn\u2019t up to date. Paul and his fellow troubleshooters stopped giving information to the mapping department altogether because, to them, it was a waste of time. But the problem wasn\u2019t only that Paul didn\u2019t share vital information with the mapping department\u2014it was that he didn\u2019t tell anyone<\/strong>.
\nNot only did other troubleshooters\u2014who covered the same area as Paul on different shifts\u2014not have his intel, but the planners, maintenance people, and reliability engineers lacked access to data as well. Had they known what Paul knew, these other groups could have acted and potentially prevented power failures. Paul\u2019s approach was narrow and related only to his particular job.
\n
\nBreaking Data Free<\/strong>
\nNow imagine if the power company had adopted the ArcGIS platform<\/a> across departments. With ArcGIS, when Paul would find a problem with a switch, he could pull up the feeder map for the area he was servicing, using his mobile device. Paul could then redline the problem area, document the issue with a note and a red flag, and take a picture. Done. From that moment on, everyone in the company who had access to the ArcGIS platform would also have access to Paul\u2019s records.
\nAnd when Paul ended his shift, the next troubleshooter would know which issues and hazards Paul had encountered. In addition, back at the office in the maintenance department, a dashboard would show staff which assets Paul had serviced in the field. Anyone who had a vested interest in troubleshooters\u2019 service data could update the core GIS.
\nHowever, there are only so many troubleshooters driving around the city with their bosses looking over their shoulders. There are millions of other people\u2014city workers, residents, police, and firefighters\u2014on the lookout for hazards. They, too, can contribute their observations to the ArcGIS platform. When people smell something burning, see a tree limb dangling too close to a wire, hear a bang, or see a spark, they can document what they observe with ArcGIS Online<\/a> mapping tools. There is no waiting. Once third-party data is captured online, everyone connected to the platform has access to the information and can act.
\n
\nArcGIS and Access<\/strong>
\nThe ArcGIS platform is, in effect, a system of simultaneity. I know\u2014that\u2019s a mouthful. Maps are the most powerful form of communication for telling someone where something happened. The problem with keeping mapping systems locked away in a closet is that they lose the quality of immediacy. When you interact with the ArcGIS platform, everyone\u2014people like Paul and other troubleshooters, planners, and even nosy bosses\u2014get to see important data on a map simultaneously.
\nWhen I think of the ArcGIS platform, I think of the three basic things it does, all beginning with the letter A. This story is about the idea of access<\/em>\u2014simply put, the ability to access information from wherever you are, on any device, and at any time.
\nThe second A is awareness<\/em>. This answers the question, what\u2019s going on right now? It does this by bringing all kinds of data from a variety of sources into the platform. Look for my next post, on awareness. The third is the most strategic and, maybe, powerful of the A\u2019s: analysis<\/em>. That\u2019s about connecting the dots and getting to the why of what\u2019s happening. I\u2019ll be writing about that soon.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

For more information about GIS for electric utilities, visit esri.com\/electric<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[275862],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6470","insider","type-insider","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-focus"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSimultaneous Access with the Location Platform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/simultaneous-access-with-the-location-platform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Simultaneous Access with the Location Platform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Smashing Information Silos and Connecting People with the Data They Need When I worked for the power company, I liked to ride around town with my colleague Paul. 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