In the Czech Republic, most electrical wires, telecom lines, and gas pipes are installed underground. This means landowners who wish to build on their land must first consult utilities for an appraisal of the type and location of infrastructure buried underground. CEZ— the Czech Republic’s largest electricity producer—had to supply an appraisal form to each customer within 30 days of receiving a request. The utility was processing 160,000 customer appraisal requests per year—more than 430 per day.

CEZ staff created CEZ Geoportal, a web portal based on ArcGIS for Server, that delivers customer appraisal forms within minutes. At least 30 percent of all requests can be handled automatically. CEZ estimates that this saves the public 84,000 workdays each year while reducing paper waste. This has measurably reduced CEZ’s costs while improving customer service. The utility also uses CEZ Geoportal to share data online with government officials and emergency management centers. 

“The process involved a lot of paper work and usually took more than half a day for the common citizen to make the request properly and to send it through mail. The web portal simplified the process to minutes.”  - Frantisek Fiala Consulting Specialist, CEZ 

If your utility processes requests for information regarding buried infrastructure, consider developing an online spatial application to service these requests. In addition to cutting paper waste, reducing time to service, and lowering costs, the application empowers stakeholders with easier access to critical network information.