Utility companies use imaging for document management in all areas of their business. From the nitty-gritty of engineering drawings to the handling of customer service, imaging makes life easier. It keeps our gas pumping, our water flowing and our electricity surging. It automates:
Customer service. Utilities need immediate answers to customers' questions. Being able to call up invoices in an instant helps. It saves companies time and money on call-backs. Severn Trent Water, in England, is using IBM's (Research Triangle Park, NC 914-431-7676) ImagePlus and OfficeVision. It keeps up-to-date records of all customer correspondence in a database and helps them provide better service.
Westbrook Tracks Baltimore Mains
Baltimore Gas & Electric (Baltimore, MD 410-685-0123) provides gas and electric service to more than 1.6 million customers in the metropolitan Baltimore area. Their Gas Maps and Records Division is using Westbrook Technologies' (Branford, CT 203-483-6666) File Magic Plus document management software suite. They're using document imaging to automate the storage and retrieval of a set of large "as-built drawings," which show the location of gas mains underground.
They found it difficult to keep up with the requests for these drawings by their damage control crews. The crews go out to sites whenever there is damage to a utility underground.
The records division had to make numerous copies of the drawings in full size for every request and mail them out to the other branches.
The drawings cover very large areas. The maps come in three categories of scale: 1 inch = 200 feet, 1 inch = 400 feet and 1 inch = 800 feet. The original drawings are created on-site on "D"-size paper (24" wide by 36" deep).
But now, these original drawings are scanned into the system. Any notations made on the maps are also scanned rather than added manually. These drawings are used by the Gas System Engineering and Design Sector, which is part of the Gas Engineering and Construction Department.
"Workers have access to any drawing from their own workstation," says Lawrence Condry, supervisor of Gas Maps and Records. "This saves time for both the records management and on-site personnel. They can make duplicates themselves and can zone in on smaller areas. They can print an inner section rather than a full-size, 24" x 36" document."
Baltimore Gas & Electric went live in June 1996. Since then, they've scanned and captured about 10,000 as-built drawings. The earliest of these drawings date back to 1972. There are also about 24,000 reference drawings scanned as well.
These are the original drawings of the Baltimore City area, where gas mains were joined with cast iron, differently than they are now. They have frequent leaks, so these drawings are requested constantly. "To dig a dry hole costs money," says Condry. "That's why having the drawings readily available is so important."
About 90 users currently have access to the system. Baltimore Gas & Electric worked with an integrator, RDT Corporation (Baltimore, MD 410-515-1334). File Magic Plus lets users share documents across their network. Originally, BG&E was on a Novell network, but now they're migrating to NT for faster retrieval time.
The most current documents are on a Gateway server. Older documents, like the drawings from the 1970s, go in an Optix jukebox. Scanners are Ideal Symplex.
The total installation cost was about $70,000, including hardware and software. "The return is in the increased efficiency brought to the reprinting and distributing process," says Condry. "We've cut retrieval time from days to seconds."
BG&E also installed a document management solution developed by Data Systems Analysts (Pennsauken, NJ 609-665-6800) in their customer service department.
Kodak Empowers Omaha Nuke Plant
Nuclear engineers know technology. At the Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) (Omaha, NE 402-636-2000), the Fort Calhoun nuclear power station relies on a familiar technology, imaging, to handle important documents detailing plant procedures. They're using Kodak's (Rochester, NY 716-724-4000) Imagelink Business Solutions/PCPlus system.
The Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant has 5,000 procedures. Each year, 2,000 to 3,000 of these procedures are revised or updated. These plant procedures cover every scheduled maintenance activity, as well as all unscheduled responses to problems. (They're so thorough they could even idiot-proof Homer Simpson).
The plant had been using microfilm to store all of their documents. Users did keyword searches in a records management system. The system would bring up the film roll and frame number. They had to search for the roll in a store room and then put it in a reader/printer.
Now, with the Kodak system in place, after they do the keyword search, the system tells them whether that particular document is imaged on CD or is still on film. If the document is on CD, it can be brought up right at the desktop. The microfilm acts as an archival backup.
"This cuts down on a lot of the leg work," says Sue Forbes, Information Technology Division records management supervisor. "Our old system wasn't a major problem, but we knew we could make it better and more efficient."
The utility is scanning any record that has a high concurrent usage. Along with the procedure changes, they scan engineering analyses, calibrations, radiation protection reports and any other records that are used frequently.
The documents are scanned and microfilmed in one step using a Kodak Imagelink 990 scanner. Operators check for errors right at the point of capture on their monitors.
Kodak's High-Volume Capture Software lets the operator create scanning templates to improve the image quality. This is useful for the documents that are difficult to scan -- those with color backgrounds or low contrast.
Indexing is automated, making the documents instantly available to users from the host PC's magnetic cache. As soon as enough documents are scanned, a Kodak PCD Writer 225 burns a CD. The records on film are for archival purposes. Throughout this process, all documents can be located within the records information database.
A Fujitsu standalone scanner is used for documents that are not put on film. The Omaha Public Power District is using a Kodak mini-jukebox for CDs. They were already equipped with PCs, which are mostly IBM.
"We're looking to bring the system to other departments, eventually making it universal," says Forbes. "We've witnessed quicker turnaround time. We're getting our information faster with labor savings."
