Asplundh Tree Expert Co. has licensed ViryaNet's electronic Vegetation Management Solution (eVMS). In addition, Asplundh has signed a distribution agreement to bring eVMS to its customers in North America, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
Having collaborated over the past several months, the two companies are delivering this solution to the marketplace at a time when the utility industry has critical, new reporting requirements. Developed in partnership with CN Utility Consulting (CNUC) and Enporion, eVMS is a first-to-market computerized system that provides utility companies with the necessary tools for effectively administering a UVM program.
eVMS's patent-pending software and business processes provide the necessary tools for utilities to create, plan, execute, monitor and report on every aspect of transmission and/or distribution vegetation management programs and activities. Such activities may include performing an inventory of vegetation, prioritizing pruning activities, and scheduling the people and equipment to perform the required tasks.
eVMS not only offers significant process efficiencies for Asplundh and its customers, but it also will help utilities to comply with and report on new North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) mandatory transmission clearance requirements. Ultimately, this system will drive improvements in overall transmission and distribution system reliability. A pre-production field trial of eVMS has been successfully completed with Asplundh and Southern California Edison. The project, conducted in the second half of 2005, clearly demonstrated the capabilities of eVMS to capture and update inventory information, dispatch work assignments to crews, capture completed work, and report results. The field trial confirmed that eVMS provided more timely information on completed work and streamlined vegetation management processes to make better use of resources.
As a result of the agreement, Asplundh Tree Expert Co. will now market eVMS. Adopting eVMS's system will help Asplundh's customers manage their vegetation programs more effectively.
"Asplundh has a long history of identifying new processes and tools that have driven productivity improvements in the utility vegetation management process," said Scott Asplundh, president of Asplundh Tree Expert Co. "eVMS is a technology tool that will streamline many aspects of that process for our customers, thereby improving reliability and helping with regulatory reporting." Additional information on eVMS may be found at www.evmsolution.com or by contacting 1-800-248-8733 ext. 1348.
