Chatham-Kent, a single-tier local Canadian government in southwestern Ontario, has announced its selection of ArcGIS and ArcFM to replace the legacy AM/FM system it has operated at its utility divisions since 1998. The combined ESRI and Miner & Miner, a Telvent company, technology will provide a streamlined solution for spatial management of its electric, water, and wastewater networks.
The ArcFM/ArcGIS solution provides off-the-shelf technology that will extend existing functionality, allowing Chatham-Kent to further leverage GIS within its Hydro, Public Utilities Commission, and Engineering Departments. By consolidating its data management systems onto a single GIS platform, information sharing and access will improve across the organization. The benefits afforded to the utility divisions will expedite services the departments provide to their customers.
“With the adoption of a single application architecture, we will realize significant savings,” said Scott Praill, general manager, Chatham-Kent Public Utilities Commission. “These new tools will improve productivity and will allow for easier access to our data.”
ESRI Canada, M&M’s business partner in Canada, will implement the new system and First Base Solutions will provide data conversion services. The project began in October 2005 and is projected to roll out in October 2006. After the initial project is complete, Chatham-Kent plans to leverage the technology’s open environment by implementing additional GIS-based applications.
“The ESRI/M&M GIS solution offers us a greater range of add-on software,” said Dan Charron, director of operations, Chatham-Kent Hydro Inc. “This will allow us to move beyond simple GIS maintenance and viewing to full geospatial solutions such as outage management, asset management, and system design. We feel it is in these applications that the real gains in productivity and savings will occur.”
