MidCoast Water Increases Efficiency in Managing Water and Sewerage 

Autodesk and MunSys used to improve management of spatial data

AUSTRALIA, July 24, 2003 - MidCoast Water increases efficiency using Autodesk software, with the MunSys suite of applications, from Open Spatial Technologies to more effectively manage its water and sewer assets. MidCoast Water manages 1,820 kilometres of pipeline, 192 sewer pump stations, 14 sewer treatment plants and 34 water reservoirs . It supplies 10,700 million litres of water each year and produce 5,740 million litres of effluent and 1,460 dry tonnes of bio solids per year. Managing assets, such as water and sewerage reticulation, as well as treatment plants is a major task requiring a great deal of back-end co-ordination. When a pipeline needs to be repaired or other work needs to take place the impacts on consumers can be significant. An independent audit of MidCoast Water, just over two years ago, revealed two major findings about its performance.

1. MidCoast Water's data had both spatial and textual inaccuracies and a solution was required to improve these,

2. MidCoast Water was not achieving connectivity with corporate systems, such as billing. 

John Skinner, asset manager at MidCoast Water said, "We had been struggling to find a solution which would improve the quality of our data, while complimenting the investments we had already made in our existing technology. "Open Spatial came to us with a solution which included rigorous business rules and integrity checks for cadastral, sewer and water projects." 

Johan Nel, director at Open Spatial said what really appealed to the MidCoast Water team was the way the solutions connected with their existing systems, while being intuitive and easy to use. "There was a minimum amount of training required for the MidCoast Water team. 

The staff were taken through a five day training program and were able to use the system straight away following this with very few questions." Data quality and quantity drastically improved Skinner said, "As a result of the implementation of this system we have been able to, at least, double the quantity of the data captured using the same amount of resources as were previously available, while significantly reducing data errors which had previously been a major issue for MidCoast Water. 

"While we'd love to be able to provide a quantifiable return on investment figure for this system the savings and benefits have been too complex to quantify - we love it. The system has freed at least four staff, and does things we hadn't even begun to imagine." Skinner said, "A significant business impact of this solution is that we are now able to make decisions faster and with greater accuracy." Work-as-executed drawings Skinner said, "Working with the local developers we agreed on a format for importing their data. Typically we would handle two 30-lot subdivisions every month and two 15-lot subdivisions every week. Previously it would take us two days to bring the work-as-executed drawings into the GIS. Now the data is imported directly into MunSys complete with the attribute information and it takes less than one and a half hours." 

Andr� Pravaz, regional director of Autodesk, said "Ease of use and depth of functionality are key benefits for organisations looking to save both time and resources allowing valuable work to be done on other projects." 

Working with others MidCoast Water manages water and sewerage operations across two council areas - Greater Taree and Great Lakes, these councils also collect information in GIS systems. Skinner said, "The councils we work with have been so impressed with the accuracy of our data that we are now sharing our data with them and they are using this information as a base for planning. We are also sharing this information with the Rural Fire Service." 

Inaugural user group and site visit Open Spatial are hosting the launch of their new software, MunSys 9 and their inaugural MunSys User Group meeting at Taree on Wednesday July 30. Delegates of the 2003 NSW Water Conference (31 July - 1 August) may join the site visit of MidCoast Water's installation. Visit the Open Spatial website for more information.

About MidCoast Water 

MidCoast Water was formed in July 1997 and is responsible for reticulated water supply and sewerage systems in the Greater Taree and Great Lakes local government areas. The authority takes on the former responsibilities of:

* NorthPower's water supply systems

* Greater Taree City Council's sewerage network

* Great Lakes Council's water and sewerage facilities.

MidCoast Water's district stretches from Johns River in the north, to Karuah in the south, taking in Taree, Wingham, Forster-Tuncurry, Pacific Palms, Krambach, Stroud, Bulahdelah, Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest.

www.midcoastwater.com.au 

About Open Spatial 

Open Spatial focuses on delivering solutions to Local Government and Utilities. Open Spatial is a Autodesk System Centre (GIS), a Microsoft Certified Partner, and an Oracle Business Partner. 

www.openspatial.com.au 

About Autodesk 

Autodesk is the world's leading design software and digital content company, offering customers progressive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. Autodesk helps customers in the building, manufacturing, infrastructure, digital media, and wireless data services fields increase the value of their digital design data and improve efficiencies across their entire project lifecycle management processes. 

www.autodesk.com

 

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