Halberstadtwerke GmbH, an energy service provider for Halberstadt, Germany, and its surrounding region, provides approximately 45,000 commercial and residential customers in 38 municipalities with electricity, natural gas, water and heating services in addition to energy consulting and building management technology.
Before its overhaul, Halberstadtwerke’s network information system (NIS) consisted of disparate software solutions from various providers, resulting in excessive operating costs. To consolidate its NIS, Halberstadtwerke chose Octave NetWorks, Octave’s geospatial asset management system.
One definitive source of reliable, location-based information
Halberstadtwerke’s 779-kilometer utility cable network was previously operated and maintained using multiple software from different vendors. This created unnecessary complications in pinpointing the source of technical difficulties. Halberstadtwerke sought a solution from a single provider not only to reduce costs, but also to streamline the management, support and diagnostic capabilities of its NIS.
In deploying Octave’s advanced GIS and network management solution, Halberstadtwerke consolidated its multiple existing software systems into one source of reliable, location-based information for a complete view of its network. As a result, the company has realized significant performance improvements, decreased maintenance costs and administrative burdens, strengthened quality assurance and enabled network tracking. Now, all components of the NIS, which is customized to Halberstadtwerke’s specific needs, work seamlessly together – from work order ticket processing to reporting and remediation. What’s more, the company can adapt its data model as needed, independently.
By employing NetWorks mobile capabilities, fitters can operate workstations in the field, validating recordings for increased quality assurance. In fact, all attributes and information can be viewed for all resources in the field or in the office, making it possible for installers to have the same information as the planners in the office. And data cleansing can be carried out consistently and securely.
Multi-utility solutions
The first-of-its-kind NIS solution delivers superior diagnostic capabilities by evaluating and notifying the company when there is damage to the network or if action needs to be taken. Before, this capability was only available for electricity services. But with the new solution, Halberstadtwerke has expanded the capability to manage, detect and diagnose network problems for all its utility services, including natural gas, drinking water and heat.
“At Halberstadtwerke, we strive to be the single source for our customers’ utility needs,” said Martin Hase, administrator of the network information system (NIS) at Halberstadtwerke. “To ensure superb delivery of reliable services, we needed a network solution we could trust, and we knew Octave would be an excellent partner. Their utility GIS has been an effective solution for our needs and has helped us improve our network operations management and maintenance.”
