ENERGEX had a low level automation system in place for their field workers that was not handling the increased quantity of data, providing sufficient accuracy, or speed of delivery to the field.
When developing a replacement system, ENERGEX wanted the new system to improve customer service levels, assist field staff in completing safer and higher performing field work, and use a smarter, integrated electronic schedule and dispatch tool (Ventyx Service Suite).
The resulting solution uses Field Force Automation (FFA) technology, implemented with the latest release of the Service Suite solution from Ventyx and incorporated the integration of a number of ENERGEX’s host systems. This allows ENERGEX crews now locate faults in the network faster than ever through satellite navigation, tracking, and dispatch. The FFA computer system provides field crews with unprecedented access to electronic information about outages and customer premises from their vehicle, reducing phone calls and travel time during storms and other peak periods. The new system benefits millions of people throughout Queensland and New South Wales, providing faster, more efficient responses from ENERGEX.
Under IPA, all Councils are required to prepare and implement a planning scheme to help guide growth and change in their areas. Rapid growth in population, coupled with new legislation, prompted the Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) to plan an appropriate business solution for the future, requiring high levels of flexibility and efficiency.
The Developer Contributions Group is a specialist group in the GCCC responsible for calculating infrastructure charges on a daily basis. These calculations were manually intensive and heavily reliant on the speed, mathematical skills, and long-term concentration capabilities of employees. Integral worked with the GCCC to create a semi-automated program that helped support the human resources during this rapid growth. This solution aimed to achieve better satisfaction of legislative requirements, cost reductions associated with the implementation of the new legislation and the development of a flexible business solution that provided a framework for current systems and future processes.
Integral built an Oracle Fusion Middleware based SOA solution that integrated Oracle Policy Automation software (formerly RulesBurst) with the Council’s mainframe based Asset Management System, Property Developer Contribution and Geographic Information System to provide a streamlined, semi-automated process. This integrated capability was ultimately exposed as a web based application called the PIP Charge Calculator.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) legacy 131940 Traffic and Travel Information website (TTI) was difficult to maintain, with no map interface to visually display the current status of the Queensland Road Network.
The redeveloped website’s main aim was to provide Queensland road users with a near real-time view of activities occurring on state-controlled roads, roads of regional significance and some local government roads, in parallel to the ever-increasing need for reliable and timely TTI.
Integral worked closely with TMR stakeholders to source a highly available and scalable software as a service solution. The resulting website includes an easily navigated source of traffic and road event information for the public, multiple channels to deliver this information by trusted sources, and integration with other departmental systems including the TMR Incident Management System. It also allows users to customise their view of traffic information and integrates live traffic web camera focus from across Queensland.
The Student Experience Program was part of the redevelopment of the programs and courses website and student enrolment process, addressing the issues with the previous system.
By understanding the user requirements for the business system, Integral provided direction on system architecture and technical integration to meet scalability, performance, security, maintainability and operability requirements. This included modelling an enterprise web services framework, producing a time and resource plan for delivery and facilitating technical solution until project handover.
Integral delivered the system and data integration components for the Griffith Online Programs and Courses and Online Enrolments applications. The team achieved this by developing an advanced, near real time Operational Data Warehouse (called the DataHub) that reflected the current state of programs, courses and student information in a centralised, validated repository. DataHub was developed using a combination of data modelling skills and integration tools such as Oracle SQL Developer, Oracle Data Integrator and Oracle SOA Suite.
The ClimateSmart Home Services (CSHS) was a Queensland Government initiative (managed by LGIS), specifically designed to help Queenslanders reduce their carbon footprint and reduce their household bills.
LGIS sought to upgrade its systems to enable business improvements and efficiencies in delivering the ClimateSmart Home Service (CSHS). This involved redeveloping the ClimateSmart Home Audit System, a real time workforce automation system for electricians visiting customers’ homes and performing audits. Supporting works included a website with the CSHS booking system, an online feedback module and the ‘How Low Can You Go’ portal, which provided in-home audit results and recommendations on savings and energy use.
Integral and LGIS collaborated to develop the ClimateSmart Home Service information and data management systems. A very useable, highly adaptable product, CSHS succeeded in raising awareness to saving energy in Queensland across markets. CSHS’s new technology architecture included a high performance hosted enterprise class infrastructure that provided efficient availability (99.9%) and was scalable (for increased customer levels.) Supporting high load levels, Integral’s SupportNow service also provided 24×7 management service for the solution and infrastructure components.
A WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) is a valuable planning tool which is often overlooked in the rush to create a project schedule. A WBS is a tool defined in the PMBOK. It is a structured decomposition of the entire scope of the project. PRINCE2 also defines a similar planning mechanism…
I thought I’d share this with you all as you may find this useful.
The question raised by a customer was how can they run multiple instances of ConfigNOW at the same time. The reason for this request is to allow them to run multiple instances of OSB deployer into different environments at the same time.
So I came up with this, which in theory should work but I haven’t had a chance to test against their actual deployments yet.
If deemed as worthwhile this could probably be wrapped up in script and added as a feature to “ConfigNOW”
Open up a new terminal session and create a couple of named pipes
$ mkfifo deployment-1 deployment-2
$ ls deployment*
prw-r--r-- 1 mmochan staff 0 8 Mar 13:27 deployment-1
prw-r--r-- 1 mmochan staff 0 8 Mar 13:29 deployment-2
Notice the P flag ( Named Pipe )
In each of the sessions change into the ConfigNOW directory and run
Terminal 1
while true; do sh -c "$( cat deployment-1)" ; done
the -c flag basically executes the commands coming out of the cat command.
Terminal 2
while true; do sh -c "$( cat deployment-2)" ; done
echo "./ConfigNow.sh help" > deployer-1; echo "./ConfigNow.sh help" > deployer-2
Note: In the code example above substitute > with >
Both ConfigNOW help commands will be run simultaneously and the output will display in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2.
Voilà