Migration masterclass: How Planview Utility Services achieved a seamless FME transformation with Consortech

95% automated data-sharing process

The background

Planview Utility Services is dedicated to helping utilities, municipalities and telecommunications organizations optimize the management of their utility infrastructure. With GIS at the heart of their integrated services, Planview Utility Services prioritizes a client-centric strategy. Their expanding team of 30+ GIS professionals, actively engaged in over a hundred projects, leverages the robust capabilities of FME to deliver results.

Planview Utility Services recognized that a thoughtful and well planned approach combined with solid foundational support were essential for a smooth migration of its FME infrastructure. Their goal was to create a clear migration path that would streamline the upgrade process, minimize the risks associated with change and ensure that their team was fully prepared to efficiently manage the new system with confidence.

Consortech was selected by Planview Utility Services to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the migration impact on their existing resourcing and processes, which led to specialized training and technical guidance to support their goals.

The challenges

Initiating a migration project amidst an ever changing landscape of various customer projects and of varying complexities posed a challenge, complicating the planning and prioritization process.

To address this, Consortech launched a comprehensive assessment to illuminate crucial requirements, interdependencies, potential obstacles, and key opportunities. This foundational step paved the way for a clearer, more informed roadmap, which validated decision-making in line with Planview’s goals. By minimizing uncertainty, the assessment significantly contributed to a smoother and more efficient migration project from the start.

The solution delivered

1. Process optimization

The assessment aimed to improve Planview’s FME processes by showcasing the latest automation features available in the newest versions of FME Flow, demonstrating how easily these processes can be automated for greater efficiency within their geospatial teams.

We also identified actionable items for before, during and after the migration, offering additional support for several of these steps. This allowed Planview to implement a clear roadmap facilitating a smooth and secure transition, enabling their team to readily leverage the latest FME features.

2. Training

To ensure Planview’s team was well-prepared, we conducted a comprehensive training program entirely via distance learning. Slated over a three month timeframe in Q1 of 2024 , nearly 35 participants were organized into six groups and guided by individual Consortech trainers.

The sessions focused on advanced FME, FME Flow operation, and administration. The courses were designed to cater to both new and existing team members, refreshing the skills of newcomers and enhancing the expertise of those at an intermediate level. This ensured that everyone was well-equipped to unleash the full potential of FME.

3. FME technology assessment

Consortech also carried out an FME migration assessment to help Planview harness the power of FME during the implementation of the new architecture. This initiative focused on ensuring scalability and arming the organization with the insights needed for future business decisions.

4. Architecture analysis

The FME migration assessment began with an in-depth review of Planview’s FME architecture, namely a 2018 FME Server and two cloud-hosted FME Flow used for customer billing. These three components provided critical processes essential to customer support. The evaluation confirmed the importance of these environments to Planview’s overall operations.

Additionally, the assessment process highlighted areas of improvement in server management and monitoring, specifically targeting enhancements to data processing security — a key priority for Planview.

Gains

Thanks to Consortech’s training and assessment, Planview Utility Services developed an innovative tool powered by FME Flow Hosted that revolutionizes the data extraction process for pre-engineering requests. With a simple form submission, a webhook springs into action, delivering answers to users in seconds or minutes.

This self-service solution dramatically reduces the typical data exchange turnaround time from 15-20 days to mere moments. As a result, Planview Utility Services benefits from an impressive annual savings of 1,040+ hours on their pre-engineering requests, transforming efficiency and increasing overall productivity.

In addition, the process of sharing Damage Prevention data went from 95% manual to 95% automated – a 100% improvement in efficiency gains. This transformation significantly minimized the number of team members needed to perform tasks and effectively eliminated the risk of manual errors.

Planview Utility Services is in the process of implementing and deploying an updated FME Flow infrastructure. This new implementation will enable the automation of data extraction, transformation, and loading processes, ensuring the data is readily accessible to various stakeholders.