Operational and information systems in a common command and control environment

Infrastructure operators, such as city public works departments, building managers, airport, rail, port, and other transportation authorities, data centre operators, and other organizations share a common set of challenges around providing safe and reliable service to their customers. Ageing infrastructure, capital budget restrictions, tighter environmental policies, and dynamic security concerns strain the ability of these operators to meet the service levels expected. While each type of operator delivers unique service and value to their customers, each are confronted with similar system challenges that prevent them from making the most informed decisions possible and optmising their operations.

Most infrastructure operators have not had the luxury of designing their information and operational systems to be interoperable from the start. Instead, most find themselves with a number of systems originally designed to operate in a stand-alone mode for a specific purpose. But now it is becoming clear that by unifying these systems – and providing more data and more context for making command and control decisions -- operations can be transformed by breaking down these data silos. By utilizing a system of systems approach to integrate operational and information technology subsystems, an infrastructure operator can create a single-pane-of-glass command and control solution that allows their staff to make faster, more confident decisions on a daily basis and increases response time in crisis scenarios.

Imagine a city that has integrated its water management, maintenance operations, traffic management, and utility customer database through a system of system approach. This city could react to a water main burst at a critical intersection by automatically dispatching work crews, sending detour notices to traffic information signs, updating consumer traffic apps with closed roads notifications, and sending text alerts to only the impacted water customers letting them know that repairs are underway and giving them an estimated time of service resumption.

Here in the Middle East region, a city’s Drainage Network Operations & Maintenance Department was looking to integrate, manage and optimise their assets and operations under one open platform that could integrate with a variety of software such as CRM, EAM, and GIS. They were looking for a scalable and agile platform that would eventually be used to integrate all the subsystems of the city into one platform. Critical business challenges included distributed application silos, lack of IT/OT convergence and low visibility into the operational chain for predictive analysis.

This city turned to AVEVA, who has delivered the industry’s most popular monitoring and control solutions for over 30 years, to assist them on a digital transformation journey which would break down these data silos.

AVEVA’s Unified Operations Centre command and control solution leverages many capabilities from their industry-leading portfolio of monitoring and control and asset performance solutions.  By utilising the development capabilities, connectivity and scalability of Wonderware System Platform, the data storage, mining, and visualisation capabilities of Historian, Insight, Intelligence, and Dream Report, and the workforce management capabilities of Workflow, this city was able to ensure efficient operation and maintenance for the water treatment and lift stations in their water operations, including numerous sewage, groundwater and treated water networks.

By partnering with AVEVA, the city was able to realize several key benefits along their digital transformation journey:

• Reduced total cost of ownership through better system integration approach
• Improved asset availability, reliability, utilisation, and extended useful lifespan
• Improved customer experience with digitalization of processes, information and communication
• Lower implementation costs with a market-leading, hardware-agnostic unified platform that provides a future scalability path regardless of which additional systems must be integrated into the solution at a later date

To learn more about the power of unifying operational and information systems in a common command and control environment, please visit AVEVA’s Infrastructure website.