Avineon Announces Head Start Initiative for Esri Utility Network

Esri embarked on the Network Management project to revamp their platform to better model, store, and manage utility network GIS data. The resulting Esri Utility Network is a scalable data model and software framework that enables utilities to manage complex networks of facility infrastructure across all of Esri’s platform clients – desktop, web, and mobile. It also incorporates best practices from electric, gas, water, and telecommunication data models that utilities have developed within ArcGIS over the years. Esri has announced an open beta for Utility Network in the second and third quarters of 2017, providing an opportunity for ArcGIS users to better understand its benefits and provide feedback to Esri.

As an Esri business partner for more than ten years, Avineon participated in Esri’s alpha and closed beta programs for early adopters. This led to development of Avineon’s Head Start initiative to help utility customers prepare their GIS for their journey to the Utility Network. It includes tasks such as:

• Reviewing the organization’s short and long term GIS/IT strategies.
• Providing technical orientation for the Utility Network.
• Mapping the current data model for migration to the Utility Network.
• Identifying any missing data or data quality issues that must be corrected.
• Migrating a representative sample of data.
• Hosting a cloud instance of Utility Network.
• Guiding user evaluations of Utility Network.

A summary report identifying key strategic decisions and recommended steps to adopt Esri’s Utility Network along with the likely return on investing in the Utility Network is among the key Head Start deliverables.

“We thank Esri for the opportunity to participate in the early adopter program, where we learned that the Utility Network will bring tremendous value to utility customers,” said Joel Campbell, Avineon’s Vice President – Commercial Systems. He continued, “Using our experience in Esri’s alpha and beta development programs and our decades of utility industry expertise, we have designed a program that will help customers adopt this technology and realize value as quickly as possible following the official release.”