Autodesk puts GIS in regional water authority

Stan Beer
Friday, 16 December 2005 17:47

IT Industry - Deals

Engineering and technical software specialist Autodesk has won a deal with Wodonga utility North East Water, which has selected a combination of Autodesk and Oracle technologies for its new corporate spatial applications.

Open Spatial, Autodesk’s Australian reseller for Water and Wastewater utilities will deliver a fit for purpose solution to North East Water.

The solutions developed by Open Spatial combine Autodesk geospatial software and Oracle database, spatial technology is designed to enable North East Water to create, manage and share its geographic information system (GIS) and computer automated design (CAD) data throughout its organisation in a single, open standards-based environment without costly additional investment or expertise in proprietary software and systems. 

The solution provides a single location-based user interface into the utility’s corporate applications. For example, the new system will automatically process drawings from the utility’s development sub-divisions into a central Oracle database and incorporate them into the GIS system.

Commenting on the announcement, André Pravaz, Autodesk’s South Asia Pacific vice president, said, “Public works and other utilities such as North East Water are quickly realising the significant benefits associated with fully integrating and sharing their CAD, engineering, GIS and other data through a single environment.” 

Eamonn Tobin, executive manager of Information Services at North East Water commented, “The implementation of an open geospatial compliant system would pave the way for the future and allow for the continuation of the development of a complete business management solution.  This would allow the Open Spatial solution to become a core interface of the Authority’s corporate data with direct asset management integration.”

An important facet of the project is to seamlessly integrate North East Water’s spatial and corporate applications including integration to Gentrack Billing System and its Asset Management and Business Management Systems.

Michael Hardman, spatial systems administrator at North East Water, said, “Open Spatial delivers an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution that provides all the necessary functionality required by a water utility.  Importantly it includes the business rules that give me confidence in our data maintenance, irrespective of the operator.  Open Spatial will take our Authority’s Business Management System to the next level of sophistication.”

Anthony Jahshan, managing director for Open Spatial Australia, noted, “The power of Oracle combined with the CAD heritage of Autodesk delivers a level of accuracy and precision that is unprecedented to the GIS community and enables Open Spatial to build business solutions that deliver rapid return on investment to our customers. North East Water is a highly respected Regional Authority in Victoria constantly looking for innovative business solutions that improve efficiencies and meet key performance indicators.  To be selected over multi-national vendors in our industry is testament that local innovation continues to lead the way,” Jahshan said.