Case Studies of Customer Success

From digging in the backyard to reconstructing roads and highways, the stakes can be high when deeper sods of dirt are turned. Without the right information, a digger or shovel could hit high-voltage wires. Game over. No wonder that utility companies and essential infrastructure services are so reliant on PelicanCorp to manage safe access to the huge volumes of data about where those cables lie.

PelicanCorp is a global leader in software services for the utilities and essential services industry. Best-known for its software and services for the ‘Dial Before You Dig’ services around the world, PelicanCorp’s global business is all about making lives safer. To do this, its software solutions give diggers safe access to data about cables, gas pipelines, sewers and more. As the company grew, it became evident that the on premises handling of this service would not cut it. PelicanCorp began its journey to cloud in 2007 by building its own cloud in a co-located data centre. Yet it wasn’t long before it outgrew that setup. By 2013, it had turned to Amazon Web Services (AWS) – and it has never looked back.

A More Cost-Effective Way to Serve the High-Risk Utility Market

The utility market is conservative and risk averse. Software vendors in this industry must commit to the highest levels of availability, reliability and security to serve their customers – which PelicanCorp was able to do in-house to a point. But global expansion was putting upwards pressure on the bottom line, with more racks of servers needed, plus all the other costs they entailed.

To bring costs down, PelicanCorp started shifting its software onto AWS in 2013 using Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (Amazon EC2) on Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). This gave it the ability to scale operations in new countries and establish points of presence around the globe – without having to buy the hardware. Its focus could shift from managing infrastructure to pursuing innovation.

From that simple starting point, PelicanCorp has progressively evolved its relationship with AWS, adding everything from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to store a permanent audit trail of everything the company has done for customers; to Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for greater redundancy and availability; to Elastic Scaling Groups for automated infrastructure.

Today, PelicanCorp utilises a complex system of AWS servers – a framework of web, applications and databases, deployed behind load balancers in-country, with its own single sign-on, supporting digital marketplace, running 24/7, handling millions of enquiries, and supporting millions of tickets.

It’s impressive just how far PelicanCorp has come. But it is certainly not done yet. As Karl Geppert, Chief Development Officer, PelicanCorp, says, “The journey to cloud is simple to achieve but complex in its possibilities. We are on an endless quest to find new ways to leverage AWS technology to save money, and increase the scale, size, efficiency and reliability of what we offer.”

Going Serverless With AWS to Enable True Scalability

Indeed, PelicanCorp has recently completed a project with AWS to explore serverless. Geppert explains, “Our goal was to build development frameworks for our products so we can operate anywhere we can get value. Could we do this and install to all of our customers 1000 times in a week, and the week after?”

With AWS, the answer was yes. AWS worked side-by-side with PelicanCorp developers to build a solution that delivers reliability, speed, scalability, flexibility, cost and efficiency – all the key metrics that would ensure a strong future for the global software company. The solution includes a set of architecture proposals around serverless workflows, decoupled from the database, with every enquiry processed independently. The serverless solution ensures that PelicanCorp only ever pays for what it needs, while delivering on the demands of its risk-averse customer base.

Gaining the Freedom to Think Big

The move to AWS has paid off in spades for PelicanCorp. With this new serverless solution, the company is achieving 100 percent uptime by having new ephemeral instances on event-driven architecture. It now takes just 30 seconds to process hundreds of requests, compared to over three minutes previously.

PelicanCorp can now map expenses to demand, paying only for what it uses while having the peace of mind that the infrastructure it needs is guaranteed to be available. It has also experienced a reduction in operational overheads by eliminating the need to maintain its own servers.

As Geppert says, “We are forecasting five-fold savings in hosting costs, which translates to tens of thousands of dollars. More importantly, with AWS, we have the freedom to think big. Our development team can focus on new opportunities like leveraging digital subscription marketplaces, machine learning for damage prediction, and more.”

Challenge

With the development of Australia’s largest public transportation project, Sydney Metro discovered that road works and construction above and around their networks could have a dramatic impact to their assets and the safety of those working around them or travelling on the network. Upon signing up to the national Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service it faced the challenge of manually responding to incoming enquiries for asset location information.

Solution

Sydney Metro opted for PelicanCorp’s all-inclusive TicketAccess automation solution to ensure that its various underground assets were being protected efficiently. The TicketAccess solution provides an automatic response to the increasing number of DBYD enquiries that Sydney Metro receive, within their expanding area of interest.

Outcome

By revolutionising and redefining the processes for the asset protection of the largest growing transportation network in Australia, Sydney Metro were able to achieve greater efficiencies in its workflow and eliminate any manual response efforts through automation with PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess. TicketAccess has allowed Sydney Metro to focus on DBYD enquiries that require further consideration and offset any potential cost increase from resourcing.

Challenge

As Canada’s third-largest telecommunications provider Telus faced the challenge of addressing incoming inquiries from the regional ‘Before You Dig’ services, regarding the delayed turn-around time for Planning and Design tickets. Telus were unable to meet the expectations of customers seeking information for tickets scaled as ‘low priority’ when underground assets were not at risk. A solution was needed in order to reduce the manual, time consuming and expensive resource efforts to meet those expectations.

Solution

Telus strive to achieve success through the adoption of leading edge technology solutions and investigated options available to address ticket screening and responding. They determined that automation was the solution opting for PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess, a cloud hosted and fully managed service including support. Through a phased implementation process, Stage 1 has Telus addressing the needs of the Planning and Design ticket inquiries via automation.

Outcome

With TicketAccess by PelicanCorp, Telus now supply almost instantaneous response emails directly to inquirers. Automation has seen a significant reduction to resources required to respond resulting in re-allocation of staff to different departments and roles. With Planning and Design now successfully automated Telus have commenced Stage 2, exploring how TicketAccess can be further applied across other areas of the damage prevention processes.

Challenge

Mornington Peninsula Shire found as an organisation the asset protection department was lacking visibility around the works being done by contractors within the road reserve. The manual, resource intensive process for Permit Applications regarding these works meant projects were often commenced without the awareness of the Shire and lack of information being provided.

Solution

Mornington Peninsula Shire revolutionised the approach to their permitting challenges by being the first in Australia to adopt the PermitAccess system from PelicanCorp. PermitAccess is the end-to-end cloud solution for applicants and Permit Authorities to apply for, review and approve permit requests by combining and automating the processes with the submission of a Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) enquiry and applying for a Permit.

Outcome

Through the use of PermitAccess the contractors planning works within the Mornington Peninsula Shire area can now access their systems and information for more effectively, allowing greater productivity and efficiency. What was previously an average of 10 business days turn around time for a permit can now usually be achieved within 48 hours. In addition the team at the Shire have far greater visibility across all works conducted within the road reserve. Through close monitoring of activities it enables the Shire to rectify any issues that may occur, saving time, council resources and costs.

Challenge

In 2015 Call Before You Dig, Inc. (CBYD) were in need of a fresh approach to their One Call solution and were working on strategies to improve the overall user experience for excavators. CBYD were suffering from a lack of online engagement via their existing One Call system, which was unable to meet the standards of the evolving and progressive service CBYD were striving to achieve. An upgrade was required in order to provide the users and members of the Connecticut region with the enhanced service.

Solution

The CBYD Board held a strategic planning session, set the direction to be a progressive leader in the damage prevention industry and a decision was made to focus their attention on technology. A technology committee was formed, constituting the locate community, contractors and Utilities, resulting in CBYD opting to upgrade to PelicanCorp’s OneCallAccess, a fully managed One Call operation solution for E-Ticket and Call Center operations.

Outcome

Upgrading their technology to the fully managed OneCallAccess from PelicanCorp, ensured CBYD have achieved the modernization and technological advancements they were after. The increase from less than 40% web adoption to over 75% web inquiries within the first year alone surpassed the expectations of all stakeholders, resulting in greater efficiencies across the wider operation.

The City of Mount Gambier serves as the major centre for the South Australian Limestone Coast, and provide Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) enquiry responses for the protection of assets that service a population of approximately 27,000 within the council area. After manually managing 1,200+ DBYD enquiry responses per annum for the past 12 years; the City of Mount Gambier have opted to go live with PelicanCorp’s hosted TicketAccess Starter solution. By choosing the fully managed automation service, it has provided the team at the City of Mount Gambier the ability to virtually eliminate manual effort required by staff and ensured a dedicated focus on asset protection moving into the future.

The City of Mount Gambier have also opted to include a ‘Reinstatement Guide’ with all responses to assist with targeting their requirements for works within public roads and footpaths - This guide includes hyperlinks to associated resources on their website.

PelicanCorp have worked with the city to implement a spatial layer, which will identify and attach CAD-generated PDF’s. The additional online TicketAccess ViewerPortal also enables their team to query historical referral details and access response documentation. Through these changes, the City of Mount Gambier now have a complete and efficient process for their DBYD responses.

Sinaway Georgiou, Engineering Technical Officer at City of Mount Gambier said “Working with PelicanCorp in order to transition from manual responses to an automated model was conducted in a very professional manner from start to finish. Council was well informed throughout the whole process with particular emphasis in the way variations to the initial model were handled whilst keeping to the timeframes allocated for the project”.

Sinaway also added that ”since inception the amount of referrals from customers had grown substantially as customers became more aware of the DBYD service. The process of manually performing customer requests had become an inefficient way for Council to get the correct information to the end user. As a result, The City of Mount Gambier engaged PelicanCorp to automate its referrals allowing our customers to receive their plans in a more timely fashion. As a result of these efficiencies, it has allowed Council to reallocate staff resources into other areas such as customer service and system data upgrades”.

Challenge

SGN was looking for a solution to reduce third party damages which occurred due to work being carried out by people who were not following safe digging practices and did not have the relevant utility pipe location information. SGN wanted an online solution to enhance the customer experience by providing a hassle-free way of getting information on the location of its pipes so that all parties could make informed decisions.

Solution

SGN became a member of the online safe digging portal service LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) Member, a solution, designed to reduce the risk of third party damages. It not only provides a hassle-free way for the customer to get the plans but also helps SGN understand where works are taking place near its network.

Outcome

The LSBUD automated solution has enabled SGN to significantly improve the protection of its assets via a 1600% increase in the number of third party enquiries being made on the location of its assets. Despite the significant increase in enquiries being made, the average response time is now just 4 minutes; over 500 times quicker than previous response times that averaged over 15 days.

Challenge

Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (GNHWPCA) were heavily resourcing their handling of CBYD tickets including the scheduling of field visits, via a process that was reliant on people making decisions involving critical infrastructure - this even included assets that weren't owned by GNHWPCA. They required a solution to automate the process of determining which tickets required a response and locate.

Solution

GNHWPCA selected TicketAccess to automate their ticket screening process and provide a positive response solution. TicketAccess takes the CBYD ticket and compares the location of the work to the location of the GNHWPCA Sewer network. Tickets are categorized based on the work being performed and the nature of the asset potentially at risk from the work, all via the automated service.

Outcome

Using TicketAccess GNHWPCA have seen a significant reduction in the resources and time required to review, respond to and mark out CBYD tickets. Contractors receive an automated response within minutes of submitting their CBYD ticket indicating the presence of underground facilities and then outlines the actions by GNHWPCA.

New South Wales based Wingecarribee Shire Council made a huge leap with PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess hosted solution to efficiently and automatically respond to their Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) enquiries.

As an existing DBYD customer, Council had seen a substantial increase in the number of incoming DBYD enquiries; thus, placing a considerable strain on resources manually responding to those enquiries. The PelicanCorp TicketAccess solution provides a single automated platform to manage the process of responding to DBYD requests. Through use of TicketAccess, Wingecarribee Shire Council have minimised almost all manual efforts required for responding to DBYD enquiries and completely streamlined the process. It has also implemented greater protection measures to Council's water, sewer and stormwater assets as well as the associated facilities by providing accurate and detailed information to those submitting DBYD enquiries.

With the help of TicketAccess, Wingecarribee Shire Council has drastically improved their DBYD response time, increased public awareness for all works in and around its infrastructure and reduced the risk of damages to Council’s assets.

“The system allows us to automate responses for standard and critical asset location requests from DBYD,” said Michael Herraman, Group Manager Assets and Project Delivery at Wingecarribe Shire Council. “In our first month TicketAccess has automatically responded to 360 DBYD requests with an average response time of less than 2 minutes.”

Challenge

Mayberry Excavations were experiencing the burden of a heavy administrative workload due to the efforts required to collate responses from the Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service. As response numbers increased, Mayberry Excavations were finding the cost of printing plans was escalating, and their teams in the field were not able to be efficient at all times with the traditional method of having printed plans on site. With the resource heavy manual process, Mayberry Excavations realised the need for automatic collation.

Solution

Mayberry Excavations have changed processes with the use of PlanAccess, the cloud based service from PelicanCorp, which successfully automates the collation of responses from DBYD requests into a single job pack for each request.

Outcome

PlanAccess automation has successfully eliminated almost all manual collation of DBYD responses, reducing Mayberry Excavations manual effort, printing overheads and enabling the re-allocation of staff resources efforts. In addition it has achieved greater protection of its staff, and efficiency on site by providing them with the plans required for each project on hand at all times, in a simple and easy to use digital Job Pack.

Kingborough Council was experiencing rapid growth in the number of enquiries received following their recent membership to the national Dial Before You Dig (DBYD VIC/TAS). The Council could no longer continue with the resource heavy manual process and realised the need for automation. Kingborough Council made a big advancement with PelicanCorp's TicketAccess solution to efficiently and automatically provide detailed information on all asset locations, giving excavators the assets needed to avoid damaging underground infrastructure.

TicketAccess automation has successfully eliminated almost all manual processing of DBYD enquiries reducing the Kingborough overheads and enabling the Council to re-allocate staffing resources across other projects. In addition, it has ensured greater protection to its infrastructure by providing accurate and detailed information to those submitting DBYD enquiries.

Challenge

As long-time members of beforeUdig Rotorua Lakes Council were challenged with a manually laborious response process to its incoming enquiries, tasked with supplying multiple sets of plans to provide asset information. The time consuming process required dedicated staff attention to ensure responses went out in a reasonably accepted timeframe.

Solution

Rotorua adopted an automated process with the use of PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess solution to efficiently deliver and maintain consistent detailed information to those conducting works near their underground assets, focussing on dependable service delivery and the avoidance of contractor damage.

Outcome

By transforming and automating the response to beforeUdig enquiries TicketAccess has successfully eliminated the manual processes for Rotorua. By delivering a single asset plan pack within minutes, Rotorua have achieved improved accessibility to council information and ensuring a safer work environment. In addition, Rotorua have also incorporated a second line of defence in ensuring the safety of those working within areas where geothermal activity is present.

GasNet Limited is responsible for providing a range of natural gas network and metering services in the Whanganui, Rangitikei and outlying regions of the North Island in New Zealand. A relatively small player in the context of the total New Zealand market, their network business encompasses the management and operation of network infrastructure assets comprising approximately 400km of mains and 13,000 service pipes.

Becoming a member of the beforeUdig service and automating responses via PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess hosted solution has enabled GasNet to free up human resources previously committed to manually providing plans of its asset information. By adopting the automated TicketAccess solution GasNet is able to maintain the high quality of information provided to contractors and other persons working around its assets, whilst eliminating its dependency on staff to process asset information requests within what are often extremely demanding response timeframes.

As Neville Edwards, Asset Information Services Manager said: “GasNet was excited with the prospect of having its plan responses automated and the delivered product has not disappointed. PelicanCorp managed the transition professionally and has worked with GasNet to achieve an outcome that provides significant benefits in the provision of its asset information and in freeing up people resources that would be otherwise engaged answering and responding to enquiries.”

Hastings District Council (NZ) have successfully improved their business efficiencies by automating the beforeUdig response process through the use of PelicanCorp's TicketAccess hosted solution. Through the combination of membership to the beforeUdig service and automation via TicketAccess, Hastings District Council have achieved a standardised internal protection process for their ‘three waters’ assets - water, wastewater and stormwater. Automation has resulted in faster response turnaround times, consistently accurate data and eliminated any previous manual handling further reducing the costs incurred by Council.

As Brett Chapman, Water Services Manager at Hastings District Council points out: “the beforeUdig system streamlines our asset data and location service replacing what was a very manual and time consuming process. Relevant information is now provided directly to applicants on a consistent basis for all but the most complex of projects where staff are still able to assist."

Horizon Networks NZ are now using TicketAccess as part of their asset protection and safety program to automatically generate response plans to beforeUdig enquiries showing all of their electrical infrastructure. By streamlining and automating the previously manual process, Horizon Networks have improved their response turn-around time, reduced effort required by resources and ensure a consistent message is being provided to protect the public when working around underground cables.

As Scott Lillas, GIS/CAD Manager at Horizon Networks points out: “The main drivers to implement the TicketAccess solution at Horizon Networks were: 1. To provide a quick response service to beforeUdig inquiries promoting a safe, compliant working environment 2. To automate the beforeUdig map production process to free up staff time to continue working on other projects 3. To improve reporting and audit capabilities of cable location inquiries. TicketAccess complements our existing beforeUdig and Horizon Networks cable locate service. Please refer to http://horizonnetworks.nz/cable-locations for additional information.”

Through the use of PelicanCorp's TicketAccess hosted system, South Australia's City of Prospect have turned their once laborious manual DBYD response process into an entirely automated workflow. TicketAccess has enabled City of Prospect to now determine if an enquiry is impacting various asset infrastructure types, create an appropriate response and deliver a plan package within minutes, providing greater public awareness resulting in reduced risk of damage to Council's assets and a significant savings on resources.

Greg Georgopoulos, Director Infrastructure Assets and Environment from the City of Prospect added: “The TicketAccess system has resulted in a fast and effective way for the City of Prospect to respond to ‘Dial before You Dig’ Requests. Requests are received, analysed and responded to instantly, improving customer service and satisfaction.”

Gippsland Water, who have been utilising the PelicanCorp technology since 2009, have successfully upgraded to the latest TicketAccess solution for a higher level of automation to their DBYD enquiry response process. Gippsland Water opted for the upgrade to enable higher quality map responses as TicketAccess leverages directly off their corporate GIS system via web services. TicketAccess now provides Gippsland Water a standardised asset protection process, delivering faster response turnaround times and more accurate data to enquirers by correctly identifying personnel who need to be contacted before commencing any excavation works.

This provides a drastically reduced risk of exposure and damage to their essential infrastructure asset types, including electrical, water and sewer. The upgrade has brought Gippsland Water in line with using the latest technology available for automation of the DBYD response process.

Challenge

With the introduction of NSW Dial Before You Dig legislation in 2010, Essential Energy was suddenly faced with a significant increase in overheads due to the manual efforts involved in entering their own enquiries. The challenge was to automate the data entry process and reduce the manual labour efforts required.

Solution

In a joint project, Essential Energy integrated a solution to the OneCall Access API to effectively automate its DBYD enquiries. Part of this process included the ability to submit multiple sites through a 'project entry' grouping method.

Outcome

OneCallAccess API has delivered significant time-savings with a dramatic reduction to the time and manual effort required to meet the legislated demands of entering a large volume of enquires. The overall automation improvement ensures Essential Energy has the most up to date and accurate data with less resources required to provide it.

Challenge

Shoalhaven Water have spent a number of years working to update their manual process of responding to requests for asset information. Considerable time and effort was provided by both the mapping and IT departments to overcome the challenge, which lead to Shoalhaven Water becoming members of the ‘Dial Before You Dig’ (DBYD) service. With an anticipated increase in workload due to higher volumes of enquiries from the DBYD membership an automated solution was required.

Solution

Shoalhaven Water opted for TicketAccess as a hosted solution to efficiently automate their response service. TicketAccess responds to a large number of asset location enquiries instantly without any staff intervention or effort, 24x7.

Outcome

The PelicanCorp solution has provided Shoalhaven Water with the set-and-forget system they were seeking. TicketAccess requires no manual resources by providing instant automated responses to all DBYD enquiries from the completely hosted and managed service.

Challenge

The City of Charles Sturt (CCS) staff were managing and processing all Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) requests manually via a laborious, multi-step process requiring the efforts of 1 FTE staff member. With a noticeable growth of around a 10% increase in enquiries per month, CCS predicted the increased manual workload would become un-manageable by the existing internal resource. Automation of this process also needed to include the ability to integrate with the Capital Works program and planning for CCS.

Solution

In order to achieve the automation of their responses, CCS elected the TicketAccess solution. A staged roll out of the service commenced, to firstly provide instant automation of responses, with a secondary stage integrating responses into the CCS Capital Works program, a client first for TicketAccess.

Outcome

TicketAccess as a solution has minimalised all manual efforts required for responding to DBYD enquiries and completely streamlined the process. CCS re-gained the equivalent of 1 FTE as a resource within the organisation. A staged roll out will look at a tighter integration with the Capital Works program, achieving complete automation.

Challenge

Transpower was operating a radio network for all internal information back from their power grid. An upgrade process took place in 2009 which resulted in challenges such as protection of their underground assets as well as how to respond to enquiries with utility plans.

Solution

Transpower signed up as members of the beforeUdig service to protect their assets and provide safety to contractors and opted for PelicanCorp's TicketAccess solution to efficiently automate their response service.

Outcome

By combining their membership with the beforeUdig service and TicketAccess, Transpower have standardised their asset protection and operational health and safety processes.

Whanganui District Council has successfully automated its beforeUdig response process through the use of PelicanCorp's TicketAccess hosted solution. Through the combination of membership to the beforeUdig service and automation with TicketAccess Whanganui DC has successfully standardised its asset protection processes for its ‘Three Waters’, providing faster response turnaround times and accurate data.

Senior Stormwater Engineer Kritzo Venter at Wanganui District Council explains that “Automating the responses allows officer time to be better spent on verifying and validating the background asset information that informs the automated system, rather than officers having to manually process and issue enquiries (a time consuming process, which can be quite inefficient at times). It also speeds up the service to the enquirer – with typical response times going from up to 5 business days to within half an hour.”

The QLD chapter of Transurban Group have achieved successful automation of their responses to Dial Before You Dig enquiries through the use of PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess hosted solution. Protecting essential road infrastructure assets including QLD’s Go Between Bridge, Airport Link and Clem 7, the automation for Transurban resulted in faster turn-around times and streamlined processes, ensuring the continued protection to the states key assets and efforts to keep QLD moving!

Technical Officer for Assets at Transurban QLD Luke Carnovale said that “We have found PelicanCorp to be very helpful and timely throughout the development of the TicketAccess process. We look forward to working with PelicanCorp in the future to develop our ‘Dial Before You Dig’ responses.”

Western Australia’s City of Mandurah have greatly improved the quality of information and increased public awareness for all works in and around its essential infrastructure. By becoming a member of the national Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service and automating responses to DBYD enquiries via PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess hosted solution, City of Mandurah have reduced the risk of damage to council owned assets protecting not only the assets themselves, but the community members working around them. The TicketAccess software solution from PelicanCorp is automating the response process, saving Council staff time and resources from a manually laborious task.

Doug Bartlett, Coordinator Asset Management – Technical Services from the City of Mandurah added that “The implementation by PelicanCorp was quick and effective. We are already receiving 50 automatic responses per day, which helps us with the long term management of our infrastructure. Just preventing one damaged pipe will save us the years’ worth of cost for the combined DBYD service.”

Challenge

Following establishment on 1 July 2010, Unitywater was faced with the challenge of manually responding to around 100 Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) enquiries per day.

Solution

As members of the national DBYD service Unitywater opted for PelicanCorp’s TicketAccess solution, providing them with the single automated platform to manage the process of responding to requests.

Outcome

Unitywater have efficiently automated their DBYD response service through the use of TicketAccess. It was awarded winners of the prestigious 2016 GITA ANZ DBYD High Performance Award for their speed, accuracy and quality of responses to all DBYD enquiries.

Challenge

To protect its networks, Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) asked any third party working across Great Britain (including contractors, utility companies and individuals) to contact the NWG Team every time to check the location of their assets. The typical response time for any enquiry took more than a couple of days.

Solution

In order to improve the protection of their assets NWG joined LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD), a UK service which is powered by PelicanCorp's OneCallAccess product, and implemented the LSBUD Hosted Plan Response automation software which responded to over 7500 enquiries a month within an average of 4 minutes per enquiry.

Outcome

The LSBUD automated solution has enabled NWG to successfully reduce the risk of asset strikes within their network and greatly increase the efficiency of internal resources, saving costs, improving upon customer satisfaction and providing a 24/7 service.

Challenge

To protect its networks, Western Power Distribution were seeking an online solution that would deliver plans to users within minutes of a digging request being placed. Western Power Distribution also needed to completely automate responses and produce a full audit trail for each request and response.

Solution

Western Power Distribution opted for membership to the national LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD), a UK service which is powered by PelicanCorp's OneCallAccess product, and implemented the LSBUD Hosted Plan Response automation software to deliver the Plan Response service for all Western Power related asset/plan enquiries.

Outcome

As a direct result of the partnership with LSBUD, Western Power Distribution have successfully automated response processes; reducing response times for requests and most importantly increasing safety in the field.

Challenge

City of Canada Bay continued to increase its underground electrical network and was experiencing rapid growth in the number of enquiries received following their membership to the national Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service in 2000. It could no longer continue with the resource heavy manual process and was in need for an automation solution.

Solution

City of Canada Bay opted for PelicanCorp's TicketAccess solution to efficiently automate their response service on all asset types including stormwater drainage, non potable water supply and underground power, allowing excavators to avoid damaging underground assets.

Outcome

TicketAccess as a solution has minimalised almost all manual efforts required for responding to DBYD enquiries and completely streamlined the process. It has also implemented greater protection to its ever growing network of assets by providing accurate and detailed information to those submitting DBYD enquiries.

Challenge

To protect its networks, Western Power Distribution were seeking an online solution that would deliver plans to users within minutes of a digging request being placed. Western Power Distribution also needed to completely automate responses and produce a full audit trail for each request and response.

Solution

Western Power Distribution opted for membership to the national LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD), a UK service which is powered by PelicanCorp's OneCallAccess product, and implemented the LSBUD Hosted Plan Response automation software to deliver the Plan Response service for all Western Power related asset/plan enquiries.

Outcome

As a direct result of the partnership with LSBUD, Western Power Distribution have successfully automated response processes; reducing response times for requests and most importantly increasing safety in the field.

Challenge

City of Canada Bay continued to increase its underground electrical network and was experiencing rapid growth in the number of enquiries received following their membership to the national Dial Before You Dig (DBYD) service in 2000. It could no longer continue with the resource heavy manual process and was in need for an automation solution.

Solution

City of Canada Bay opted for PelicanCorp's TicketAccess solution to efficiently automate their response service on all asset types including stormwater drainage, non potable water supply and underground power, allowing excavators to avoid damaging underground assets.

Outcome

TicketAccess as a solution has minimalised almost all manual efforts required for responding to DBYD enquiries and completely streamlined the process. It has also implemented greater protection to its ever growing network of assets by providing accurate and detailed information to those submitting DBYD enquiries.