Typically there’s not a lot of excitement or fanfare involved with integrating applications. However, there’s recently been quite a bit of interest in the integration between the Elements GIS-based asset and work management software and CUSI’s UMS.net utility billing application. With that in mind, I thought it would be beneficial to shed some light on the integration and discuss some of the available functionality.
Here’s what makes the integration unique.
The integration is not a tool that was developed by a third party to pass data back and forth or otherwise synchronize information between the two applications. This project was designed, completed, and is maintained solely by the development teams at CUSI and Novotx, working together to create an integration that would take advantage of the best features in both applications without data duplication or synchronization. The asset management software directly accesses information from (and passes information to) the utility billing application in real-time and vice versa.
And here are a few reasons it’s attracting so much interest.
Using the integration, office personnel can dispatch a technician to read or replace a meter, for example, and the meter-related information can be collected using the asset management application then saved directly to the utility billing database.
The integration gives field operators access to GIS data, asset management information, and important customer and meter information directly from the utility billing application in real-time.
Service Orders can be generated in the asset management application using information from the utility billing application – for example, a batch of Service Orders can be created to shut off a group of customers who have not paid their bill. These Service Orders can then be completed using the asset management application, which will post the required meter information and associated fees directly to the customer account in the utility billing database.
Lastly, the integration expands the functionality of the utility billing application by adding a complete work management system that allows users to create and manage work orders for any geographic location, assets, GIS assets, facilities, heavy equipment, and much more.
