Mr. Brennen has 30 years of experience implementing GIS and asset management solutions for utilities nationwide and is currently serving as GIS program manager for several GIS and Asset Management programs in the region. Over the years he has helped over 100 utilities implement technology solutions and today, he will talk about leveraging GIS to support asset management.

With an increased emphasis of the utilization of web, mobile, dashboard, and virtual reality technology tools to support utility asset management, the need for accurate, complete and integrated data is at an all-time high.  In addition, emerging technologies such as virtual reality and predictive analytics solutions are driving utilities to rethink how they historically manage their GIS and business system data.  To fulfill these evolving needs, many utilities are enhancing their GIS environments to accommodate high-accuracy, 3-dimensional mapping of horizontal and vertical utility assets and working to “unify” their information management systems support a higher-level of integration and data analysis.

During this presentation case studies will be presented to demonstrate how utilities are enhancing their GIS data by employing highly-accurate, subsurface mapping technologies to map horizontal assets in a 3-dimensional manner and LiDAR to map and assess the condition of vertical assets.  By employing these techniques, utilities are able to push a higher-level of data to staff via enhanced web, mobile, and augmented reality applications.  In addition, strategies for “unifying” utility information management systems (GIS, CMMS, SCADA, billing, etc.) will be discussed.  Through this unification, utilities are able to deploy advanced business intelligence dashboard solutions that integrate data from multiple systems and allow utilities visualize data in way that helps them make more informed management decisions.  Examples of each will be provided during this presentation.