Utilities

the way we do it

Accelerate and Simplify

Smart Water Meter Rollout and Operations
Smart Water Services Platform

The success of a smart metering

program is wholly dependent on
the Utilitys ability to efficiently and
effectively manage meter deployment
and operations, track work orders,
control field services, and have live
information on service levels.
Capgeminis Smart Water Services
Platform (SWS Platform) is a unique
off-the-shelf solution enabling Water
Utilities to deploy and manage Radio
Water Meters and networks.

SWS Platform is the only proven

end-to-end integrated workflow
engine that manages the entire
Radio Metering lifecycle, from
program planning, meter rollout, and
operations through to maintenance.
As a multi-utility, multi-client
platform, SWS Platform is highly
configurable and flexible. It takes
into account different functional and
regulatory requirements that apply to
different geographies.
Over the course of eight years, SWS
Platform has benefited from our
experience in energy and evolved
from a meter roll-out planning tool
into a fully-fledged Radio Meter
management system. Its design has
been influenced by our experience of
managing programs to deploy 16.7
million meters worldwide.

A whole set of key

functionalities
SWS Platform allows Water Utilities
to:
Manage stocks, work orders, field
yy
orders, meter tracking and
communication to consumers
regarding deployment of new
meters, radio modules, radio
networks elements (repeaters and
concentrators)
Organize and manage field
yy
operations regarding maintenance
for meters, radio network elements
replacement, repeaters displacement,
and setting modifications to
concentrators
Collect indexes using Meter Data
yy
Management through head-end
Interfaces of various industry
manufacturers
Supervise radio collection with
yy
alerts management, incidents
management, and automated field
orders generation functions.
Why choose SWS Platform?
Since our pricing is based on usage,
SWS Platform offers the best value
for money. SWS Platform operates as
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) making
set-up rapid and inexpensive, and
you choose how much you use. SaaS
solutions lower the Total Cost of
Ownership up to 65% compared to a
classic built solution.
SWS Platform is meter manufacturer
agnostic, its open architecture will
integrate with any meter, head-end
and master data management system,
and any ERP system including SAP
and Oracle.
The platform leverages best practices
developed over the last 10 years
working alongside the worlds leading
utilities.
Capgemini also offers turnkey
services with SWS Platform at the
heart of the system.

Utilities

Benefits
SWS Platform offers:
Flexibility: standard processes can
yy
be customized and the platform
allows the creation of new processes
Extensibility: SaaS platform can
yy
manage the data from millions of
meters
Robustness: the platform is the
yy
result of 10 years of experience in
the field of the deployment,
maintenance and operation in the
Smart Meter domain.
The benefits of using SWS Platform
span both metering field services and
back-office operations:

Business process control, which is

yy
built into field service PDAs, and
ensures efficient meter deployment
Visual support for geographical
yy
grouping of work orders means that
the number of kilometers traveled is
optimized, using an intuitive user
interface
Remote
logistical services and back
yy
office processes are fully integrated,
allowing end-to-end control over
supply chain and field service work,
even if it is being executed by third
party providers.
SWS Platform provides excellent
automated control over Smart Water
business operations.

the way we do it

Functional scope
SWS Platform is an integrated
workflow engine with seven processes
specific to Water Utilities:
Work Order Management
The solution involves work order
creation (issued internally or
externally), technical planning, work
order planning, distribution to field
service organizations, assignment to
resources, performing work orders
in the field and export of work order
results.
Device & Meter Data Management
SWS Platform collects meter data
and manages remote and manually
entered meter readings. It maintains
an asset register that contains
information about installation sites
and devices, as well as a meter data
register that is accessible in the
system.

Figure 1: Smart Water Services Platform functional scope

Meter Data
Management

Work Order
Management

Monitor &
Troubleshoot

PDA Client

Customer
Services

Material
Logistics

Resource
Handling

WO Engine

WO Handling

Multiple Order
Types

Stock Handling

Meter Data
Register

Import WO

Navigation
Support

Customer
Regiter

Remote Meter
Services

Create WO

Route
Optimization

Customer
Service Request

Remote Reading
Services

Plan Infrastructure

External Device
Interf.

Meter Reading
Performance

Customer Call
Registration

Pallet Handling

Teams

Manual Reading
Services

Plan WO

Printing

Communication
Performance

Time Reservation

Goods Reception

Competences

Distribute WO

Bar Code
Scanning

Workload
Overview

Customer
Task List

Material Control

Equipments

Assign WO

Photo Handling

Troubleshoot
Case

Customer
Mailings

Stock Level
Alarms

Areas

Report/Process
WO Result

Remote SW
Upgrade

Deviation
Handling

Customer
Web Portal

Stocktaking

Calendar

Technical Register

Multi Utility

Validation

Interpolation

Case Handling

Reporting

Communication

Enterprise Support

System Monitoring

Accelerate and Simplify Smart Meter Roll-out and Operations

Language Support

Stock Handling

Map Support

Technicians

User Administration

System Interfaces

Figure 2: Smart meter roll-out operations tracking

Search

Legend

Settings

AREA:MSA_A16

Not planned
POS

Planned repeater
installation with
polygon and POS
connected to
Work Order.

Description

Count

POS Total

150

POS Connected

41

POS Planned

19

POS not planned

90

Conc. Installed

Concentrator planned

Repeater installed

Repeater planned

% Meter connected

27,3%

Planned
concentrator
Work Order

Intalled
concentrator
with POS
connected
POS-IO

STATUS

STREET

Monitor & Troubleshoot

It monitors meter performance and
communication status through
analysis of collected and delivered
values, and monitors how measure
points and multi-points are
communicating.
Customer Management
Customer Services may be managed
by the field service organization
and/or by an external customer
service organization. Incoming and
outgoing customer phone calls and
emails, time reservations, customer
service requests and mailings are also
handled.
Material Logistics
The platform plans, monitors, and
controls the flow of meter devices and
material through the supply chain,
from manufacturer and warehouse to
client site, until they are mounted in
the field; and controls transportation,
inventory, warehousing, material
handling, packaging, stock site
4

Intalled
repeater
with POS
connected

ZIPCODE

CITY

X_COORD

Y_COORD

SERIAL_ID

PARENT_ID

PARENT_TYPE

and material management. When

scanning devices and pallets, the
same PDA used by technicians in the
field when performing work orders is
used.

through domains. The enterprise

belonging to is defined for each
entity installation site, case device
customer, area, stock site, pallet,
business-specific system data.

Resource Management
SWS Platform also administers
system users (including technicians),
their skills, qualifications, and
access privilege, user roles, teams,
skills to perform specific work
orders, tools and instruments used
when performing work orders, and
resources availability.

Users can only access data owned by

the enterprise they belong to.

Workflow engine base

capabilities
1. Reporting
Predefined reports for roll-out &
operations, billing, service level
agreements (SLAs), material logistics
and customer contact.
2. Support Multiple Contracts
The system supports several Utility
companies in the same system

3. Area Management
Different types of areas can be created
in the system: Region, Milestone Area,
Collection Area, Net Area, Operation
Area, and Service Area. Areas can be
created with or without coordinates.
Areas with coordinates (referred to as
geographical areas) can be created by
defining the area in the map. Areas
of the same area type cannot overlap
each other. Cases, work orders and
installation sites (with coordinates)
are updated with the corresponding
geographical area automatically
when created in the system. When
coordinates are missing, an area
belonging to it can be updated
manually.

Utilities

4. Language Support
Built-in language support means that
all text items in the application can
be translated. The system supports
translation of Graphical User Interface
(GUI) Items (labels, buttons etc.),
Messages, and System Data (static
data delivered with the system).
SWSP Translate is a standalone
application for language support. It is
used internally to register text items
to be translated and used externally
to translate text items. Each customer
can define their own translation of a
text item in a supported language.
5. PDA, Smartphone and Laptop
Support
The PDA client is a software
application run in a mobile device
used to perform work orders in
the field and to manage materials.
Work order handling includes the
functionality needed to perform
different types of work orders. Stock
handling includes functionality
related to goods reception, palletizing,
and stock taking, etc. PDA support
is available for positioning and
navigation. The PDA can scan bar
code labels from pallets and devices,
and print bar code labels. Photos
taken in the field with a PDA can be
attached to work orders. The software
can be updated remotely.

7. Calendar Support
Calendar support can be used in work
order planning when making time
reservations and when assigning work
orders to resources. The calendar
can be used to register and view user
availability and absence, view planned
and assigned work orders and cases
over time.
8. System Configuration
Some system configurations can be
performed in the system such as:
Create New Case Types based on
yy
general case group with a new name,
case-specific rules and parameter
configuration like average work
order time, number of calls for time
reservation, set time for call (day,
a.m., p.m.), notification or not

the way we do it

Mailing Templates graphical

yy
configuration of data placement (.
pdf or .csv)
Workflow Engine configure the
yy
order of possible activities (based on
conditions and parameter settings)
and configure workflow parameters
Type Data device types (e.g.
yy
meters, repeaters, antenna)
Deviation Handling create new
yy
deviation codes (input to rule based
workflow engine)
9. System Monitoring
Different types of jobs (e.g. exports)
can be scheduled to run on specific
dates and times as well as started
manually. Different types of jobs can
be monitored by the user. If a job is
not started according to schedule, or
if a job resulted in an error, the user

Figure 3: Work order assignment

6. Map Support
Basic map functionalities include
zoom (mouse scroll), scale (100m
160km), soften map (0-100%), display
points (measure points, multi-points,
work orders etc), display points
relations, display geographical areas,
focus locations and mark points in
the map, color coding and legends.
It helps to identify the geographical
areas where meters have been
installed, and helps users view meter
status, infrastructure and work order
planning, the assignment of work
orders to technicians and teams, and
navigation in the field with the PDA.
Accelerate and Simplify Smart Meter Roll-out and Operations

www.capgemini.com/energy

is notified by e-mail. In addition to

the above functionality, SWS Platform
includes an interface that can be used
by the external system to diagnose the
system and enable proactive actions.
Key features are:
Error Tracking mail/SMS
yy
notification and System Error
Overview for follow up
System Performance reports and
yy
interface for system performance
request
Scheduled Jobs manage
yy
scheduling of jobs and Job
Overview
Monitoring of User Events login
yy
and logout, history of downloaded
and uploaded work orders,
technician positioning
System Overview imports,
yy
exports and diagnostics.
10. System Communication
The solution supports the following
services: MQ Services (Import and
Export), Mail Services (Export), SMS
Service (Export), File System Services
(Import and Export).
11. System Interfaces
SWS Platform includes the following
main interfaces:

About Capgemini and the

Collaborative Business Experience
With more than 115,000
people in 40 countries,
Capgemini is one of the worlds
foremost providers of consulting,
technology and outsourcing services.
The Group reported 2010 global
revenues of EUR 8.7 billion. Together
with its clients, Capgemini creates and
delivers business and technology
solutions that fit their needs and drive
the results they want.
A deeply multicultural organization,
Capgemini has developed its own way
of working, the Collaborative Business
ExperienceTM, and draws on
Rightshore, its worldwide delivery
model.

With EUR 600 million revenue in 2010

and 8,000 dedicated consultants
engaged in Utilities projects across
Europe, North & South America and
Asia Pacific, Capgeminis Global
Utilities Sector serves the business
consulting and information technology
needs of many of the worlds largest
players of this industry.
More information is available at
www.capgemini.com/energy
Rightshore is a trademark belonging
to Capgemini

Laurent Farci
Sales & Development Lead
Tel: +33 (0)1 49 67 51 74
Mobile: +33 (0)6 69 10 73 66
laurent.farci@capgemini.com

Work Order Services

yy
Meter Reading Services
yy
Remote Services
yy
Factory Files.
yy

2012 Capgemini. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be modified, deleted or
expanded by any process or means without prior written permission from Capgemini.