Our Clients have vision and we’re at the forefront of turning that vision into creative business IT solutions. As experienced Solution Architects we are closely involved with the design of many of our Client’s IT solutions.

With an approach based on “Solution Architecture starts with an understanding of the problem” we are the vital link between the business and the technology/vendor, acting as a custodian of the functional requirements while converting them into an architecture and design that becomes the “blueprint”.

• A clear focus on getting the requirements right – understanding the problem

• Development of future state designs including technology, application, information and business architectures

• Co-ordinating, reviewing and integrating the deliverables of information and technology architects into cohesive solutions architectures

• Acting as a Design Authority

• Independent subject matter expert reviews of Vendor and SI deliverables during all project phases

• Creation of the technical sections of RFP’s

Recent Projects:

Click here for informative case studies…

Dependence on technology in the utilities industry is growing more complex - real time, operations, mobility, security (of supply), external market and 3rd party access, business intelligence and CIS.

We deliver to a robust Enterprise and Technical Architectural methodology and framework that ensures IT&T developments are integrated into a unified set of business processes.

Our drive to create practical and useful IT architectures for our clients means that our deliverables don’t become “shelf-ware”. Our proven approach delivers clear and measurable benefits sooner rather than later.

CyberSoft senior staff and principals have extensive consulting backgrounds with major professional services and consulting organizations. They have deep domain knowledge in Infrastructure, Data, Application and Integration coupled with hands-on industry specific experience.

Whether it’s building an EA practice from the ground up or providing specialist architectural skills and knowledge transfer, CyberSoft can provide a valuable cost effective service.

Recent Engagements:

Our Client, an international electricity transmission company, had successfully implemented an outsourced IT infrastructure model. As the energy market deregulated our Client, experiencing high growth, was under pressure to expand its product offerings and level of service.

Given the dependency on IT to deliver the business model, our Client decided to establish an enterprise IT architecture group to plan and guide the delivery of IT services in a manner that was fully aligned to business objectives and strategies and that maximised the value of IT to the business.

The Objective

The key objective was to develop a three year plan for IT investment that would support and enable the business lines to grow, innovate and provide superior customer service whilst at the same time delivering cost efficiencies through economies of scale. This plan had to be delivered in three months and be based on sound and justifiable reasoning.

The strategy adopted was to take an architecturally driven approach. Mentoring and skills transfer were also objectives as the Client wanted to build up its own architectural capability concurrently with building the deliverables.

The Approach & Technology

The Client called on our services to assist in the rapid establishment of the architecture practice and to develop the initial sets of enterprise architecture deliverables including, current architecture assessment, target architectures and transition plans. These deliverables were used to develop and justify a three-year program of work to take the Client forward.

We provided enterprise and technical architecture skills to the Client that seamlessly formed part of the Clients Strategy and Enterprise Architecture team. In this way guidance and skill transfer could be achieved whilst building up exposure and credibility of the new team.

We also provided industry based templates and approaches drawn from our repository of work in the enterprise architecture space to fast track the project.

Customer Solution

Applying our Enterprise Architecture processes that had been adapted in consultation with the Client, work began with interviews and surveys to capture the current business, application, information and technology architectures.
These were analysed against business objectives and strategies to develop a target architecture and transition plan.

• By sharing our experience and intellectual property with the Client, we were able to tailor the output to suit Client priorities and culture and fast track the development of the deliverables.

• By working with and as part of the Client team skills transfer took place in a real time, real life environment.

The deliverables we produced included:

• Documentation of IT objectives and strategies aligned to business objectives and strategies;

• Identification and acknowledgement of key business issues and “hot topics” to be addressed by the target architecture;

• Current application and technology portfolio, including graphical diagrams and management dashboards showing status of applications and technologies;

• A costed program of work to implement over the next 3 years. This transition plan, included risk assessments of each project;

• A high level target architectural to meet business objectives, business strategies and address current issues raised by the business or evident in stated business plans;

• Architectural processes and procedures to monitor and assess architectural compliance to be reused on a regular basis going forward.

The quality, clarity, depth and breadth of the project exceeded senior management expectations. Our Client could move forward with the execution of the program of work with full senior management and regulatory endorsement.

The Critical Success Factors

A key success factor was the direct engagement of the business stakeholders, senior executives and IT delivery teams. This provided a greater sense of ownership to all concerned.

Continuous communication and progress reporting was important to maintain interest and maximise the relevance of the target architecture and transition plan to stakeholders.

By working seamlessly with the newly established Enterprise Architecture Group, the target time frames were met and were within budget.

Our pragmatic and adaptable approach, willingness to share our IP and experience, and most importantly our depth and breadth of experienced consultants, were all key ingredients to the success of the Client’s architecture review project.

CyberSoft has extensive experience with enterprise and industry specific mobility solutions. We are currently working with clients in a broad range of projects from mobile workforce enablement through to smart meters.

With our deep understanding of the business, security and technical challenges presented by “occasionally connected” mobile-to-enterprise systems we can provide you with the specialised skills and industry domain knowledge needed to successfully deliver and manage.

The drive to empower staff and contractors to do the work they need to do anywhere, at anytime can place stress on your existing IT infrastructure and business processes.

Extending back-office applications to the field makes mobile device management and enterprise-to-edge security critical to success. Integration with legacy systems such as asset management, GIS, document repositories, accounting and call centres presents challenges.

• A portfolio of over 30 successful end-to-end mobility engagements covering the full breadth of wireless and mobile technologies.
• Experienced consultants serving clients in key industries and markets. Water. Electricity. Transport. B2C.

In addition to a technology and solution focus on wireless connectivity, mobile systems, platforms security, we offer vendor independent advice on enterprise mobility strategies, procurement, managed services and mobile operations.

Recent projects:

Click here to find out more about our mobility projects and case studies…

Our clients rely heavily on their field workforce to undertake a wide variety of critical business functions, such as outage management, meter reading, asset inspection and vegetation management associated with their electricity, water and gas networks.

Many of them have implemented solutions to provide field-based workforce with forms of mobile computing functionality however these have typically been tactical solutions developed to meet specific needs.

Driven by our client’s need for field workforce platforms that meet the future needs of a diverse field-based workforce we’re helping them adopt strategic mobility approaches that:

• Provide a consistent architectural platform on which key field operations can be based

• Supports the integration of the mobility platform with other enterprise applications through integration platforms

• Manages the display of the content to the end users that is appropriate to their information needs within their roles and the capabilities of their mobile computing device

• Balances the protection of sensitive corporate information and services from being accessed by unauthorized people against ensuring that authorised users are able to utilise information and services to undertake their work tasks

Enterprise Architecture:

By providing a consistent architectural platform for clients to conduct their field operations, we initially focus on immediate needs but ensure that the platforms are capable of being extended to cover all of the functions involved with field based computing activities such as:

• The management, scheduling and delivery of work packages and supporting documentation required to undertake field based activities in a utilities environment
  

• Managing the priority, flow and escalation of work tasks and alerts and the business rules that define how they are performed

• Managing the integration of the mobility platform with other enterprise applications required to deliver the above

• Capturing and disseminating information about the asset base as well as performance metrics

• Managing the connection, transport and presentation of content and functionality (within the bounds of Security) to end users that may not have a permanent connection to the client’s network infrastructure

• Management of the configuration, performance and security policies of mobile end-user devices

How can we help?

We provide subject matter analysis and consulting expertise during the identification and procurement phases of mobility platforms:

• Expert Support during the development, review, evaluation and close out of RFPs.

• Evaluation and assessment of vendor RFP responses to select the most appropriate vendor aligned with the Strategy.

Many companies with large field work forces struggle to gain improved operating efficiencies while at the same time meet increasing regulatory requirements.

• High cost of providing their mobile workforce with access to necessary information in a changing regulatory and commercial environment

• Increasing numbers of external service providers and contractors across a distributed regional workforce

It is widely acknowledged that giving field personnel the right information at the right time leads to an informed and empowered workforce that is better able to fulfill organizational obligations:

• Significantly improved customer service and satisfaction.

• Improved field worker health & safety Overall operational efficiency savings and avoided significant costs

Our Role:

We were engaged by our client to develop the Solution Architecture and technical design for a business driven system that would give our client’s extensive mobile workforce access to in-field GIS, technical, operational and OH&S documents.

The Solution Architecture encompassed technology and software components to integrate Content Delivery, Workflow and Business Process Management, Integration, Presentation, Security, Data Access and Middleware services;

Approach:

Cybersoft’s approach was to:

• Assess the current as-is in-field business processes and identify gaps and opportunities

• Describe the to-be business processes and develop business requirements for the end-to-end mobile information lifecycle

• Determine the target solution architecture for deploying mobile information based on the client’s existing IT infrastructure and technology roadmaps & standards

• Identify a range of solution options

• Review the market place for potential solutions

Outcomes:

A solution design that provides access to a defined set of “electronic” documents and maps for field personnel, which can be synchronised and updated on demand by an administrator.

Field personnel can now:

• View up-to-date documents, such a safety guidelines, maps, technical manuals in the field.

• Avoid the need for returning to central depots to physically locate or print off and view necessary documents.

The Managing Director of Sydney Water Corporation has announced the successful development and deployment of their $20M FRM mobile field workforce system:

Technology upgrade to improve response times

Sydney Water will improve its maintenance by using a new computer-based scheduling system that allows its civil, mechanical and electrical maintenance crews to receive job requests via portable computers while they are working in the field.

Managing Director Kerry Schott said Sydney Water had spent nearly $20 million installing a new scheduling system and allocating laptop computers designed for outdoor use to over 400 field crews, scheduling and management staff.

“This is one of the biggest technology upgrades Sydney Water has implemented in over five years and we expect it to significantly assist maintenance crews in their response to jobs across the Sydney Water network,” Dr Schott said.

“The new system will save both time and money by getting the right crews to the right jobs at the right time.

Schedulers can identify available crews with the appropriate equipment and expertise to respond to jobs. This means that the need to return to the depot for additional equipment and materials can be reduced.

Schedulers will use the new technology to allocate crews to jobs more efficiently based on their current location, job progress and the location and priority of other jobs.

The new system will also reduce paperwork and improve the accuracy of our databases by allowing staff to update electronic records while they are on site.

The annual cost saving to Sydney Water may be up to several million dollars annually if all goes well, and this productivity improvement is a good step forward for all maintenance crews and schedulers.

The next stage of this technology upgrade will enable staff to access updated safety information, work instructions and network maps from their portable computers.

Sydney Water undertook an extensive staff consultation process before implementing the new system.

Over the past six months we have trained over 500 scheduling and maintenance staff to use the new system, including some who had never used a computer before.”

Read about how we helped Sydney Water design and deliver their FRM - Field Work Force System…..

CyberSoft is a technology consultancy located in Sydney, Australia.

As a trusted advisor with strong relationships across an international blue-chip client base, CyberSoft provides strategy & architecture, solution and field workforce & mobility consulting services to the electricity, water and media sectors.

• Deep industry, technology and SDLC experience
• Experts at “unstructured” problem solving utilising proven methods
• Flexible, repeatable engagement models
• Strong client references

Strategy & Enterprise Architecture:

Dependence on technology in the utilities industry is growing more complex - real time, operations, mobility, security (of supply), external market and 3rd party access, business intelligence and CIS.

We deliver to a robust Enterprise and Technical Architectural methodology and framework that ensures IT&T developments are integrated into a unified set of business processes.

Our drive to create practical and useful IT architectures for our clients means our deliverables don’t become “shelf-ware”. Our proven approach delivers clear and measurable benefits sooner rather than later.

Click here to find out more about our Strategy & Architecture client engagements as well as key case studies…

Solution Architecture:

Our Clients have vision and we’re at the forefront of turning that vision into creative business IT solutions.

As experienced Solution Architects we are closely involved with the design of many of our Client’s IT solutions.

With an approach based on “Solution Architecture starts with an understanding of the problem” we are the vital link between the business and the technology/vendor, acting as a custodian of the functional requirements whilst also converting them into an architecture and design that becomes the “blueprint”.

Click here for a comprehensive tour of our successful solution architecture projects as well as informative case studies…

Mobility & Field Force Enablement Consulting:

The drive to empower staff and contractors to do the work they need to do anywhere, at anytime can place stress on your existing IT infrastructure and business processes.

Extending back-office applications to the field makes mobile device management and enterprise-to-edge security critical to success.

A portfolio of over 30 successful end-to-end mobility engagements covering the full breadth of wireless and mobile technologies.

Experienced consultants serving clients in key industries and markets. Water. Electricity. Transport. B2C.

In addition to a technology and solution focus on wireless connectivity, mobile systems, platforms security, we offer independent advice on enterprise mobility strategies, managed services and mobile operations.

Click here to find out more about our mobility projects and case studies…

CyberSoft has a policy of maintaining independence from suppliers. While CyberSoft staff are trained and certified in a variety of vendor products and services, we do not seek to become a business partner.

Our client, a major utility, had previously deployed a mobile field force automation solution to over 400 mobile crews. As part of a multi phase mobility system project, work orders are prepared, scheduled and wirelessly dispatched to mobile field workers.

The immediate benefits to the client were significantly improved reaction times when responding to faults and outages. This led to improvements in their regulatory/operating license KPI’s.

The next phase was to extend the solution to provide mobile GIS capability to the field crews as part of their workflow.

Cybersoft was engaged to evaluate the client’s mobile GIS business requirements and provide costed solution options.

It’s a Big Small World

Our Client is a long-term (and sophisticated) user of the GE Smallworld GIS system. A key design challenge was to define a solution that integrated to a centralized Smallworld system while still allowing the mobile users access o GIS data in the field irrespective of whether they were wirelessly connected or not.

Our approach was to

• Validate the business drivers and existing Client GIS strategies

• Assess the existing enterprise GIS solution and identify gaps and opportunities

• Describe business processes and develop business requirements

• Determine the target solution architecture and define technology principles and standards

• Identify Solution options and map solution options to solution blueprint

• Review the market place for potential solutions

• Determine ‘best fit’ based on agreed criteria

Cybersoft managed the design and prototyping of a solution that elegantly integrated to Smallworld and extracted (via ETL) corporate GIS data in a form suitable for one time deployment to the mobile devices

With a copy of a subset of the corporate Smallworld GIS system now encrypted and stored on each mobile device, the challenge became keeping the local mobile GIS data synchronized with the Smallworld system.

(It is an important architectural principle that the existing enterprise GIS systems be the “source of truth”. Maintaining multiple different corporate GIS systems is extremely expensive and invariable leads to data quality issues.)

With over 60,000 updates to the corporate GIS system occurring each month it was clear that the GIS data stored on the mobile devices would quickly become out of date.

The solution was to automatically:

• Extract a “delta” or “difference” from the corporate GIS system each week (using the Smallworld checkpoint capability),

• Compress the delta data

• Wirelessly transmit this delta to each of the mobile devices.

Integration

The more advanced client requirements necessitated the capturing of information in the field by the mobile users, for example:

• 
• Identify, select and mark the asset requiring work on a map

• Identify and select other impacted asset/s (e.g. affected assets) on a map

• Display and identify affected properties for financial rebates

• Identify and mark errors on the map

This effectively required the integration of the mobile GIS solution into existing and new business processes and workflows:

• Asset identification was sent to the works management system

• Affected properties were sent to the customer management and financial systems

• “Redlining” of errors on the maps were sent to the Smallworld corporate GIS system

Cybersoft identified and specified the integration points and underlying XML formats for the extraction and integration of this field captured data to the corporate systems.

Our Client, a energy generation and retail utility, wanted to build an “opportunity investment group”. The roles of the new group were:

• Identifying new ideas - principally from a research or new technology base

• Investing in and successfully commercialising these ideas

• Commercialize new technology or business opportunities - specifically those from research, development and emerging market or technology based positions - potentially long-term and non-traditional.

• Manage stakeholders and business partners during the R&D and commercialisation phases

• Manage the entry, progression and exit of initiatives by means of a documented, repeatable and transparent process

Approach

CyberSoft was engaged by the Client to deliver frameworks and processes that would allow for a better understanding of future markets and the innovative technologies that would be needed to supply new products and services to these markets.

• Processes for evaluating and introducing potentially disruptive technologies

• A documented R&D project management framework

• Technological collaboration: identifying key success factors

• Building an entrepreneurial knowledge culture

• Focusing the fuzzy front-end in new product development.

We emphasized the need to communicate to multiple audiences and stakeholders. In particular:

• The stages of conceptual development and the evolution of knowledge as research moves from research to development to a commercial product or service

• The stages of business development and commercialization

• Targets that have been previously agreed and set and their clear subsequent accountabilities

To support the process and frameworks developed as part of our engagement we introduced Enterprise Wiki’s and R&D departmental weblogs as key communication tools. With their “immediacy” and simplicity they provided a sophisticated addition to the Client’s own intranet and CMS.

Outcomes

CyberSoft brought commercial skills, a sound understanding of technology, and broad relationships that allowed the matching of technology-based innovations to newly identified market needs.

Our approach, which targeted communication, process pragmatism and innovation towards future market needs, helped the Client to develop an appreciation of future trends and the technological competencies that were needed to research and develop products and services.

and here’s one we made earlier….