Goulburn Valley Water

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Fujitsu helps Goulburn Valley Water cut data management costs

Goulburn Valley Water expects to derive annual savings exceeding $70,000 from the first stage of its integrated form-management system designed and implemented by Fujitsu Australia. The new system has simplified and automated timesheet data entry, improving productivity and opening opportunities for the authority by re-engineering other paper-based business processes.

Goulburn Valley Water is Victoria's largest manager of urban water supply and sewerage services, with 105,000 customers in 56 towns and cities from the outskirts of Melbourne to the Murray River. The authority directly employs 160 staff, complemented by partnerships with consultants and contractors who undertake a range of business, technical and operational functions.

"The existing human resources system required field staff to fill out complex, intimidating timesheets that reflected the broad diversity of our facility locations and activities," says Noel Squires, Information Systems Manager, Goulburn Valley Water.

Goulburn Valley Water supervisors were spending one day in every 10 reviewing paper forms. The timesheets, used for payroll and job costing systems, needed to be checked against accounting cost codes. After being entered into a spreadsheet, the data was emailed to the accounting department where was it often printed out and re-entered manually. The authority estimated two per cent of the data was keyed incorrectly or tagged with the wrong account codes causing further rectification costs.

Through its longstanding relationship with Fujitsu, Goulburn Valley Water was able to install a pre-release version of Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 as a member of the Microsoft Rapid Adoption Program.

The path to productivity

Fujitsu implemented Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003, an XML-based forms system for data collection in tandem with Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This solution establishes a central point of access for Goulburn Valley Water's forms and applications.

"Fujitsu provided a scalable, end-to-end system that captures data in both online and offline form. We also provided solutions to handle additional reporting requirements," says Rodney Hobbs, Principal Consultant Information Solutions, Fujitsu.

Timesheet data collected through InfoPath is passed to a SQL Server 2000 database via Web services, making the information accessible to payroll and accounting systems. InfoPath was integrated with XML-based .NET Web services developed in C#.

Fujitsu, whose previous work for Goulburn Valley Water included infrastructure roll-outs and back-end systems deployment, spent six weeks implementing the system. Work involved breaking down 700 task relationships, then assigning reference details to particular tasks.

InfoPath 2003 was chosen because it collects data in XML-compliant format and thus offered a futureproof solution. Mr Hobbs says InfoPath is also a superior solution to a straight HTML-based solution using CGI scripts, because it can handle both online and offline processing. "InfoPath enabled Fujitsu to establish an offline capability that validates data even when the user entering data is not connected to the network," says Mr Hobbs. "That was perfect for Goulburn Valley Water because some users needed to process data offline from work depots."

Automation cuts time spent on data input and error correction

In trials, the Fujitsu solution has cut the number of data entry errors to almost zero. Supervisors need spend only a couple of hours a week entering payroll data. As InfoPath interacts natively with data and Web services, the solution complements the authority's existing systems, which use XML to provide a consistent method for exchanging data between different applications.

"Our data capture process was surprisingly complex, but Fujitsu helped flesh out the system and formulated the data entry and validation rules," says Mr Squires. "When we looked at the savings InfoPath could deliver us, it was really a no-brainer to move to implementation."

The system does not do away with data entry all together. End-to-end electronic data capture is not possible across the authority's 20,000 sq km service area due to incomplete telecommunications coverage. Instead, field workers complete simplified timesheets that their supervisors key in via InfoPath forms at the depot. The solution also provides reports, allowing the authority to track the status of timesheets that have been entered - previously a manual process dealt with by email. "The system enables the process of tracking down timesheets to be delegated to the appropriate managers," Mr Squires explains.

The greatest long-term advantage of InfoPath is that it positions Goulburn Valley Water to automate other areas where data is collected on paper and re-entered electronically, such as asset condition and monitoring information. "We're also planning to automate filings of facilities observations and readings plus the monthly collection of odometer readings from our fleet," says Mr Squires. "Fujitsu's solution from Microsoft is letting us take a fresh look at our reporting requirements all over the organisation. It's going to allow us to spend more of our budget where it really belongs, on water management."

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