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Wien Energie Gasnetz

SOA based Software Development

The challenge

The occurrence of faults, the implementation of maintenance programmes, equipment updating and initial installation require the employment of mobile service engineers – both in-house staff and internal and external subcontractors. Mobility is therefore a major performance factor. In order to supply WIEN ENERGIE Gasnetz engineers with all necessary data when in front of the client, they were equipped with mobile data receiving equipment (MDE). The transparency and comprehensibility of the services had to be provided through the integrity and actuality of the data, the wastage of paper had to be reduced and service engineer productivity increased.

The Project

Since it was not technically possible to guarantee a single permanent on-line link and its provision would have involved massive expenditure, S&T Austria developed an off-line solution for the recording and processing of the data on the MDE and a synchronisation layer for the transfer of the data. This takes the necessary data from the available SAP system prior to use and transfers it to the MDE, making it useable for technical staff. The data can then be read on the spot, updated and corrected, or new data can be obtained. Once the work is completed, the data is again balanced with the SAP system.

The application was implemented on the basis of state-of-the-art Java technology and could be optimally adapted at little cost to the varied specific requirements of any particular operating situation. Manual input and disruption to the media are kept to a minimum. In such a way, write or read errors coming from the subsequent transfer of data are, as far as possible, excluded and a fault-free data flow through the testing of the „in-situ“ data transfer is guaranteed.

In addition, mobile operating equipment makes the registration of paper drafts unnecessary saving not only time, but also resources and costs. Through the integration of software – individually developed for specific front end tasks – into a central complex platform, the efficiency and productivity of the client operating processes in the back end (SAP) are considerably increased.

Benefit to the customer

• increases in mobility and productivity
• optimised processes and improved quality
• reduction in the number of fault sources
• increased data integrity, accuracy and actuality flexible architecture and process design