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Utilities must 'institutionalise accumulated knowledge' to secure future
Jul 30 2012, 12:16 PM
Utilities must institutionalise accumulated knowledge to secure their future, according to a leading international geo-utilities expert, who said geospatial intelligence could play a crucial role in overcoming these challenges.
The utilities industry is facing several problems in Australia, with an aging workforce, infrastructure management and low customer satisfaction being highlighted as key concerns by Esri's global director for utilities Bill Meehan.
He said: "While the natures of these big challenges are diverse, they all share a strong geographic component and must be addressed by putting GIS technology to work."
GIS technology could also help create a new knowledge infrastructure to capture and retain their workers’ accumulated experience before they leave or retire. "GIS technology can capture observations and predictive information via models that are validated and supplemented by experienced workers – ensuring this knowledge is not lost," Mr Meehan added.
Customer satisfaction can also be mapped and segmented using data from the workforce, which would make reasons behind low customer satisfaction become much clearer. GIS technology has the ability to reveal where and why customers are dissatisfied, allowing companies the intelligence to address real problems.
Posted by Neil Hill
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