Our team has recently helped our longtime client Northwest Natural perform an overall readiness assessment for migrating to Esri’s Utility Network. It was a really cool and satisfying project! We especially appreciate the earnest contributions from our friends in Northwest Natural’s GIS, Enterprise Applications, and Architecture teams. We have also worked closely with an architect from Esri’s professional services team to help define and explore ideas and options for optimal future state architecture and infrastructure patterns.
This multi-faceted project involved analysis that ranged across business workflows, enterprise software systems, geospatial data, integrations, deployment options, and solution architecture. Findings helped us assess the scope, impacts, benefits, and risks of UN adoption.
The detailed findings about the organization’s current state and documented goals and recommendations for a post-migration future state have provided an excellent knowledge base for planning the next steps. Northwest Natural is now moving forward with a detailed sequence of tasks needed to further prepare for UN implementation and they have a clear sense of the activities to be featured in the full implementation and UN rollout.
If you’re under the impression that UN migration projects are big, you’re not wrong. But they don’t need to be as big as some may be inclined to make them. Planning exercises such as this one are absolutely a best practice and they can pay major dividends in the form of right-sized and practical implementation projects. Hit us up if you want a little “pre-UN therapy.” It all starts with a plan!