Analysis of asset management system integration maturity at distribution system operators

Efficient asset management at distribution utilities relies on well functioning business processes and supporting information systems that provide necessary information and decision support. This paper describes development of an evaluation framework, which has been used to understand and evaluate maturity of system integration at distribution utilities. The framework consists of three components used in stages in the evaluation process. First, a scenario matrix that is used to extract information regarding the current integration strategies by addressing typical business processes and the systems utilized by these processes. Thereafter, an analysis matrix and a maturity matrix are used in systematically analyzing the systems utilized and the integration styles used to exchange data between them. Finally the matrices are used to evaluate the level of maturity of integration in the distribution utility in question. The paper is concluded with a description of five case studies in which the evaluation framework has been used, and the resulting level of maturity of the integration among the involved utilities is presented and discussed.