Autodesk , Inc. and Open Spatial Australia have announced City West Water, one of Victoria’s largest retail water businesses in metropolitan Melbourne, has selected its enterprise spatial data management solution - enabling the utility to increase operational efficiency and improve customer service. Working together, Autodesk and leading channel partner Open Spatial Australia have developed a geospatial solution for City West Water that comprises Munsys on Autodesk Civil 3D, Enlighten on Autodesk MapGuide, and Oracle’s spatially enabled Data Base Management System (DBMS).

City West Water is owned by the Victorian Government and provides drinking water, wastewater, trade waste and recycled water services to approximately 276,000 residential and 31,300 non-residential (industrial and commercial) customers in Melbourne’s Central Business District and suburbs. City West Water’s boundaries extend to Brimbank, Hobsons Bay, Maribyinong, Melbourne (north of the Yarra River), Moonee Valley, Wyndham, Yarra and parts of Melton and Hume.

Mathew Giesesmann, general manager of engineering at City West Water commented: “The solution has an enterprise approach that goes beyond traditional Geographic Information System (GIS) implementations. The ability to spatially enable our critical applications will improve business processes and ultimately our bottom line. City West Water is committed to Geospatial Information Technology to improve our productivity and deliver better service to our customers.”

Enterprise spatial data management is designed to improve data quality, data accuracy, data integrity and remote data availability. This means water utilities have better information with which to make their business decisions. Autodesk, in conjunction with Open Spatial - a leading geospatial solutions company, has provided a solution which allows for seamless interoperability between critical business systems and adds a new dimension to corporate information.

Bridging the gap between engineering (CAD applications) and GIS has been a priority for utilities, in order to improve productivity. By using Munsys (Spatial Data Management Business System) and Enlighten (Spatial Distribution), the CAD and GIS streams converge into a single enterprise database.

Enterprise spatial data management provides a single-user interface into an organisation’s many spatially enabled corporate applications, placing emphasis on minimising data redundancies and data duplication experienced by traditional GIS applications.

“Utility providers require a different approach in today’s market. They need systems that enable them to move through the life-cycle of a particular piece of infrastructure. Autodesk and Open Spatial are working together to ensure customers such as City West Water are in a better position to streamline infrastructure management workflow to help address the various business problems faced by the industry,” Frank Sgammotta, ANZ regional director of Autodesk said.

Commenting on the deal, managing director of Open Spatial Australia, Anthony Jahshan, said: “To be selected over multi-national traditional GIS vendors shows how local innovation based on an enterprise approach to Spatial Data Management is changing how utilities think about their geospatial data.”

Oracle’s improved geospatial capability within its database has created opportunities for companies, like Open Spatial Australia, to focus on niche markets and build Enterprise Business Solutions that deliver fast returns on investment.