November 4, 2024

The Analytics of Operations: Coweta-Fayette’s Enhanced Futura Experience with MeridianIQ

Georgia based Coweta-Fayette EMC had been using MeridianIQ on the consumer accounting side of their co-op for quite some time, but knew there was untapped potential for their GIS operations. Recognizing the opportunity to get more out of their investment, they decided to bring MeridianIQ into their Futura-powered workflows to enhance analytics and reporting.

Jessica Williams, the Supervisor of GIS at Coweta-Fayette, described their initial challenge: “We knew that MeridianIQ existed, but we didn’t really have any concept of how to use it. We hadn’t tapped into how it could benefit us.” The GIS team wanted to ensure they were leveraging this powerful analytics tool to its fullest potential, especially when it came to the Futura data they worked with every day.

Recognizing this gap, they reached out to Meridian, and Optimization Consultant Curt Arulf stepped in to provide the guidance they needed. Jessica Pounds, GIS Application Support Specialist at Coweta-Fayette, described how Curt’s training made all the difference: “He was able to jump right in and start explaining things. We started with the basics – here’s how to connect to your database, here’s how to add your table to your spreadsheet, to your workbook. As things started to click, we all kind of threw our hands up and said, ‘Oh my gosh!’”

The training helped the team unlock the full potential of using MeridianIQ alongside the Futura suite, enabling them to turn complex information into easy-to-understand insights, making it much easier to track and manage their operations. The GIS team can now provide quick, accessible one-shot reports to different departments across the co-op without having to rebuild them. “One of our mottos is to keep it simple,” says Pounds. “When people request reports, they want to see straightforward data. MeridianIQ allows us to take all that information and present it in a way that’s easy for everyone to understand.”

Armed with this new understanding, the team began using MeridianIQ to generate a wide range of reports and insights tailored to different departments throughout the co-op. From tracking right-of-way clearings and transformer inspections to monitoring equipment installations and field operations, they could now provide data that was not only accurate but also easy to visualize and interpret. This ability to create customized reports has allowed various teams to access the information they need quickly, helping Coweta-Fayette operate more efficiently and make informed decisions throughout the co-op.

More than just offering data, MeridianIQ helped demonstrate the full impact of the GIS department across the co-op. “We’re a small group, but I think we have the biggest impact internally,” Williams noted. “Everything comes through GIS—inspections, equipment installations, new locations. It doesn’t get into consumer accounting until it goes through GIS. Our work with MeridianIQ is showing how vital GIS is to the cooperative.”

Both Williams and Pounds agreed that integrating Futura with MeridianIQ has been a game-changer, demonstrating the wide range of applications it can support across the co-op. “Everything that we do comes from either Futura data or from UPN data,” Williams emphasized. “The Futura data pulls a lot of stuff from UPN, and we, as Operations and Engineering, use it much differently than Consumer Accounting and Data Processing do.”

With Futura as their foundation and MeridianIQ as their analytics powerhouse, the GIS department at Coweta-Fayette EMC is well-positioned to harness the full potential of their data and continue driving operational excellence.