June 18, 2014

South Central Power Company Selects Futura

South Central Power Company Selects FuturaGIS and FuturaStake

South Central Power Company in Lancaster, OH, has partnered with Futura Systems to take their GIS and Staking operations to the next level.

This move adds extra integration options to accommodate South Central’s current In-House CIS and NISC ABS system, including direct Esri-to-Esri integration, real-time updates to NISC, staking job validation, connectivity validation, and even Asset Management. In addition, the upgrade to FuturaStake gives South Central Power Company a host of sleek new offerings to the staking process while providing more accurate connectivity validation into the mapping system.

“We went through a pretty vigorous selection process that involved 13 committee members and at the conclusion of the process we concluded that Futura was the best vendor to fulfill our needs and requirements. Their solution would provide our engineering department with a stable, mature and powerful staking application while enabling our GIS department to expand its GIS platform with sophisticated tools,” says Tonya Hixenbaugh, GIS Director for South Central Power. She continues, “The committee was looking to satisfy engineering department needs as well as GIS department needs from a single vendor that provided a tightly integrated solution for the two departments. From engineering’s perspective they wanted a stable, mature and powerful staking application. From the GIS department’s perspective we wanted to ensure that our data integrity is maintained and that the quality of data is upheld. We recognized the need to expand our GIS platform and were looking for a vendor that could provide us with tools to validate data, identify discrepancies within the connectivity model, and simplify tasks such as changing phase on all equipment between a starting and ending point.”

South Central Power Company wanted to stay in the Esri environment powering their GIS solution and move away from the non-Esri foundation driving the staking system they had been using. As an Esri Gold partner, Futura Systems was the logical choice. By choosing Futura, South Central stocked their toolbox with real time solutions in a user friendly format, complete with a host of mapping, asset and data management tools. Designers are able to create staking sheets, draw lines and post updates while taking advantage of FuturaStake’s ability to automatically and correctly pre-populate information, increasing South Central’s efficiency and productivity dramatically and reducing the errors that occurred from double entry in previous systems. As Ohio’s largest electric cooperative, South Central’s asset and data management is imperative for successful operations, and FuturaStake’s front end verification is truly second to none. By uniting with Futura, South Central Power Company continues to push toward its mission “to provide cost-effective, quality electric and other services to its customers and communities through integrity, commitment and accountability.”

About South Central Power Company

South Central Power Company, located in Lancaster, Ohio, began in 1936 with funds from the Rural Electrification Act. Since those early beginnings, South Central Power has been a powerful force in improving the lives of rural residents in 24 counties in Ohio, currently serving over 115,000 members. Learn more at: www.southcentralpower.com.