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Since its inception, ADWEA recognized that information technology (IT) would play a pivotal role in the development of the sector and, as no IT infrastructure was in place, an aggressive IT strategy was developed and executed.  This strategy is updated annually and revised every 5 years.  Because there was no previous infrastructure in place it was necessary to make certain assumptions that were based on the best practices and experience of other similar utility providers in this and other parts of the world.

The IT Strategy began with certain assumptions and guidelines:

  • The ADWEA IT Division would oversee all corporate IT activities
  • All IT activities would be driven by business needs
  • The IT infrastructure and application services would be shared where possible by all Group companies
  • Core business applications would be deployed initially - other applications would follow once the first series of applications was stable
  • A data network would be built that would provide efficient (but only sufficient) bandwidth for each link between two points
  • Information and data would be held at the individual company level but could be expanded up to the Group level – this point was necessary as it was the intention of ADWEA to divest itself of parts of the Group when appropriate
  • A best of breed policy would be applied to the selection of applications
  • All software used in the IT infrastructure would be properly licensed.

The IT Strategy, and its subsequent revisions, has delivered a very sophisticated IT Infrastructure that comprises the following:

  • Three purpose-built server rooms that currently accommodate over 250 servers – a major project is underway to use virtualization techniques to reduce the number of servers significantly whilst increasing the utilization of available processing power and disk storage space
  • A data network of more that 100 sites covering the whole of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi – this network continues to expand and it is envisaged that over 50 sites will be added in 2009. - -- Plans are also underway to make extensive use of the fiber optic network of Transco which will allow voice and data traffic to share the same network.
  • The data network currently allows over 3,500 users to access the IT infrastructure and services
  • Two state-of-the-art, 24 x 7 Contact Centers, one in Al Ain and one in Abu Dhabi, that provide several ways for customers (around 400,000 in total) to contact the distribution companies – these contact centers play an increasingly important role in the development of the sector and with its customer service compliance obligations.

The execution of the IT Strategy delivered the following business applications:

  • The Customer Care and Billing System (CC&B) (Over 1,100 users) – this application uses meter readings to calculate bills for domestic and commercial customers and receives revenue via the Sales branches. This system will soon be highly available with an additional standby database.
  • Oracle Financials Applications (Over 120 users) – this application maintains the ADWEA Group of Companies’ books of accounts
  • HRMS Application (Over 7,000 users) – this application maintains personnel administration details and produces the ADWEA Group of Companies’ payrolls; it also provides self-service facilities to employees
  • Maximo (Over 2,000 users) - this application facilitates the procurement of goods and services, maintains the inventory of the companies, and plans and records maintenance of assets. This system is highly available.
  • The ESRI Geographical Information System (Over 1,110 users) - this application is used to digitally represent the geographical location of the ADWEA Group of Companies’ assets
  • All major applications reside on Oracle databases
  • Window Exchange handles email services

The latest revision of the IT Strategy took place in 2008 and the IT infrastructure and the delivered services continue to evolve, amongst the planned initiatives in the next 5 years are:

  • Upgrades to CC&B, Maximo and GSI to provide better functionality and to facilitate easier integration of these applications
  • Introduce an enterprise project management application to help the business cope with the large infrastructure projects they have to deal with as a result of the rapid expansion of construction in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi
  • Integration of applications thereby allowing outages to be properly dealt with, field services to be delivered more efficiently and effectively, projects to be better managed and for investments to be justified and traceable.
  • Improve customer service by making more use of outage management information
  • Enhance public safety by introducing a laboratory management system
  • Protect the ADWEA IT Infrastructure and services by putting disaster recovery facilities in place
  • Improve management information by the introduction of a Business Intelligence application and associated data warehouse
  • The implementation of Share point as a collaboration tool and to facilitate electronic document management
  • The enhancement of electronic services to customers of the distribution companies
  • Implement a formal governance process to oversee all IT activities – the use of the ITIL best practice framework.
  • To ensure that users are able to make the best possible use of the IT Infrastructure, ADWEA Management instigated extensive training programs including the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) and Microsoft certification opportunities.