Distribution utility business processes
Some business processes of a distribution utility are similar to other industries and include functions like finance, human resources and supply chain. In addition, there are processes which are characteristic of this industry and form its core.

Some of these core functions are work management and enterprise asset management (EAM), supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), outage management systems, network planning (load flow analysis), energy management systems, design/estimating, CRM and metre management.

Figure 1 shows the business processes of a distribution utility. The key is in understanding that though historically these processes have been loosely coupled, a higher level of operational and financial efficiency can be achieved if information exchange and data flow between the processes is optimised.

Traditional GIS systems in utilities
Not so long ago, most of the Indian utilities had minimal or no infrastructure related to GIS systems. Even if a utility had one, the use of it had been limited to particular department/s. The automated mapping/facilities management (AM/FM) functions of these systems were used in short term planning and on an ad hoc basis.

Improvements in the system were (or are still) thought of as achieving improvements in the mapping infrastructure. Though this is a building block in improving the system, it is to be realised that this is not the final goal to be achieved. The final goal would be to use GIS systems as a foundation for streamlining various business processes and to respond to the dynamically changing customer needs and regulatory requirements..