Goulburn Valley Water has “Gone Live” with the Thinking Windows CRM package AquaTact. Jason Dagger has reported that the Customer and Services staff are live on the system recording all contacts from customers within the system. After two days of operation Jason reports that it is exceeding his expectations. The Goulburn Valley project team are to be congratulated on a very positive outcome.

 

Wannon Water hosted the latest AquaRate User Group at the end of July. The venue was popular and this User Group meeting turned out to be the largest one ever held. All AquaRate customers attended with the exception of Busselton in WA. The Thinking Windows staff demonstrated features found in the upcoming releases of modules interspersed with customer sessions covering a broad range of topics. Towards the end of the sessions prototype demonstrations were given on the upcoming iPhone App together with the rich AquaWeb application. The schedules for new releases were announced and this financial year will see all major components improved and upgraded. The main interest focused on the expansion of “Customer Self Help” facilities. Wannon Water were able to showcase their new premise and the new technology found throughout the building.

 

Replacing billing systems is a complex task which can give the best IT Manager significant cause for concern. Thinking Windows’ absolute commitment and professional approach to replacing Western Water’s old system has resulted in a virtually seamless transition to AquaRate. The job included significant data conversion and integrations to both internal business systems and external agency and contractor systems. The project was delivered on time and to budget. Most importantly, Thinking Windows staff worked closely with Western Water staff to deliver a product fully tailored to our current and projected future business needs. Our staff could not be more pleased with the outcome.

Peter Donlon
General Manager, Customer and Community Relations
Western Water
 

At 7am on Tuesday the 1st of March the revenue department signed onto AquaRate for the first time in the live environment. The conversion from the existing system had progressed successfully throughout the preceding week and a fully integrated AquaRate system was delivered on time. Meter reading commenced the same day and completed rounds were being received by mid-day. All aspects of the system were available for use including integration to the CRM and GIS systems.

The staff at Western Water are to be congratulated for without their dedication we could not have completed such an effort in the time allotted.

All of the staff at Thinking Windows are looking forward to working with our latest customer.
 

Thinking Windows is pleased to announce the appointment of Chris Taranto to our team.

Chris has joined the main AquaRate programming group and is keen to use the skills he obtained at RMIT completing his Bachelor of Computer Science (Application Programming). Chris has gained valuable application design knowledge completing various projects at university and we will be keen to see him apply this to AquaRate system solutions. Chris will also be able to help in cutting our commute time to customer sites as he has a Private Pilot’s licence with 5 years’ experience. 

The recent AquaRate User Group meeting held in Melbourne had the largest number of attendees yet, with new attendees from Western Water being welcomed by the rest of the group. Regular participants welcomed the input from the Western Water staff and the opportunity to network with another water corporation.

Interesting presentations were given on RF metering by Jason Rice from Bussleton Water, and on concession verification by Jason Dagger from Goulburn Valley Water.

Presentations given by Thinking Windows of new application-wide functionality were warmly received and water corporations are now looking forward to delivery of the 9.1 release of AquaRate, AquaRead, AquaStats and AquaTact in November.

Quarterly Management meetings will be scheduled and will commence in November or December.

 

 

 

Thinking Windows is pleased to announce the appointment of Kalpesh Patel to our team.

Kalpesh has joined the .NET programming group and has very strong academic qualifications. He originally obtained a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and then followed this achievement with a Master of Information Technology. Kalpesh brings some experience in scientific areas and will be a welcome addition to the .NET team. You will be able to meet Kalpesh at the User Group meeting at the end of the month.
 

Trimble USA has published a case study on Goulburn Valley’s use of the Thinking Windows product Aquire. Trimble is a leading provider of advanced positioning solutions used around the globe. The case study has been very well received and will be re-published in a growing number of industry related on-line magazines.

You can read a copy of the case study by following the link below:
http://www.trimble.com/mgis/customer_stories.aspx


To download a copy in PDF format, please follow the following link:
http://trl.trimble.com/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-501654/022501-235_Goulburn%20Valley%20Water_CS_MGIS_0710_LR.pdf
 

In March 2010 Thinking Windows was approached by MadCap to participate in a customer case study. MadCap were so impressed by our take-up of the mobility help solution they wanted to publish our results to the software community at large. Thinking Windows was successful in deploying a fully functional help system to their mobile application Aquire. Whilst other companies piloted the MadCap software the staff at Thinking Windows powered forward and produced a production ready version.

You can view the case study from the link below:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/casestudy/ThinkingWindows.aspx 

In March 2010 Thinking Windows was approached by MadCap to participate in a customer case study. MadCap were so impressed by our take-up of the mobility help solution they wanted to publish our results to the software community at large. Thinking Windows was successful in deploying a fully functional help system to their mobile application Aquire. Whilst other companies piloted the MadCap software the staff at Thinking Windows powered forward and produced a production ready version.

You can view the case study from the link below:
http://www.madcapsoftware.com/casestudy/ThinkingWindows.aspx 

Thinking windows delivered the production copy of Aquire to Goulburn Valley Water last week and trained the meter readers responsible for running the system in the field. The readers were also trained in the rangefinder add-on component. The final copy of the software was delivered with mobile on-line help generated from Flare the latest program from the Madcap publishing suite. 

AquaZap has been upgraded to run the Actaris Bluetooth RF Master and was totally tested at Dinner Plain. This alpine village has been completely metered with Actaris Cybles and AquaZap was used to reset the retro fitted devices. Several different hand held devices were used: Psion Workabout Pro, TDS Nomad and the latest model from Getac. Many of the installations were in cellars or behind stone walls and the RF aerial was put through its paces. The Bluetooth adaptor was also tested thoroughly in this rugged terrain and it performed faultlessly.  

The mobility team have received the latest RF device from Actaris in the form of a Bluetooth enabled RF aerial. The latest drivers from Actaris have been incorporated with the AquaRead program and the complete system has been tested in the lab. Field trials will now be undertaken in Dinner Plain, Vic where several hundred Actaris meters are to be commissioned. The AquaZap program will talk through the Bluetooth connection to the Cyble unit in order to synchronise the meter dials to the internal RF counter. AquaRead will then be used to confirm the meters registration. The addition of a Bluetooth adapter for the RF aerial will give the meter readers greater flexibility when remotely reading meters deemed an OH&S hazard. 

The mobility team have field tested the latest mobile application, Aquire, in the northern Victorian town of Barmah. The Aquire module is responsible for obtaining extremely accurate GPS coordinates for the meters installed on properties in the town. The application works in the same manner as meter reading with the meters coordinates being saved instead of the meter reading. The application is sent reading rounds directly to field via the inbuilt NextG card. Similarly the results are transmitted back via NextG to a Web Service running on the head office web server. The geographic coordinates are then corrected to high accuracy before being saved into the AquaRate system and the GIS application.  

Thinking Windows is pleased to announce the appointment of Boedi Surijana to our team.

Boedi has joined our team as a qualified programmer. He has a great academic track record culminating with a Masters from Curtin University of Technology, together with Microsoft accreditation. He has gained formal programming experience with large multinational companies. Boedi has had experience with a wide range of technologies and is capable of programming in several mainstream languages. Boedi will bring a welcomed boost to the AquaRate module delivery. 

Thinking Windows is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Gail Hines to our team.

Gail has worked in the water industry for 35 years at Goulburn Valley Water and as a result will already be known by many of you. She has held various positions over this time; with her most recent position being Manager Revenue, Billing & Customer Service that she held for 15 years.

Gail has seen much change in the water industry particularly in billing during her time working at Goulburn Valley Water. During her more than 12 years as an AquaRate user she has managed major data conversions and several mergers of Water Authorities into AquaRate. She has also been a regular attendee at various industry meetings and for some time was a driving force behind the organisation of the AquaRate User Group meetings. In recent years Gail has been instrumental in many suggestions for enhancement ideas for AquaRate which in turn has contributed greatly to AquaRate from the user’s perspective.

Gail brings a wealth of experience in both the water industry and as an AquaRate user to her new position at Thinking Windows. 

Central Highlands Water together with Spatial Vision and Thinking Windows successfully tested the integration between AquaRate and the EView GIS web viewer. Thinking Windows enhanced AquaRate to allow a bi-directional movement between the GIS screens and AquaRate. Users may now directly look up properties in EView from a number of screens in AquaRate. Similarly any number of properties may be highlighted in EView and then be displayed in AquaRate. Once again volume statistics from AquaStats will be displayed in the GIS in the form of a Thematic display. Central Highlands Water revenue department staff members are looking forward to using the new functionality and enjoying the time saving the new functionality will bring.

 

Wannon Water have successfully read the initial implementation of Elster RF meters. The meter reading program AquaRead was used to gather meter readings from Elster meters attached to pipeline customers. Elster meters of various sizes were equipped with the RF module and AquaRate data was changed to reflect the new meter reading regime. A significant amount of time has been saved when gathering readings from the field, especially when customers are between one and two kilometres apart.
 

Wannon Water’s GIS department have linked the volumetric data contained in the AquaStats module to a layer in the Open Spatial GIS database. This is then viewed through the Enlighten product. Colour by criteria for volume history then paints an impressive picture for the viewer. The ability to view corporate held data in a spatial display was high on the agenda for the Wannon management. Further statistics have been highlighted for the next version of the AquaStats module which will also be available to be viewed in a Thematic layer.
 

East Gippsland Water have implemented the latest module from Thinking Windows: AquaStats. As the latest user of AquaRate, East Gippsland can now leverage on the new developments Thinking Windows has produced. The AquaStats data will now be included in the Tatuk GIS implementation.
 

Wannon Water have implemented the latest module from Thinking Windows: AquaStats. This module is responsible for gathering the vital statistics used by the organisation in a number of key areas.

The first topics to be addressed are

   •    Counts used in E.S.C and Annual Reporting
   •    Comprehensive volume reporting down to the property level

The module was delivered with an on-line display utilising drill down capability with direct links to a fully functioning web reporting tool. The web reporting tool uses Crystal Reports for the final display and users enjoy the variety of report formats this tool supports. The complex database backend can be interrogated through a series of database views which completely simplify the data for end user consumption.

 

After many months of searching for suitable premises, in December 2008 Thinking Windows moved headquarters to Huntingdale in the South-Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. We had rapidly outgrown our previous premises with increasing staff numbers and equipment. After the initial purchase of the building, several months were spent re-fitting the premise to fit our specific needs. We are now settled into our new surrounds and would welcome a visit from clients anytime you are in Melbourne.

 

The latest update for AquaRead supports the reading of Elster RF meters through Elster’s AMR solution. This upgrade is included in the latest AquaRead release and is available for all AquaRead users. 

The AquaRate User Group meeting was held in Melbourne in early August with attendees coming from Busselton Water (WA), Central Highlands Water, Coliban Water, East Gippsland Water, Goulburn Valley Water and Wannon Water.

Thinking Windows started the two day seminar with an Achievements Update which was followed by demonstrations of various completed modules and work in progress.  Technical discussions were also a big part of the seminar in which Thinking Windows outlined the future use of current technology in current and future module development. 

Thinking Windows has successfully converted East Gippsland Water's Fujitsu 2000Plus data into AquaRate and brought the system up on time and on budget.

East Gippsland staff are now processing all functions in AquaRate and they are looking forward to the benefits that the automation features will bring.  The staff at East Gippsland have been working hard to improve the data quality going into AquaRate and will be looking forward to producing the first invoices with the new system.

The team at East Gippsland Water have been instrumental in the success of the project.

 

We are extremely thrilled to welcome a very experienced programmer to the Thinking Windows team. Steve Thornton has been working with SqlWindows tools since 1993 and has a wealth of experience in a variety of industries including:

• Water Management
• Motor Vehicle
• Local Authorities
• Finance
• Telecommunications
• Gas Distribution and Logistics


Steve came highly recommended, having worked with several of the team on previous projects. We look forward to using his wealth of experience and expertise to complement those of our existing team. 

AquaZap is a new utility program which manages the initialisation of Cyble RF components. It allows the utility to use a single device for reading and initialising Cyble RF units. This module runs on Windows Mobile 5 and up and communicates to the Cyble units via the Actaris RF master. 

East Gippsland have selected the complete range of products from Thinking Windows to perform the billing and Customer Management functions.

East Gippsland Water provides water and wastewater services throughout East Gippsland, Victoria, stretching from Bairnsdale through to the Victoria – New South Wales border and to the High Country of the Victorian Alps.

Ten separate water supply systems benefit the communities of Bairnsdale, Bemm River, Bruthen, Buchan, Cann River, Dinner Plain, Eagle Point, Johnsonville, Lakes Entrance, Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, Lake Tyers Beach, Lindenow, Lindenow South, Mallacoota, Marlo, Metung, Newlands Arm, Newmerella, Nicholson, Nowa Nowa, Omeo, Orbost, Paynesville, Raymond Island, Sarsfield, Swan Reach and Swifts Creek.

Ten individual wastewater systems serve the towns of Bairnsdale, Bruthen, Cann River, Dinner Plain, Eagle Point, Johnsonville, Lakes Entrance, Lake Tyers Beach, Lindenow, Mallacoota, Marlo, Metung, Newlands Arm, Nicholson, Omeo, Orbost, Paynesville, Raymond Island and Swan Reach.

The new Billing and Customer Management System will support the broader Water Reform agenda in Victoria as well as provide EGW with an up-to-date technology platform with all the functionality of a modern billing and customer management system.

 

Busselton Water has successfully installed and tested the beta AquaRead RF addition. Actaris Cyble meters were trialled in the field at Vasse Newtown. David Brook-Smith from Actaris attended the 2 day testing and provided valuable insights into the art of RF meter reading. The test consisted of 7 meter reading locations and a total of 38 meters were read. The final test run took seven minutes to complete; six and a half minutes of driving and 30 seconds of reading.

            

 

Today the AquaRate User Group thanked Gail for 7 years of help maintaining the group's enhancement list. Gail volunteered for the position 7 years ago and kept the list up to date for all User Group meetings. The enhancement list will now be maintained in the Thinking Windows web site under the "Ideas" section.

 

Central Highlands Water hosted the 2nd User Group meeting in 2007. The highlights of this User Group meeting were the preview of Release 8 of AquaRate and the demonstration of the RF meter reading.

 

After a successful project implementation at Wannon Water to integrate Open Spatial's Enlighten and Thinking Windows AquaRate the two companies formally acknowledged the completion of the project by signing a Certificate of Integration.

 

Wannon Water selects AquaRead to fulfil Contract 349 Provision of a Hand Held Electronic Meter Reading System.  Thinking Windows integrated AquaRead System proved to be best-of-breed for Wannon Water.  The system will be operational within weeks. 

Goulburn Valley Water adopts AquaRead as its replacement meter reading system. 

Goulburn Valley Water trials AquaRead as the beta site. 

Thinking Windows announces its new product AquaRead as an integrated meter reading solution.