Case Studies

The Client

When the State Electicity Commission of Victoria (SECV) was disaggregated in 1994, Victorian Power Exchange was one of the organisations to emerge and the only part of the former SECV to remain in government hands. They were the wholesale market operator in Victoria, later to be merged with the National Market Management Company (NEMMCO) and Australian Energy Markets Operator (AEMO).

Switching Instruction Writer

When a piece of high voltage equipment needs to accessed for regular maintenance or emergency repairs the appartus needs to be "switched out". This means disconnected and isolated from the power grid and made safe to work on. Controllers and operators do this switching and because the apparatus to be switched may be manually operated and spread across a wide geographical are, this work is often done by more than one person. This switching work is planned and coordinated by a controller. Part of the prepation work is generate a Switching Instruction which is a list of switching operations to be carried out on nameplated equipment. Before the Switching Instruction software was written this was done by hand which was a slow and painstaking task.

The Switching Instruction Writer presents the user with a schematic diagram with symbols that represent each of the pieces of operable plant. These objects usually only have two states: open/closed, on/off etc. The user would first make sure that all the plant is set to their starting condition, then turn the writer on to record the changes made. As each of the objects are double clicked, their status on the diagram will change and the instruction would be written in the instruction list. An instruction example could be: Open the BLTS No 1 Line 1 Bus 220kv CB.

This gives the user a list of intructions that can be used by himself or others in the field to safely switch the required plant into or out of service.

The Client

Lilydale High School is a public school in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne. As part of their curriculum they offer their students the opportunity to run what is basically a zoo.

Reptile House Resource Management System (RHIMS)

The zoo is run by a few teachers, volunteers and the students. The work that needs to be done to care for the animals is divided into tasks. The workforce is divided into coordinators and keepers of varying rank according to their skill level, coordinators assign tasks to the keepers as appropriate. When the keeper logs in they see a list of tasks that has been assigned to them. As each task is completed, the keeper marks the task as completed. The coordinators then spot check the quality of the work. This way we can be sure that all tasks have been done and the quality of the work is up to standard. The animals are very well looked after.

A large amount of information is kept on each animal, such as species name, pet name (if it has one) where and when it was obtained or purchased, sub-dural ID tag information and medical records. And not just aniamls but the enclosures that they live in. We keep track of environment type, tempature range and substrate material amoung other things.

We plan to add training videos so that it is easy for students to learn new tasks any time they want. The Zoological Dept at Lilydale High School is a great example of practical, real life learning and we are proud to be a part of it.

The Client

Select Care provide nursing staff at short notice to hospitals, aged care and disability facilities in every capital city of Australia.

The Resource Management System (RMS)

RMS kept details on staff and their qualifications in order to place them is short notice shifts. Operators in call centres in Melbounre, Sydney and Brisbane placed staff as required.

Payroll and invoicing of customers was also handled.

The Client

A subsidiary of the Central National Gottesman Inc. / Lindenmeyr Group their offices are in Rowville Victoria.

They are a global leader in the sales, marketing and distribution of paper, pulp, packaging, nonwovens & fibres, tissue, metals and wood products.

Central National Order System (AKA Canos)

Canos received and organised orders for bulk product an passed them to suppliers all over the world. We used the Papinet EDI standard in some cases to process orders from customer to supplier.

Unit of measure conversion, multi supplier products and common customer/supplier order information were features of Canos.