Workflow Manager

Utility operators deal with various types of exceptions on a daily basis:

• Data exceptions

  • Billing

  • VEE

• Field device exceptions

  • Tamper alarms

  • Theft alarms

• Configuration exceptions

  • Incorrect configuration

  • Incorrect installation address

IEE's Workflow Manager enables utility operators to identify and resolve exceptions as quickly as possible. Workflow Manager is an optional licensed add-on module to the IEE application. For information on obtaining a Workflow Manager license, see Configuring licensing for Workflow Manager.

In the following illustration, the left side describes the typical process that many utilities handle exceptions:

1. The operator regularly monitors to identify exceptions.

2. The operator identifies an exception.

3. The operator follows a standard operating procedure (or SOP), which defines the steps to:

   • investigate the problem

   • troubleshoot

   • eventually resolve the exception

There’s a different SOP for each exception type, so the SOP for resolving billing failures has different steps from the SOP for resolving theft alarms or wrong meter programs.

On the right side of the illustration, IEE integrates with Action Manager to provide workflow automation. Action Manager is an existing workflow management tool in Itron’s portfolio.

The operator uses the UI to create exception filters, for the different types of exceptions they want to manage. For example:

• A filter for billing exceptions affecting high revenue commercial and industrial customers.

• Another filter for low battery events from a gas module.

• Another filter for Failed disconnect or reconnect commands that never reached the meters, and so on.

The process for resolving these different types of exceptions will be different, so the operator can map each type of exception with a different workflow. Each workflow consists of the different steps that are needed to resolve that exception, according to the utility’s standard operating procedure (SOP).

Next, an exception that meets the filter criteria occurs. IEE then automatically initiates a workflow in Action Manager according to the predefined workflow mapping.

Action Manager then executes the workflow steps needed to resolve that exception.

This approach helps the operators identify and resolve different types of exceptions more quickly than traditional methods, as the automated process identifies the exceptions and automatically initiates the corresponding workflows. The workflows themselves can automate execution of the different steps needed to resolve the exception, reducing the overall time and effort needed to resolve different types of exceptions.