Ensure efficient and reliable boil advisory notifications like real-time updates to prevent redundant alerts with TIBCO BusinessWorks.
Introduction
Effective communication is crucial for utilities in our data-drive world. A recent integration project with a municipal water and sewer utility aimed to enhance customer boil advisory notifications. Leveraging TIBCO BusinessWorks, we built a robust solution that streamlined the process and ensured timely updates to impacted customers.
The Challenge
Boil advisories are critical alerts issued by utilities when water quality is compromised. Our client faced challenges in efficiently notifying customers about these advisories. Their existing solution relied on communicating boil advisories to local media outlets and lacked real-time updates directly to their customers.
The Solution
We used TIBCO BusinessWorks to implement a solution to monitor changes in the utility’s ArcGIS boil advisory data and notify customers. First, boil advisory data was extracted and used to identify the impacted parcels from another ArcGIS system. Next, the boil advisory and impacted parcel data were then stored in a cloud database to facilitate the determination of relevant change events. Finally, the change events were reliably sent to the client’s cloud notification system for delivery to their customer’s preferred contact method.
There were several key benefits of the robust solution for the client. The fault-tolerant TIBCO solution ensured reliable delivery of the boil advisory communications to the utility’s customers. When faults or delays are encountered, the stream of boil advisory change events is queried and compacted to ensure only the most relevant statuses trigger a notification, preventing redundant customer alerts. The replication of boil advisory and parcel data ensures all customers notified of an active boil advisory are guaranteed to receive the lifted communication. This is important as the geometry of an active boil advisory can change to add or remove impacted parcels. Finally, the replicated data provided a foundation for the client to build out reporting and metrics around their boil advisory process.
Conclusion
Efficient boil advisory notifications are essential for public safety. With TIBCO BusinessWorks, our integration project empowered the municipal utility to communicate effectively with their customers. Real-time updates, fault tolerance, and reliable delivery were the cornerstones of our success.
Written By:
David Glantz
Integration Architect
Data Strategy Group
