News from Trimble Energy

When starting to develop a mobile application, the first major choice is the selection of the development platform. Should we focus on developing native apps for the main mobile platforms or trust the more general web-based technologies that serve us well also on the desktop? This choice has some long-standing consequences as it sets the general direction for our development organization, application distribution and possibly even business model.
When kicking off the development of our mobile application suite, Utility To Go, we at Trimble also faced this question. After discussing the issue with some of our key customers, we had to carefully weigh the benefits of the different technologies with regard to the key requirements of our prospective field users and their organizations.

A post-it on the project room door reads 1 + 1 = 3. I ask our user experience specialists Minka Kailu and Laura Meskanen-Kundu what it is all about.

“User centric design,” Laura says. “Everyone will benefit from it: the software users get to use a good product, the coders like to develop, and the company benefits because the product finds a better foothold in the customer base,” she continues.
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Minka describes a user centric software development project’s workflow by explaining that open, positive, enabling atmosphere and communication help the project team find the best solutions.

On Wednesday, January 2, 2019, gusty winds of 40 meters per second caused lots of trees to fall on power lines in the Åland islands. Soon, 14,000 people, half the population, were without electricity.
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– It was a fast-paced start to the new year and the following three months, says Jan Lindgrén, Electricity Network Manager at an electric utility Åland's Elandelslag.
The utility quickly scaled up their field crews from the usual 20 to 120.

What is Cyber Security built on? As a Utility, what kind of questions do you need to ask yourself to define your security risk level? How does a modern web application mitigate cyber attacks?

Security is neither free nor automatic but requires knowledge and effort from both the solution vendor and the utility. Read this white paper on Web Application Security for Utilities to find out the answer to these questions and many more.

​The Trimble NIS main version 19.1 has been released. Some very nice features have been included in the new version to help our users in their everyday work. Here are some of our favorite Highlights. 
 
Limit network visibility in Utility To Go
Grant simple permits to users for different geographical areas in Utility To Go. Area permits are useful for utilities that assign field work to several subcontractors in different areas, or have modeled different network types, such as electricity, water and district heating, in Trimble NIS. You can also prevent users from viewing the network within a special area (such as a military base).

​The Rocky Mountains is probably what first comes to mind when you hear Colorado and summit in the same sentence. It was, however, another kind of summit that attracted 40 User Experience Professionals from around the globe to Colorado on April 2–4. One of them was our UX Designer Tuukka Pykäläinen who travelled from Finland to the City of Westminster to give a talk on Creating an Admin Tool for a New Cloud Municipality GIS Service.

​Make your utility field planning process easier, faster and less prone to errors.

Utility To Go is a mobile solution that provides field crews with secure access to utility network data anytime, anywhere, in real-time and with most smartphones, tablets or laptops.

It’s now possible to add notes to network plans also in the field. With Utility To Go, you can add notes related to planning, view plans, sketch alternative routes, and take photos in the field to support further planning. There is no need to print network plans on paper anymore, and the field crews have access to an always up-to-date plan.

We are looking for a Consultant to join our Electric & Gas consultation team in the Trimble Energy & Public Administration business area, located at Trimble Solutions headquarters in Espoo, Finland.
 
You, as a Consultant will work in a team of Trimble NIS consultants and be a member of account management teams. This permanent position is a great opportunity to learn international energy distribution and IT system business on fast growing market.

​We are looking for a Master’s Thesis worker to join our Utilities product management team in the Trimble Energy & Public Administration business area. This position will be a temporary position for 8 months, located at Trimble Solutions headquarters in Espoo, Finland.
 
The detailed topic of the Master’s Thesis will be separately agreed. It will be related to automating routines in distribution network planning. The work can include, for example, electro-technical scoping and formulation of the planning routines and the actual implementation with the development team.

Trimble User Conference Finland 2019 (#TKP19) was held in the City of Lahti January 24‒25. The two-day event brought together nearly 600 Trimble Users from public administration and the electricity, water, and district heating industries.

The conference was packed with inspiring presentations, demos, and workshops. During the opening speech we learned how Trimble facilitates its customers’ diverse ways of working and will complement the software solution portfolio for utilities with a browser-based product offering with built-in 3D capability.
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​Amazing Ronja Oja, an information science student and a winner in World Para Athletics European Championships, gave a thought provoking keynote speech on Accessibility of eServices.