Moving Outside the Firewall with Web AppBuilder and Portal for ArcGIS Server

Esri Electric & Gas GIS Conference 2015
Moving Outside the Firewall with Web AppBuilder and Portal
for ArcGIS Server

Nathaniel Everett
GIS Systems Analyst
Middle Tennessee Electric Membership Corporation
David Speight
President
True North Geographic Technologies
Moving Outside the Firewall with Web AppBuilder and Portal
for ArcGIS Server

About Us
• 200K residential and business customers
• Serving 4 primary counties in the metro Nashville area
• State’s largest electric cooperative -- 6th largest in the United States
• Based in the Nashville area
• Esri Gold Partner
• ArcGIS Online Specialty, Local Government Specialty
• Cityworks Silver Implementation Partner
• Serve utilities, local/state government, public safety, commercial customers

MTEMC GIS Landscape
Software Stack
• Esri – ArcGIS Desktop/Server 10.2.1, Portal for ArcGIS Server 10.3
• Schneider – ArcFM Designer/Responder 10.2.1a
• Clearion Vegetation Management
Infrastructure
• Citrix
• VMware – Dev / Test / Production
Integrations
• SAP
• SCADA
• AVL
• OnBase

Business Goal: Update Flex-Based Web Dashboard

Business Purpose for Revamp
1. Get more with less – trim down our robust Web Dashboard
2. Mobile focus for Responder users
3. Eliminate need for VPN
4. Accessibility from ANY device

1. More with Less
• Wonderfully robust Web Dashboard in Flex that wasn’t being utilized
• Abundance of custom tools and integrations (narrow down)
• Formerly custom tools now OOTB and some needed their own venue
• Stakeholder meetings to determine requirements

1. More with Less
• Fewer clicks makes for
happy users
• Our Flex Identify tool
required at minimum 5 clicks
to access the list of
attributes
Efficiency…

1. More with Less
• Web AppBuilder Identify requires only 2 clicks to access the full list of attributes
1
2 (maximize)

1. More with Less
Locator/Search Bar…
• Previously a custom tool, the Locator/Search bar is now
provided Out of the Box.
• Esri World Geocoder mode searches worldwide. This means
full addresses are needed…i.e. 555 New Salem Rd,
Murfreesboro, TN
• MTEMC Locator mode searches MTEMC’s database. The
user can search for any of these items
AMI Equipment – COMPANY_NUMBER
CapacitorBank – SWITCH_ADDRESS
CustomerPoints – ACCT_NUM
CustomerPoints – MOBILE_NUM
CustomerPoints – PHONE_NUM
Cutout – NUMBER_29
Light – COMPANY_NUMBER
CustomerPoints – MTR_NUM
OHStructure – FID_NUMBER
ReclosingDevices –
COMPANY_NUMBER
Substation – SUBSTATION_NAME
Switch – NUMBER_29
UGStructure – FID_NUMBER
UGSwitch – COMPANY_NUMBER
UGSwitch – FID_NUMBER
VoltageRegulator – NUMBER_90

2. Mobile Focus for Responder
• Majority of design was based on accessing outage info and data mining
• Total Members without power at your fingertips

• Incidents and their details are easily displayed even on a phone
• Crews can view the next closest outage without direction from Control Center if needed

• This simplified interface allows easy access to data
• Supervisors can quickly see Crews are on scene

3. Eliminate the need for VPN
• Move away from using VPN to access internal data
• This sets the stage for usability outside of the MTEMC network
• Users simply need to be in MTEMC’s Active Directory to gain access to the website

4. All Device Accessibility
• Users in the office gravitated to Designer and Responder
• Providing a mobile solution for ANY device was key
• Web AppBuilder makes this possible via HTML5

4. All Device Accessibility
• Linemen, Supervisors, Board Members, etc. can access GIS data anytime
• Interest and subsequent use increased exponentially, making this transition well
worth the effort

Specific Challenges
• Enterprise Logins
• Managing web maps with
complex services/popups
• Consistent access from all
areas of the network
• Avoiding customization

Specific Challenges
complex services

Specific Challenges
complex services
Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS
Web Maps / Popups
Composite Locators
Local Gov Basemap Templates

Custom Widgets
• Responder Incidents
• Tracing
• Leveraged ArcFM Server SOE

Achieving Business Goals – Technical Overview
1. Get more with less – trim down our robust Web Dashboard
• Lose the “kitchen sink” map
• Use COTS widgets as much as possible
2. Mobile focus for Responder users
• Publish maps/services with the right content – geodatabase and non-geodatabase
• Spend time tailoring attribute display – GDB / map services / web maps
3. Eliminate need for VPN
• You need a portal!
• Use SSL along with Esri best practices for deploying maps/apps outside your firewall
4. Accessibility from any device
• Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS – HTML5 / Javascript

Breaking Barriers
• Migrated an internal-only GIS dashboard to an adaptive, mobile-
friendly GIS app
• Increased adoption of GIS at all levels
• Prepared for future mobile/web applications outside the corporate
network

Esri Southeast User Conference 2015
Q & A

Thanks!
Nathaniel Everett
nathaniel.everett@mtemc.com
David Speight
dspeight@tngeo.com

Moving Outside the Firewall with Web AppBuilder and Portal for ArcGIS Server

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