EA Networks

Discover how EA Networks is bettering managing its asset lifecycle, reducing costs and improving the quality of energy supply for its customers

Case study highlights

  • Removed duplication of data and reduced risk
  • Gained 360 degree view of business
  • Better visibility over assets

The Challenge

EA Networks is a locally owned co-operative electricity network based in Mid Canterbury, New Zealand.

Prior to moving to an integrated enterprise solution, EA Networks was operating using several disparate systems.

“We had a number of disjointed databases that we wanted to bring together, to help us resolve issues like duplication of data and data discrepancy,” said Mark Lester, Chief Information Officer, EA Networks.

“Our financials and engineering databases weren’t linked, and that was creating a number of issues and risks for us - mainly in being able to get a holistic view of our assets to accurately carry out predictive and proactive maintenance,” Lester said.

With reliable energy supply critical to the livelihood of its agricultural business customers, EA Networks needed to strengthen its operating systems and processes to improve integration and gain a real-time view of enterprise information.

“We wanted to move to an integrated solution, because we believe that a best-of-breed approach causes integration headaches, and comes with risk, additional workload and maintenance of the systems,” Lester said.

The Solution

EA Networks purchased TechnologyOne’s OneAsset solution, implementing key functionality over time.

“We’ve been using Financials since 2004, implemented work management and projects in 2012, and then Asset Management in 2017, so it’s been a journey for us,” said Lester.

He added: “The main driver was to get an integrated view of assets, in terms of lifecycle management, so we can get to a point where everyone in the organisation is looking at the same asset and can understand how it’s performing and do predictive maintenance.”

The Outcome

Since adopting TechnologyOne’s integrated enterprise software, EA Networks now has newfound visibility of information across its enterprise.

“TechnologyOne gives us that one source of truth, because there’s no duplication and no systems out of sync,” Lester said.

He added: “With TechnologyOne it’s one seamless product and it’s all connected - we don’t have to worry about how the products integrate together.

“TechnologyOne gives us a 360 degree view of our business, within a single product. It enables us to reduce risk, because we’re confident in our data - and allows us to focus on our business, and not managing the supporting technology.”

Chief Information Officer
EA Networks

TechnologyOne gives us a 360 degree view of our business, within a single product. We’re confident in our data and it allows us to focus on our business instead of managing the supporting technology.

Perspective

Implementing TechnologyOne OneAsset solution has consolidated and simplified EA Networks’ operating systems, delivering improved data integrity. This has enabled EA Networks to gain greater control over its asset lifecycle, so it can forecast asset maintenance in advance to avoid potential outages.

“Our shareholders are our customers and our goal is to provide them with the most reliable service we can,” Lester said.

“Dairy farming is one of the key businesses in our area, which means there’s lots of irrigation, for which farmers need a reliable network and energy supply.

“TechnologyOne Asset Management allows us to better manage our assets, so we know how we’re spending and what we’re spending on.

“That means we can better plan our maintenance spend and ultimately reduces our cost and improves the quality of energy supply for our customers - so that we can support the success of their dairy farming businesses.”

About EA Networks

EA Networks, the trading name for Electricity Ashburton Ltd, is a locally owned co-operative network company based in Mid Canterbury, New Zealand.

EA Networks owns and operates the region's electricity distribution network and an advanced fibre optic communications network.

EA Networks website

Publish date

12 Aug 2019

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