Recently, Mosaic partnered with a Canadian utility’s advanced distribution management system (ADMS) project team to support use case and business process development for an OSI ADMS implementation. The project occurred without a “true” system integrator, leading the utility to seek a partner with ADMS project experience and a thorough understanding of the software’s functionality, interaction with other systems, and potential benefits to the impacted business units.

The client’s technology group led the project, while the business stakeholders were only marginally involved. This lack of interdepartmental coordination created a risk that the project would not deliver a system integration and configuration that enabled end users to perform their job tasks correctly at “go live.” The lack of documentation around as-is and to-be business processes further complicated implementation.

Mosaic’s unique combination of grid and system operations practical knowledge and experience plus ADMS project experience, business process expertise, and instructional design know-how allowed us to directly interface with operations stakeholders and the IT project team to advise on how to best utilize the new ADMS system based on their specific business requirements. Our team, comprised of industry experts and business process analysts, developed user stories, workflows, and to-be processes to support the utility’s requirements definition and define applicable cases for system testing.

• User Stories: Defined work activities and mapped out tasks representing complete work activities inside and outside the ADMS application.
• Workflows: An interpretation of user stories into visual workflows, capturing all roles, decision points, and other vital process information from beginning to end.
• Business Processes: The integration of language and commentary related to the work, application requirements, business requirements, and change management challenges.

Identifying business requirements ensured the project team configured a system that served the needs of the business. Mosaic’s expertise enabled our client to make informed decisions that align with industry best practices and consider all downstream impacts.

Our client stakeholders continuously noted the value Mosaic provided to their organization regarding operational, technical, and business process expertise. The collaboration resulted in the client’s commitment to involve Mosaic earlier in the subsequent phases of the ADMS integration.