Meg Riley
Models love data. And, therefore, water modelers love data, too. But they sometimes face challenges with getting information into their water system before being able to organize and utilize it.
As Solutions Architect Javier Cantu told WaterOnline’s Angela Godwin at WEFTEC recently, “only around 5-20% of data being collected is being utilized for decision-making purposes, and 20% of an engineer’s time can be wasted looking for data or duplicating efforts.”
Cantu and Director of AI Product Management Mike Pennell were discussing Info360 Plant, a cloud-based operational analytics solution designed specifically for water and wastewater treatment plants. It was a busy day at WEFTEC in New Orleans, when they sat down to talk about this new product release.
Point and click your way to data import
A particular highlight of this advanced analytics solution is how easy it is to collect and utilize data. “Get rid of all the data-munging and collection and dealing with Excel, and all that stuff is basically handled by the platform,” explains Pennell. “People can just point and click and get information from different locations – including outside services like weather data – and everything else can all be put together and integrated.”
When establishing how your data feeds into your water system, Cantu recommends spreading the knowledge and encouraging others to provide data inputs. “I think one of the most effective models is finding ways to democratize that data,” says Cantu. “Find a way to create that general data link to be able to standardize how that data is collected.”
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Once you have simple, straightforward data collection practices in place, Cantu says Info360 Plant can be used to improve real-time data analysis and enable workflows associated with performance, compliance, and improvement planning. “Having a good standard for that data is probably the first step that any utility should be going through.”
What else can you do with Info360 Plant?
What’s the next step for water utilities after they’ve implemented strong data collection practices? Then, they can take advantage of powerful analytics.
Want a walkthrough? Watch our recent Water Talk about Info360 Plant where we show how this brand-new fully SaaS software works.
Want to see what’s coming next for Info360 Plant? We have a public roadmap for all of our Info360 cloud-based solutions.