From Data Deluge to Dashboard Success: Pima County RWRD's Enterprise Dashboard Story

From Data Deluge to Dashboard Success: Pima County RWRD's Enterprise Dashboard StoryAbstractToday's water and wastewater utilities operate within a challenging landscape characterized by resource scarcity and data abundance. The constraints of limited budgets, staffing shortages, and time pressures coexist with a wealth of data, extensive reporting requirements, and soaring expectations for optimization, efficiency, and situational awareness. In response to this complex environment, the Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department (RWRD) embarked on a transformative journey. RWRD's objective aim was to leverage modern dashboard technology to streamline the collection and presentation of recurring internal performance metrics from all utility departments. Simultaneously, RWRD sought to enhance data visibility and situational awareness for key leaders and supervisors throughout the utility. As early adopters of enterprise dashboard technology, RWRD and their consultant team confronted and overcame numerous technical and institutional challenges during the development process. This presentation describes the hurdles encountered and the lessons learned along the way. Drawing from four years of real-world production experience, it also provides insights into the successful maintenance and enhancement of an enterprise dashboard system. The presentation will highlight specific challenges and lessons learned on topics relevant for utilities considering development of an enterprise dashboard, including: Gathering Dashboard Requirements: Eliciting and defining comprehensive requirements to align the dashboard with business needs. Data Integration from Disparate Systems: Connecting to and integrating data from multiple heterogeneous on-premises and cloud-based systems via multiple methods, including API calls, direct database connections, file extracts, and writing Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes within Power Query. Development of Shared Dimensions and Attributes: Creating a framework for naming and assigning shared dimensions and attributes to data coming from disconnected systems. This is a critical step for developing displays that allow the end user to readily view data from disparate systems. Enterprise Data Model Development: Developing a Power BI data model to handle high volume enterprise reporting, including addressing challenges related to datasets with different time granularities within one data model. User Interface Design: Designing interactive, intuitive, and user-friendly dashboard pages. System Deployment: Configuring workspaces, selecting Power BI component options, and establishing data refresh schedules. IT Landscape Adaptation: Adapting to evolving technology, infrastructure changes, and industry standards while aligning with business goals and minimizing disruption User Training and Feedback: Providing comprehensive user training and collecting feedback to improve the user experience. Continuous Improvement: Staffing and maintenance requirements and workflows to support platform evolution, ad hoc feature requests, and scalability/extensibility. Drawing on four years of experience with the enterprise dashboard system in production, the presentation will identify the benefits provided by the system, including: Substantial time savings for recurring data acquisition, KPI calculation, and report production Reduced latency for key operational metrics, allowing for more predictive and proactive operations Improved tracking of operating expenses, utility usage, and budgeting processes Heightened visibility on conveyance system maintenance operations Enhanced awareness of customer complaint issues Expanded ability to examine data in a broader context, promoting a more holistic view and better understanding of root causes Drill-down and filter options for a more granular view of department divisions and units Deeper understanding of trends and patterns through visualization tools that offer easy access to temporal attributes and alternative data aggregation methods Pima County RWRD's development of a dashboard system has achieved the objectives of the initiative and delivered broader benefits than anticipated, thus demonstrating that data system improvements and dashboard technology can be helpful in addressing some of the industry's most pressing challenges. The lessons learned during this process are expected to be useful to other utilities embarking on similar data-driven initiatives.This paper was presented at the WEF/AWWA Utility Management Conference, February 13-16, 2024.SpeakerPyke, GrantleyPresentation time11:00:0011:30:00Session time10:30:0012:00:00SessionCombining Data and Asset Management for Improved Monitoring and OperationsSession number20Session locationOregon Convention Center, Portland, OregonTopicData Management Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department 2; Pima County Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department 3; Pima County Regional 3;SourceProceedings of the Water Environment FederationDocument typeConference PaperPublisherWater Environment FederationPrint publication date Feb 2024DOI10.2175/193864718825159267Volume / Issue Content sourceUtility Management ConferenceWord count13