telecom & utility
nova scotia power (Emera)
Customer Profile
For more than 80 years Nova Scotia Power has been the province’s main electricity provider. Its customers have always relied on them to provide safe, reliable sources of energy to power their lives.
Business Situation
Nicom IT developed new software for Nova Scotia Power to act as a back up computer system. Nova Scotia Power had invested millions of dollars to ensure their computer systems would continue functioning into the year 2000, however as a precaution, it was decided to have an alternate plan in case of an unknown problem. The idea was to take a subsection of each account and have it placed in a database on a Compact Disc. This disc would contain a program that would self-load. The program had to be extremely simple to use so that no training would be required.
To operate this program, a clerk would simply place the disc in the CD drive of their computer and it would start automatically. The clerk would be able to search for a client by a number of means (phone number, address, account number, etc). The concept behind this backup plan is that even if the whole network "went down," the computers would still be working. At the very least, clerks would be able to respond to simple inquiries from customers and accept account payments. Unfortunately, as Nova Scotia Power worked to implement this backup plan they discovered that one CD did not have enough space to hold all of the necessary account information and a program was required. Nicom became involved at this was the point.
Solution
Our solution was a very simple one. Nicom IT used an older version of the FoxPro language to develop a new computer program for Nova Scotia Power. FoxPro is small, self-loading, and includes its own efficient database system. It can be used to create an executable standalone program. Nicom was able to develop the program for Nova Scotia Power in a very short period of time. The program is very easy to run and search results are amazingly fast. At the end of 1999, a large number of CD's were created and distributed around the province as the back-up measure.
Benefits
As it turned out, the networks at Nova Scotia Power did not "go down" and the transition to the year 2000 went smoothly. Even after the change, there were times when certain portions of the network had to be taken off line. In those cases, the CD's were distributed beforehand and the offices were able to continue operating. As a result, Nova Scotia Power has the ability to continue to provide reliable customer service, even during network downtimes.