April 29, 2011
RE: Request for participation in Water Research Foundation - Tailored Collaboration Proposal
Unified Data Exchange Protocol Technical Feasibility Study
Dear :
As a follow up to our recent conversation regarding the Water Research Foundation (WRF) Tailored
Collaboration Proposal, entitled “A Water Industry-Specific Unified Data Exchange Protocol Technical
Feasibility Study and Business Requirement Assessment, FLOWatch LLC and ………………….
request …………...’s participation as a primary funder and in-kind contributor to this high-profile water
industry effort. Summarized below are the relevant factors we feel are important to your deliberations given
current management challenges and budgetary constraints.
Project Summary
Water Utility Information Technology (IT) officers have a mandate of providing the information required by
their management teams to monitor utility performance and support business decisions. The greatest challenge
in meeting this business need is the lack of consistency amongst vendors on how data should be
communicated, formatted, and transferred. As water industry professionals, we are in essence dealing with a
“Tower of Babel” impediment that the power, gas, and telecommunication industries have already overcome.
Each time information is extracted from select databases to be processed by a different system, the information
needs to be translated or converted to make it compatible with the receiving system in a process known as ETL
(extraction, transformation, loading). The adoption of a uniform set of data exchange standards by the water
industry would significantly simplify the ETL process, thereby saving our industry in excess of one billion
dollars in translation costs alone. In addition, establishing a uniform set of data exchange standards would ease
the pressure water utilities are facing in becoming more information driven organizations for more timely
automated management and compliance reporting.
To help the water industry and individual utilities overcome the barriers to information exchange, a team of
water utility experts and information management professionals are proposing to evaluate this problem and
recommend solutions through a Water Research Foundation grant proposal. The scope of this collaborative
study will focus on the following:
1) Investigate the challenges and results of data communication standards adopted by other
industries and their applicability to the water industry.
2) Define the requirements of the water utility industry through a series of utility specific
interviews and industry workshops.
3) Develop a decision and data model template for the water industry that addresses the most
common business processes including compliance reporting, operating performance,
maintenance, and asset management.
4) Analyze technology alternatives and recommend solutions for the exchange of data required to
support the water utility decision models.
5) Build a water industry roadmap for the adoption and maintenance of the unified data exchange
standard.
The Team
The team will comprise recognized water utility representatives and water utility data management experts. As
the project evolves and becomes more visible, the team will reach out to other organizations including
regulators, vendors, as well as other water utility affiliated organizations
Among the organizations currently engaged in the project are United Water, the City of Philadelphia Water
Department, American Water, Carollo Engineers, Westin Engineering and FLOWatch.
To ensure that the final unified data exchange standard and roadmap has broad industry support we are seeking
to engage the participation of a number of utilities from a cross-section of the industry. The participation of
key stakeholders (such as yourself) will help us meet that industry goal but will also provide your utility with
insight into your own data needs and potential solutions for data exchange. ------------ is invited to participate
at any of the following levels of participation:
Level 1 – Data Management System (DMS) Needs Assessment: Telephone (or personal) interviews
between a research team member and management representatives from the following business units
with your organization: Operations, Water Quality, Maintenance, Asset Management, and Engineering.
Each interview will require approximately one to two hours. You will also be asked to share your current
state documentation (preferably in an electronic format) pertaining to data management systems,
business process models, business and SCADA networks, and strategic plans. The project team will
implement secure documentation procedures and non-disclosure agreements to ensure your
documentation remains confidential. The end deliverable for this level of participation will be a DMS
Needs Assessment Report that will summarize the data management and integration needs of your utility
as well as mapping those needs to the standard business process and data models developed for this
project. The Level 1 monetary contribution is $7,200 and it is anticipated that approximately 32 hours of
your organization’s time and 80 to 120 hours of our time will be required to complete the needs
assessment. There will not be any travel required for your utility, however, the project team may travel
to your facilities to interview staff or present the draft DMS Needs Assessment report.
Level 2 – Data Management System (DMS) Master Plan: Level 2 will build upon the DMS Needs
Assessment completed in Level 1 by analyzing alternatives for meeting your utility’s data management
and integration needs. The end deliverable for Level 2 is a DMS Master Plan that will provide a road-
map for achieving your DMS goals and objectives. The Master Plan will consist of technology
recommendations, project descriptions, budgets, scheduling, and the business case for the plan. The
additional monetary contribution for Level 2 participation is $12,000, for a total contibution of $19,200,
and it is anticipated that approximately 64 hours of your organization’s time and 160 hours of our time
will be required to complete the DMS Master Plan. There will not be any travel required for your utility,
however the project team may travel to your facilities for an alternatives workshop and review of the
draft Master Plan. Some meetings and workshops will be conducted through WebEx and video
conferencing so as to reduce travel expenses.
As the WRF tailored collaboration proposal process has a limited window of funding availability, we ask that you
please consider these options and respond to us as soon as possible. We will follow up to discuss your interest in
these options and answer your questions regarding participation. To participate in this formative industry
program, please edit the letter of commitment to include only the level you that are committing to, print the
modified language on your letterhead, and have your authorized representative sign the letter. Alternatively, you
may copy the letter content to an email that originates from your authorized representative and email back to my
attention. We recommend that submit your letter of commitment by June 3, 2011 in order to complete this
Proposal and meet the collaboration deadlines.
If you have any questions, please contact me at or by email at . Thank you very much for
your interest in this project. We look forward to having you join our team.
Sincerely,