Netz Nieder­österreich / EVN Group: Digital Inspection Report Gas

  • Group Portal for secure integration of 1,500 external network partners

  • 300,000 gas systems with regulated prescribed intervals, about 25,000 inspections/year

  • Completed inspection reports as PDF and with partially anonymized data

The network partners of Netz NÖ GmbH document the inspection results for customer gas systems securely with a mobile app: The data of the inspection results for gas systems are recorded electronically on site by the responsible network partners – including photos and sketches. If defects are found, a blocking or repair period can immediately be determined.

HybridForms: Digital forms for network operators & service providers

The entire inspection process of gas systems by network partners – from the scheduling of the inspection, the assignment to a group, the documentation of the operation on site with tablets, smartphones or laptop to the transmission of the inspection report to the customer and Netz NÖ – is completely digital and secure in the workflow.

The network partners are integrated via the Group Portal in Azure AD of HybridForms, the user management is thereby with the external partners. Through the protected extranet access, they have secure access to their forms & templates.

The inspection data is recorded digitally via App by the network partner. The fields with customer data are usually already filled in by the back office, the guided work flow with help texts and assistance functions enables entries to be checked and errors to be avoided.

The completed inspection report is available as PDF in three versions. 1: The complete version remains with the network partner for filing. 2: The version for the user of the gas system is sent to the customer per mail by the network partner. 3: Netz NÖ automatically receives a partially anonymized version from the system in compliance with the requirements of GDPR.

About the EVN Group

EVN offers electricity, gas, heat, drinking water supply as well as wastewater disposal and thermal waste utilization »from a single source« on the basis of modern and reliable infrastructure.

The product range also includes energy services for private and business customers as well as for municipalities. Around 4.8 million customers relied on the secure supply of energy and environmental products and services from EVN in fiscal year 2019/20.

In total, the EVN Group currently operates in 14 countries. In fiscal year 2019/20, 51.4% of revenues were generated outside Austria in the markets of Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

Netz Niederösterreich GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of EVN AG.

End-to-end digital documentation of the entire »inspection Report Gas« process by local network partners and Netz Niederösterreich

Digital Transformation at Netz Niederösterreich / EVN Group
Digital transformation at Energienetze Steiermark
More about mobile form processes for utilities

»The new App offers users of gas systems, inspectors and also Netz NÖ very significant time and cost advantages and provides data security by avoiding transmission errors. Data protection and information security requirements are also ensured.«

Dieter Pachler, MBA, Network Engineering Gas, Netz Niederösterreich GmbH ↗

»During the implementation of this use case icomedias was a reliable and fast acting, highly professional and on schedule partner. The analysis of the collected data with Microsoft Power BI was implemented in a technically sound manner and accompanied by training/know-how transfer.«

Michael Hudal, MA, Information Processing Department, EVN Group ↗
Logo NÖ Netz – EVN Group
Logo EVN Group
Energienetze Steiermark: Digital transformation with HybridForms

Digital documentation in the field of customer gas systems: Significantly accelerated processes, high user acceptance, optimal collaboration in distributed teams

Problems and requirements of Netz Niederösterreich GmbH

The paper inspection reports were filled out by the technicians and then sent by mail, fax, e-mail or in person to one of the 26 service centers of Netz Niederösterreich. There, they were checked for completeness by a person in charge and the data was entered manually.

In order to optimize the entire process, the search began for a digital solution for the mobile documentation of the field service inspections. The app had to be intuitive to use, work on all end devices (including offline mode on mobile devices), with Enterprise features for data capture (such as photos, sketches, sound recordings) – and at the time meet the high requirements for data protection and security.

Solution with HybridForms already in the pilot project

  • Digitization workshop with process analysis and design concept of an immediately useable prototype for »Digital Inspection Report Gas«.
  • Secure pilot phase and successful test deployment under real-life conditions with selected users, involvement of the guild as well as interested parties.
  • Production rollout of the digital form processes that were tested in everyday use immediately after the one-month pilot project.
  • Direct added value through secure enterprise features such as group portal, form automation and workflow, data exchange with internal systems.

Learning and benefits in daily productive use

  • Faster processes and availability of inspection results, location-independent processing (also offline), inspection results with current ÖVGW guideline status.
  • Improved data quality through usability, labeling of mandatory fields, interactive assistance functions, validation of entries, integration of catalog services.
  • Optimal collaboration in teams – despite heterogeneous user landscape.
More about the Pilot Project (PoC)
Success story: Netz Niederösterreich / EVN Group
Success story: Netz Niederösterreich / EVN Group

HybridForms for secure & cross-company communication between grid operators and local network partners for field service inspections

Group Portal for external users

  • Management of external groups, service and network partners

  • Secure extranet access to forms on your system

  • Delegable user management with AD/Active Directory accounts

Optimal collaboration: Secure integration of external partners

Workflow and interfaces

  • Automation for pre-populating fields with customized data

  • Stages workflow with different authorizations depending on the stage

  • Interfaces to internal systems of the customer (such as SAP)

Automated processes: Added value through secure data networking

Data privacy and security

  • Completed inspection report also with anonymized data as PDF
  • Use of Microsoft Azure Cloud with ISO 27001 certification
  • Own test/training server, separated from productive system

Enterprise security: Secure systems and personal data

Secure data & systems

Netz Niederösterreich uses HybridForms as SaaS solution (Software as a Service) for operation and updates – with Microsoft Azure Cloud (ISO 27001 certification for information security and ISO 27018 for protection of personal data).

For the development of new form prototypes, training of employees and partners as well as updates, Netz NÖ has its own test and training server – securely separated from the productive system.

Interested in further references for energy suppliers & grids?

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