GIS Data Management Made Easy – Case Fortum

Fortum invests in the development of their GIS platform for sustainability benefits. The GIS platform and its data had been utilised and developed for a long time, but large volumes of data had accumulated gradually and its utilisation had become complicated. It was time to simplify, unify and create a solid foundation for smoother development in the future. Now, thanks to Fortum's and Advian's close collaboration, Fortum's property management supports the operations of the entire organisation, improves stakeholder cooperation and enables an efficient use of properties.

Fortum decided to start the facelift of their GIS platform from property data, since its effortless utilisation is very important for many of Fortum's business functions.

The management of dispersed and overlapping property data was significantly improved, resulting in a sleek, centralised and organised platform where all the data is easy to find and keep up-to-date. 

The final solution was the result of close collaboration with Fortum’s team. Joint discussions, hands-on learning, and ongoing sparring were in the core of our way of working together.

"Structured land property data is in core of all Fortum's asset management. Therefore it was essential to migrate the scattered data from different systems and content to one place where all Fortum's businesses can both utilize the data and keep it up-to-date.
 
Without Advian's expertize the complex migration would not have been possible. We are very satisfied with co-operation with Advian and the results gained with the project. Fortum's land property is now managed and used centralized and co-operation with Advian has continued ever since."

– Kim Danska, Senior Manager, Asset and Location Applications

A GIS platform fit for Fortum's needs

Previously, there was a need for corporate-level visibility into the properties and land areas under Fortum's ownership. Now, with improved visibility and data management, Fortum has a holistic view of their properties and the ability to use them efficiently and sustainably.

"Property data management is a very central part of Fortum's operations, and one of the key challenges in this project was to accommodate all the needs of numerous different stakeholders. Together with Fortum's competent experts, we mapped out the needs of different stakeholders and created a model for managing spatial data that serves everyone. This enables the expansion professional spatial data management to other needs in the future." – Laura Tuomikoski, Senior Advisor at Advian

As a result, Fortum's GIS platform is more organised, streamlined, and easier to manage. With the new data model and processes in place, Fortum is also able to independently continue the development into more areas of the platform.

Transforming the GIS platform with FME

The management and maintenance of the GIS platform had to be streamlined and simplified, which was the perfect opportunity to use FME – Feature Manipulation Engine.

💡 What is FME? Similar to ETL processes that combine data from multiple data sources into one, FME does just that, but with geospatial data. It comes in handy when the location-bound data is scattered and overlapping.

The team adopted an agile approach beginning by thoroughly analysing the data and structure of the platform. The core of the project included the identification and extraction of property data as well as developing a new data model and conversion process with the help of FME, that takes all Fortum's business needs in consideration. After twisting and turning data sources, data pipelines, and the ArcGIS platform, the final solution had all of the data in a single, easily accessible location.

Jere Virolainen, Advian's GIS Data Engineer and project worker, comments:

"FME is a geospatial-oriented ETL tool, which was a good fit for this GIS development project. We used FME in the conversion phase as well as FME Server in the maintenance of the platform. It was very interesting to construct the conversions with FME and develop the data flows between databases, FME Server and the user interface. What previously was a dispersed GIS platform with outdated and duplicated data, is now a centralised and logic entity where finding data and keeping it up-to-date is quick and smooth." – Jere Virolainen, GIS Data Engineer

An ArcGIS Portal Web Map application, with data migration backend processes utilised in FME Server, was implemented for the end users which allows them to easily update any property information – all in one place. 

🧭 Users can now select a property on the map, see all its information and update any if needed.

Fortum is a Nordic energy company. Our purpose is to power a world where people, businesses and nature thrive together. We are one of the cleanest energy producers in Europe and our actions are guided by our ambitious environmental targets. We generate and deliver clean energy reliably and help industries to decarbonise their processes and grow. Our core operations in the Nordics comprise of efficient, CO2-free power generation as well as reliable supply of electricity and district heat to private and business customers. For our ~5 000 employees, we commit to be a safe, and inspiring workplace. Fortum's share is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki.