Trilliant Speeds Time on Installs with ProVisor Software Provisioning System on Windows CE


Trilliant Inc. provides intelligent network solutions and software to utility

companies for advanced metering, demand response, and Smart Grid management. With more than twenty years experience solving meter communications needs, Trilliant focuses on the adoption of open standards-based technologies for electric, gas, and water utilities.

Trilliant’s advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) solutions enable utilities to develop time-of-use (TOU) metering and demand response programs giving customers better information and control over energy use through interval based consumption data and 2-way messaging. These solutions help utilities to drive down operational costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Once assigned a task, we could count on the highly professional, knowledgeable and experienced Aton staff to get the job done.

- Eric Scalera, Product Manager – Field Tools, Trilliant, Inc.

Background

A typical rollout of intelligent meters can involve over a million meters.  Installation requires a visit to each meter location by a skilled meter installer to upgrade or replace the existing analog meter with digital equipment to communicate meter data wirelessly.

Because of the large number of meters that are being installed and disruption to service during each installation, Trilliant’s field tools need to minimize the install time for each meter.  The tools must help the installer accurately record the serial number and current meter reading at the time of installation.  All of this must be accomplished swiftly and accurately in outdoor weather conditions that range from blazing heat to below zero storms.

Trilliant’s ProVisor Software Provisioning System includes a series of field tools to support of meter installations, and also operations and maintenance. These tools, in combination with Trilliant’s best practices AMI field processes, deliver significant productivity, reliability, and system integrity assurance.

Trilliant chose ruggedized handheld computers that use Microsoft® Windows CE as the operating system.  These compact handheld computers include a bar code scanner to read utility meter serial numbers and custom software called ProVisor Field Tool that allows the operator to quickly and accurately configure the utility meter electronics.

Technical Situation

Although Trilliant’s Field Tools team was able to develop, test, and deploy the ProVisor Field Tool, they wanted to:

  • Streamline the installation process of the software tool onto the Windows CE handheld device;
  • Convert all components of field tool software to a single solution using the Microsoft Visual Studio software development system ;
  • Add field tool features to support new types of utility meters currently in development.

Solution

Trilliant enlisted the help of Aton International, Inc. to refine the ProVisor Field Tool software application.  Aton staff developed software modules to smoothly install all aspects of the Trilliant ProVisor Field tool onto the ruggedized handheld computer.

These installation modules function with multiple versions of Windows CE and create a backup image on the handheld device that can be used to restore the field tool software if a battery fails or is drained.  The end result was a single Visual Studio solution that generated comprehensive installation binary files containing all Trilliant ProVisor software modules.

Benefits

By using the installation generator included in Visual Studio, Trilliant no longer needed to purchase third party installation generator products, resulting in a substantial cost savings.  Aton’s staff was able to jumpstart progress on a portion of the project relating to Windows Embedded CE which had stalled. Trilliant’s goal to have a field tool software product that could be easily and rapidly be installed in many handheld computers for use by field installers was realized in just a few months.

Products and services used

Aton converted various existing software modules from Visual Studio 2003 and Compact Framework 1.0 to a common solution based upon Visual Studio 2005 and Compact Framework 2.0.  Managed code in the C# language was predominantly used, with C++ for certain supporting software modules.  Multiple installation outputs were built to support Microsoft Windows CE 4.2 and Microsoft Windows CE 5.0.  The handheld ruggedized computers used were Psion Teklogix Workabout Pro models 7525 (Windows CE 4.2) and model 7535 (Windows CE 5.0).

Customer Comment

“Aton got to work immediately to resolve issues with our ProVisor Field Tool Installer on Windows CE and delivered excellent results in a very short time.  One suggestion resulted in substantial cost savings for Trilliant. Once assigned a task, we could count on the highly professional, knowledgeable and experienced Aton staff to get the job done. – Eric Scalera, Product Manager – Field Tools, Trilliant, Inc.