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Meeting Date:	05/29/2018
Sampling and Measurement Information Management System Procurement, FLOWatch
Submitted for:	Adrian Montemayor	Submitted By:	Adrian Montemayor
Department:	Water Utilities


Subject:
Discussion with possible action to authorize the Purchasing Agent to solicit Requests for Proposals for a web based sampling information management software program for the water and wastewater system to enhance the collection of data needed for reporting purposes and for compliance with State regulatory agencies. [Account #7220-7280-001-432001 and #7220-7270-001-432001, 2016 Bond Account, Professional Service Water and Wastewater] Issue: The Water and Wastewater System produces approximately 55 samples in one day that is required to prove its compliance with State requirements. As recommended by prior system evaluation it is now necessary to compile, evaluate, record, and provide to our regulator for consistency in our compliance methods. Currently, our water system maintenance its compliance through manual storage of all records; however, we would like to modernize this effort with a system that can manage the information and provide trends analysis for future improvements and compliance. Solution: Contracting for the services of this informational software tool will provide us with not only the ability to easily comply with the entire requirement stipulations, but also make this information available immediately as needed for everyday operational decision. Result: More reactive to sampling and monitoring data for better means of operation.
Background:
Webb County Utilities (WC) operates the Rio Bravo Water Treatment Plant and Rio Bravo Wastewater Treatment plant in Rio Bravo, TX. WCU serves the water and sewer requirements of 6000 customers. WCU is seeking an enterprise platform to manage all of its operational data, and migrate away from paper and spreadsheet based practices. WCU requested information to consider FLOWatch Operational Data Management System (ODMS) 3.0 unified web platform to manage its operational, asset management, workflow and maintenance activities, and produce compliance and management reports for all its facilities. FLOWatch 3.0 is used to manage data such as flows, energy, water quality, maintenance, asset tracking, financials, compliance information, score card metrics and other business analytics for the utility plant manager managing one or more plant systems for both drinking water and wastewater treatment. FLOWatch is a cloud-based service that is licensed on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model where WCU would pay a recurring fee to store and manage information, produce reports and access critical analytics to insure plant systems are operated in an optimal manner. The benefits of adopting the FLOWatch data management strategy include: 1) eliminating the high initiation and operational costs associated with managing a stand-alone data management infrastructure and technology in-house, 2) ability to access utility information from any location via multiple device technologies, and 3) increased efficiencies in utility oversight tasks related to operational performance, b) regulatory reporting, c) management criteria, and d) asset management, and e) audit tracking.
Previous Court Action:
None