On Friday February 28^th Esri released the Migration Toolset, this is a pre-release and will be part of 3.5.  I was a beta program tester taking this tool for a ride and I will say it is pretty slick.  Kudos to the Esri team!!

As I was working with the data migrated by the tool I was reminded of how flexible and basic the utility network is or can be.  I hope you didn’t fall out of your chair at that last comment.  It’s true and the results of the migration tool are evidence of that.  Don’t take my word for it – go ahead download the migration tool, migrate your data and see for yourself.

Seriously…you can and it’s not that hard.

What you get with the migration tool is a basic configuration enabled UN that works – summarized as your data is migrated, connectivity rules are in place based on your source data, features are connected (minus any errors), and you have subnetworks.  Also included in the results are the errors found and documented – good benefit.

For many the result of the Migration Toolset may be good enough to move forward with and for others it won’t meet your expectations at all.  Regardless, going through this process can teach you more about the UN and your source data.

This isn’t a commercial for the new tool, but the new tool opened an opportunity to talk about perceptions and options.

Since 2018 there was a focus on demonstrating the full capabilities of the utility network.  This effort was to reinforce the business value the UN will bring to the utility industry which then could feed the business cases needed to fund the migration projects.  The unfortunate consequence of this approach created a perception of complexity, difficulty, and singularity – there is only one way to go.  But the reality is the UN has been flexible since day one, but it was hard to see that when all that was being talked about and shown was an advanced model and configuration.

Over time pre-defined models and configurations have changed based on feedback as well as evolved based on changes in the technology.  For example, non-spatial object tables were introduced by Esri and now this is a common place to put Unit records, like related tables in the GN but now part of the network topology.  These changes can be seen in the Esri models but also options like SSP Accelerate from SSP and the models and configurations created using the Migration Toolset.  This wouldn’t be possible unless the UN was in fact flexible.

Did you know you don’t need to use any of the available pre-defined configuration options?  You can build your own utility network from scratch; all the tools are there to get started.  The pre-defined configuration options are designed to give you a head start as well as to decrease the overall effort.

This is why I was excited by the Migration Toolset because it shows you there are options for how you build your UN.

This is a great opportunity, so my recommendation is to download the new Esri migration tools and see what your data looks like in a simple configuration of the UN.  Get familiar with the data, structure, how things are connected, and the errors generated by the tool.  You will learn a lot but may still have questions about configurations, relationships, or how to do something.  Don’t be afraid to ask.

Here is a parting thought; while there are pre-defined configurations available there is no industry standard or best practice – they are primarily starting points – and none of these are required.  The only requirements are your requirements for how you need the system to support your business.  Lastly, I hope you recognize the UN is a flexible technology and not a rigid single thing you can’t shape to meet your needs.