Powel's Standard StakeOut Engineering Software Goes Live at Polk County Rural Power District

ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Powel, a leading developer of software that helps utilities work smarter, recently announced a successful installation of Standard StakeOut™ at the Polk County Rural Public Power District in Stromsburg, Neb.

Powel's Standard StakeOut is a pre-configured version of its highly customizable StakeOut field design software package scaled for rural cooperatives to allow faster, simpler implementation.

Located about 100 miles west of Omaha, Polk County RPPD serves 4,458 total customers and maintains 1,080 miles of line.  The utility called on Powel to integrate its CIS (Customer Information System) and GIS (Geographical Information System) systems with Standard StakeOut, once personnel determined the design package to be the most cost-effective solution.  Barb Fowler, Polk County RPPD's Technical Systems Coordinator says, "Being a small utility, it is often hard for us to enjoy the software and programs out there because of price.  Powel had a tiered package that provided us with a software solution with great functionality that was very easy to use at a price that worked for us."

StakeOut includes in-field job sketching capabilities that synchronize with back-office software to incorporate and analyze data. In the field, Polk County RPPD's staking technician uses a computer to design job sketches, add construction units, generate job documents and edit job sketches and units to reflect as-built changes.  StakeOut data is then synchronized to a dedicated server back in the office to calculate costs based on pre-defined construction unit prices and ensures rule base design standards.

The hardware and software interfaces with Polk County RPPD's NISC's IVue ABS system as well as their Manifold GIS system to create an efficient workflow.  By using StakeOut, Polk County RPPD streamlines their work processes, eliminates paperwork and decreases errors due to duplication of mapping tasks.

The StakeOut project was initiated in June 2010 and the iVue Accounting and Billing system is fully interfaced, with the GIS system anticipated for next year.  Polk County RPPD's Fowler adds that she has been pleased with Powel's ability to help them create and customize a program that works ideally for their service territory.

Standard StakeOut, like the fully customizable StakeOut is just one element of the WorkStudio suite that includes applications for outage recovery, vegetations management, mapping and more.  WorkStudio is a mobile work management system that helps utilities work smarter through the entire asset lifecycle.  

About Powel, Inc.

Powel, Inc., (www.powelinc.com) headquartered in St. Paul, MN, delivers software solutions that realize our mission of "Helping Utilities Work Smarter."  Powel WorkStudio is a Mobile Work Management platform with office-based analysis that helps utilities work smarter through the entire asset lifecycle, from design to construction to service, including right-of-way clearance, maintenance and storm assessment.  WorkStudio incorporates Powel's industry leading StakeOut field design application.  

SOURCE Powel, Inc.