WALLINGFORD, United Kingdom, March 9, 2005 -- Wallingford Software, a leading developer of hydraulic modeling and network data management software for the worldwide water industry, has announced that VITENS, the biggest water supply company in The Netherlands, has purchased 10 licenses for InfoWorks WS.
VITENS had been using a Dutch software solution to analyze its major pipelines, but required a more sophisticated tool that could undertake a wider range of work. The company evaluated five commercial packages and came to the conclusion that InfoWorks WS, the leading software solution integrating asset and business planning with water supply and distribution network modeling, offered the closest fit to their requirements.
According to Edwin Blaauwgeers, VITENS' asset management advisor, the company undertook an extensive examination of the five software solutions under scrutiny, scoring each against 66 criteria. Some of these criteria were considered vital, with the software eliminated if specific features were unavailable. "InfoWorks WS was the only software solution that scored no 'knock-outs,'" Blaauwgeers notes.
"One such critical facility was the ability to flag data changes so that it is possible to see when the original data has been changed," he adds. Overall, InfoWorks gained the highest score of all the software solutions under scrutiny.
There were a number of other InfoWorks features that VITENS regarded as extremely important:
-- Client/server architecture
-- Import and model-building tools
-- Simulation of the real world - real life modeling of complex valve and pump behavior (the technical specifications of valves and pumps within the network are used in the simulator and possible capability issues are reported)
-- Critical Link Analysis (pipes and other devices are, one by one, automatically tested to check the consequences of a possible failure)
-- User programmable controls for defining complex rule based logic control
-- Direct link to live data for simulating events
The software solution offers powerful hydraulic simulation, and is exceptionally fast, robust and efficient with large networks. It also has an integrated water quality, fire flow and sedimentation capability and extensive demand handling ability including powerful demand change editors.
Vitens, which was formed in 2002, supplies drinking water to over four million domestic and industrial customers in Friesland, Gelderland, Overijssel, the North-East Polder and a number of municipalities in Drenthe.
Vitens' turnover in 2002 was EUR 350 million, and the company has 1.6 million connections over 40,000 km of distribution network in total. It owns 85 treatment works, producing 265 million cubic meters of water a year, and employs 1,100 people.
Blaauwgeers says: "Right now we're very busy testing InfoWorks on our Citrix-server environment. We plan to use InfoWorks in a much broader way, from water distribution analysis to flushing analysis.
"One of the most important functions is Critical Link Analysis, which is able to analyse and calculate as the Dutch regulations prescribe. Wallingford Software will add some extra possibilities in the next version of InfoWorks WS." VITENS will also be using the software to analyse the hydraulic impact of various actions such as changing pipe diameters and also operational exercises, such as shutting down valves to insert a new length of main, to enable the company to judge how customers and water pressure will be affected.
"Generally speaking InfoWorks is easy to use, there are lots of possibilities and it is excellent at handling data and importing it, for example from GIS packages," Mr Blaauwgeers concluded.
Wallingford Software (www.wallingfordsoftware.com) produces market leading software tools for the water industry. Products include data management and network modeling software to support planning and operations in water distribution, sewerage, river management and coastal engineering. Customers include water authorities, consulting engineers and academic institutions throughout the world. Based in Wallingford, UK, the company has offices in the United States, Malaysia, China and Australia and distributors throughout the rest of the world.
###
