IBM Maximo for Utilities supports work and asset management for transmission and distribution in water, gas and electric utilities. In this article I intend to show you how to receive meter assets. This is one of the most important features of this product.

Smart Meters are devices that measure the consumption of electricity, gas, or water and modify standard rates according to use. Based on that, customers are able to monitor and control revenue meters. You can use the data import feature to load those smart meters by ASN (Advanced Shipment Notification) file. The benefit of this approach is that it enables you to easily create a large volume of new records.

Requirements

In order for the receiving process be performed successfully, it is necessary to complete some prior configuration on the web server side. I'm not going to explain how this is done in this article, but you can check the instructions at the link below. The meter assets are received by the JMS Queue; they are received based on the same way you have configured JMS queues in the integration framework, I mean, in a sequential or continuous way. You can configure them using the PLUSDTND record in the External System application.

(http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v27r1/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.itam_instBea.doc/install/t_tamit_weblogic_settingup_jms_if.html)

Knowing the ASN File

Smart Meters are received typically by an ASN file, which can be in TXT or XML format. Here, I'll focus only on the XML format. Below you can see an example.




The XML file is composed of several tags and some of them are useful for this scenario.

Let's talk about some of them:

• <max:PLUSDRCVROTITMSet>: Identifies the interface name associated with external system;
• <max:PONUM changed="true">POREIS</max:PONUM>: This is a unique purchase order number which must exist before data import is executed;
• <max:ITEMNUM>RTREIS</max:ITEMNUM>: This tag represents a rotating item that will be associated to the purchase order;
• <max:RECEIPTQUANTITY changed="true">10</max:RECEIPTQUANTITY>: This specifies the quantity of meter assets that will be received; the value is associated in the purchase order;
• <max:EXTERNALREFID changed="1">PLUSDTND</max:EXTERNALREFID>: This tag identifies the name of external system. Its name must be specified as the SenderID in all inbound messages from that system;
• <max:SENDERSYSID>PLUSDTND</max:SENDERSYSID>: This is the SenderID mentioned in the previous topic;
• <max:ASSET action="AddChange" transLanguage="EN">: Here you set all meter asset information, such as serial number, pallet number, box number, meter type and other things specific for assets;

Preparing your environment

Assuming that you have already prepared your ASN file and have configured your web server, let's go on. Some information from XML must be recorded in the Maximo application before you proceed with receiving assets process. For example, if your XML has some domains, you need to create them.

You must also complete the following tasks:

• Go to the Cron Tasks application and activate SEQIN and SEQOUT in the JMSQSEQCONSUMER record. It's up to you to specify the interval of time that SEQUIN and SEQOUT will be processed.
• Go to the External System application, search for PLUSDTND record, and enable it. After that, go to the Enterprise Services tab, search for PLUSDMXRCVROTITMInterface and disable the option Use continuos queue?. This way the assets will be received in sequential order.
• Go to the Item Master application and create a rotating item. Make sure this item is added in one storeroom and that it specifies any classification. It should be activated and finally it should be configured in the Organization application for the current site.
• Create a purchase order and add the same rotating item that was created previously; specify the quantity that will be received in this purchase. Save and approve it.

Performing preview and import process

• Go to the Receiving (T&D) application and locate the purchase order that was created previously. Select the Material Receipts tab, then go to the Select Action menu and choose the Receive Rotating Item in Bulk option. The following screen will be displayed.
  
  
  
  
   
• Before importing, try to preview it first. If it's okay, you'll receive the message shown in the following image:
  
  
  
  
   
• Perform the data import process and you'll receive the following message:
  
  
  
  
   
• When the data import is performed successfully, multiple messages are put into the inbound queue. When the crontask is run, the messages are then processed to the application objects for updating. In the following image you can see the messages being received.
  
  
  
  
   
• Now let's take a look at the meter assets that were received. As you can see ten records were created and can be used.
  
  
  
  
   
• Another thing that is important to mention is that all meter assets were stored into the storeroom specified during the rotating item creation. As you can see, when I created the item, I inserted them into the CENTRAL and HARDWARE storeroom.