Iowa One Call

State of the Art Committee

Des Moines Water Works

July 12, 2012 9:00 AM CDT

Mission Statement: Iowa One Call, as mandated by law, operates a statewide notification system to provide effective communications to protect the citizens and underground facilities of Iowa.

Goal: To prevent damage to the underground facilities of Iowa.

I. Call to Order: Chairman Steve Stone called the meeting to order with the following present: Dan Klopfer, Steve Stone, John Barber, Brian Hanna, Ross Wendell, Neal Drefke, Bart Weller, and Steve Halstead. Guests joining us were Jim Holzer (One Call Concepts), Connie Schmidt (One Call Concepts) and Lisa Katorski (One Call Concepts). Craig Walter (Walter and Associates) and Ben Booth (Walter and Associates) were also in attendance.

II.  Minutes of the May 23, 2012 Meeting. A motion was made by Mr. Klopfer and seconded by Mr. Wendell “To approve the Minutes of the May 23, 2012 meetings as distributed. All present voted in favor and the motion passed.

III.  Discussion Topics

A.  Product Demonstrations: ITIC 2: Mr. Stone turned the meeting over to the representatives from One Call Concepts (OCC), Jim Holzer, Connie Schmidt, and Lisa Katorski. They proceeded to demonstrate ITIC 2 pointing out some of the enhancements that have been made and identifying some enhancement they would like to make. In the course of the presentation, OCC identified that they can forward date a ticket so that if the excavator is not going to start the excavation immediately after the 48 hour advanced noticed is given, they can hold the ticket until 48 hours prior to the start date. They asked if we wanted them to do this. In the end, OCC was asked to produce a report showing the date a ticket was entered, the date the ticket was transmitted and the beginning date of the excavation. In the meantime, IOC will explore the legal aspects of this option. Mr. Holzer described the review process currently in use for tickets submitted by ITIC. Nearly all tickets are released immediately and are then reviewed by Call Center staff within 24 hours. In most cases the review takes place within an hour of receipt. If errors are detected, the excavator is contacted to correct the error(s) and the notified utilities are informed of any corrections to the tickets. OCC went on to demonstrate how frequent users can established a variety of profiles to speed their ticket entry and reported that JAVA is no longer needed. A motion was made by Mr. Klopfer and seconded by Mr. Wendell “To authorize OCC to implement ITIC 2 including the attending plan to communicate this to those using ITIC.” All present voted in favor and the motion passed. OCC will invite current users to review ITIC 2 while it is still in the test mode for a period of time before fully implementing ITIC 2. They will work with Ben Booth to announce this on the website. Mr. Holzer will investigate the use of software to identify those frequent users in an effort to encourage them to make use of the enhancements. Mr. Klopfer asked how ITIC 2 would impact the DRS and was told that both systems (as well as IMAP) make use of the same mapping data base, so any mapping changes to ITIC will be reflected in the DRS mapping. Mr. Holzer said his goal is to have ITIC 2 in general use by August 10.

IMAP: OCC proceeded to demonstrate the latest version of IMAP which saw substantial changes to the look and operation, making it more intuitive and user friendly. The committee discussed who can make changes via IMAP and learned that this was set by the facility. A motion was made by Mr. Weller and seconded by Mr. Klopfer “To authorize OCC to proceed to implement the enhanced version of IMAP.” All present voted in favor and the motion passed. OCC will establish a time line for the rollout and will communicate this to the committee.

B. Closing Tickets with Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR): OCC reported that they have been using the IVR to close tickets since early June with six CSRs. Some 3,000 tickets have been involved in the pilot. It is being used with contractors and homeowners with the IVR messages tailored to the type of caller. The caller receives the ticket number, a list of the utilities to be notified and other information such as a reminder about private lines, marking colors, tolerance zone, etc. The caller can hang up after receiving the desired info or can stay on the line to learn more. The information can be repeated or the caller can request to go back to a live person. (This happened six times early on, but has not been selected recently.) One complaint was received from a contractor who only wanted the ticket number and the utilities notified (he could have hung up after that, but didn’t) while many positive comments have been received. Average IVR listening time is 113 seconds which indicates that callers are staying on the line and receiving what they consider to be useful information. A motion was made by Mr. Klopfer and seconded by Mr. Hanna “To authorize OCC to fully implement the use of IVR in closing ticket calls.” All present voted in favor and the motion passed.

C.  EI Robot (Auto): OCC has purchased a computer software that they can use to automate outgoing calls. They propose to use this with voice out calls, emergency tickets, dig ins, etc. This automated system is much more efficient (can notify all impacted utilities simultaneously) and accurate (message can be customized to fit the utility’s requirements). It can be set as to the time between attempts, the number of attempts before a human intervenes, and to require a positive response from the receiver (“I accept this ticket.”) It can also be used to send text messages instead of voice messages, but the committee saw some potential problems because of the lack of a positive response. A motion was made by Mr. Weller and seconded by Mr. Barber “To authorize OCC to make EI Robot in voice mode available to IOC members as an optional tool.” All present voted in favor and the motion passed.

D.  Cherokee Rural Water Concerns: The Committee reviewed the report compiled by OCC and discussed Mr. DeRoo’s concerns. It was the feeling that most, if not all, of his concerns will be addressed with the enhancements being made to ITIC. IOC staff was directed to communicate this to Mr. DeRoo.

E.  One Call Announcement Review: The Committee discussed Mr. Fox’s concerns and concluded that little if any confusion was inherit in the current messages and that there did not seem to be any need to change the current announcements.

F.  White Lining: In the interest of time, the Committee did not take up this item.

IV. Set Next Meeting: The Committee tentatively set 9:00 am CDT on August 20, 2012 for the next meeting. Mr. Klopfer will check to see if the Board Room at DM Water Works is available.

V. Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 12:06 pm