CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORY
Network Waitaki Overcomes Stakeholder Data Accessibility Challenges
By leveraging FME to orchestrate complex XML requests and responses, Network Waitaki successfully extracted asset data from an obsolete, interface-free SOAP web service, restoring critical data interoperability between its core business platforms and its GIS network layers.
Legacy data unlocked
Extracted asset records from a “dead end” SOAP web service
Intelligent schema mapping
Designed a unique FME transformer with conditional capability to resolve anonymous user extension fields
Automated quality assurance
Efficiently updates the GIS with missing attributes to ensure robust data integrity for stakeholders
Tabular data transformation
Converted raw XML requests and responses into a modern, accessible database format
The Challenge
Overcoming Legacy Web Service Interoperability Obstacles
Network Waitaki is an electricity distribution company that distributes electricity from the national grid to consumers’ properties. Network Waitaki’s core business is the provision, operation, and management of electricity lines infrastructure.
Network Waitaki were encumbered by an older web service technology implemented using the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) protocol designed for the exchange of structured information but without a current interface had resulted in data interoperability challenges.
Network Waitaki has a web service provided by Technology One that was intended to be used for extracting asset details to synchronise with the Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) network layers.
The web service was implemented using the SOAP protocol which is complex, relatively slow and has been superseded by newer, more lightweight protocols. There are no current interfaces for SOAP, so Network Waitaki was at a “dead end”.
The Solution
Transforming Complex XML Formats with FME
As SOAP uses XML for all requests and responses, a request can be composed in XML and using the power of FME, Locus was able to return the data to a tabular format for use in a modern and accessible database.
A further complication encountered by Locus were the numerous user extensions that added extra fields that were customised for the obsolete SOAP output. Here Locus was able to create a unique FME transformer, with conditional capability, and intelligently mapped the anonymous fields back into an equivalent set.
The Results
Guaranteed Data Access and Quality Assurance
These results enabled meant the client was able to successfully extract the legacy asset information and compare it with the information in its GIS.
Through Locus’s solution, Network Waitaki achieved quality assurance for its stakeholders, the effective and robust workflow updating its GIS with missing attributes, ensuring a future of guaranteed data access for Network Waitaki and its customers.
Why it Matters
Network Waitaki is an electricity distribution company that distributes electricity from the national grid to consumers’ properties. Network Waitaki’s core business is the provision, operation, and management of electricity lines infrastructure.
By utilizing FME to orchestrate complex data integration and cross-validate dense data arrays, utility providers can eliminate technical debt and bridge old software environments with modern web map applications. Automating these data extraction loops ensures that operations teams can bypass obsolete communication protocols and securely maintain their spatial registers, maximizing operational speed while ensuring a single, accurate view of critical infrastructure networks across the region.
Success Stories
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Network Waitaki Overcomes Stakeholder Data Accessibility Challenges
Network Waitaki is an electricity distribution company that distributes electricity from the national grid to consumers’ properties. Network Waitaki’s core business is the provision, operation, and management of electricity lines infrastructure.