Anaheim : San Diego Utility Buys City’s Software System

A sophisticated work-order software system, developed jointly by the city’s utilities department and the Price Waterhouse accounting firm, has been bought for $120,000 by San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

The program, which enables the Anaheim Utilities Department to process 4,700 orders per year, was chosen by SDG&E; over several software systems developed by other utilities around the country, according to Ray Merchant, a spokesman for the department.

“We are pleased that a major private utility such as SDG&E; has recognized the significance of this system,” said Darrell Ament, utilities assistant general manager for management services. “This sale was a direct result of our active and ongoing marketing of the program to other utility companies.”

The sale is the first of its kind made by the city in its marketing effort, according to Merchant.

In addition to processing the work orders, Merchant said, the system enables project managers to do cost breakdowns and comparisons as well as to determine accurate completion dates.

“What we saw in Anaheim’s system,” said Tom Ferguson, SDG&E;’s manager of distribution planning and scheduling systems, “was a compatible technology and a good experience record because there program had been up and running for two years. We believe their system will be a good prototyping tool upon which we can build our system.”

Rights to the software are “proprietary,” Merchant said, which means they are owned solely by the city’s utility department, which received the entire $120,000. Price Waterhouse was paid by the city for their assistance in developing the system, he said.