Sefa BAŞ
Project and Investments Assistant Manager
Akmercan Group of Companies Success Story
How did Akmercan Group of Companies digitize their networks using Başarsoft’s GasnetMaestro product?
I have been working within the Akmercan Group of Companies for 10 years. Since 2018, I have been working as Project and Investments Assistant Manager. Akmercan Group of Companies stepped into the energy sector by taking the natural gas distribution region license tender made by the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EMRA) in 2006, consisting of Adıyaman Center and Besni, Kahta and Gölbaşı settlements. Then, from 2011 to 2016, with its natural gas distribution licenses, the number of which reached 10, it provides uninterrupted natural gas supply service with its 650 personnel to a total population of 3.5 million consisting of 12 provinces and 72 districts within the scope of its responsibility area of 3,000 km2.
Our network size in the 16-year process in the natural gas sector is reached 480,000 subscribers with 30 RMS-A (city entrance pressure reducing stations), 8 CNG discharge stations, and 5,500 km natural gas distribution lines. Our group, which continues to work to take its place in energy production, has targeted environmentally friendly renewable energy sources, especially for the evaluation of domestic resources in our country, and has started electricity production by completing the construction of a hydroelectric power plant with an installed power of 10.76 MW in the province of Muğla. In addition, our institution carries out project studies in solar and wind power plant projects.
With the rapid developments in information and communication technologies, in today’s conditions public institutions and private companies need to participate in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) based projects both in the detection, analysis, presentation and sharing of existing assets in daily operations and in order to direct the planned infrastructure investments, and to reach information faster with these projects, to make decisions more quickly, and to produce smarter strategies. The use of GIS technologies at each natural gas consumption point, from the investment planning stage to the end user, provides institutions with an effective process management opportunity. It helps to make the right decisions in a systematic way with real data. In order to manage infrastructure and superstructure investments and all instruments belonging to natural gas networks in a healthy way, it is a must to establish and use a system where the spatial and attribute data of these instruments can be collected, stored and analyzed.
For a long time, we saw that Başarsoft was the supplier of digital road maps, and many public institutions from the General Directorate of Security to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, from governorships to the Ministry of National Education, provided the most up-to-date map information throughout Turkey. We also saw that Başarsoft’s GasnetMaestro and similar solutions were used in infrastructure institutions and companies. Başarsoft infrastructure management systems are available in many natural gas distribution companies, Türk Telekom, GSM companies and electricity distribution companies in the same sector. In the majority of the market, there are integrated navigation solutions with maps belonging to Başarsoft.
Since Başarsoft is also a Google Maps map supplier, many mobile users who touch the map are also indirect customers of Başarsoft. The fact that the applications run on Apple and Android platforms has encouraged us to make our choice in this direction in terms of network asset management, and as of 2019, we have switched to the GasnetMaestro system. We prefer Başarsoft especially because of its experience in geographic information systems and infrastructure sector, as well as its open work to technological developments and solution-oriented services.
GasnetMaestro has a structure that has desktop and web applications based on GIS for the management of the infrastructure assets we own, can follow the manufacturing process management in the field, and can be integrated into investment management systems. Working on a live database, it has the ability to process data from multiple users at the same time and at the same location. With GasnetMaestro, there is no need to keep our digital CAD data physically on a specific server and our verbal data on a different database server. By working in integration with other systems, it can present live and up-to-date information together with geographical information. All of the address data and natural gas network assets in the system are spatially created in the database and their updates are carried out with the GasnetMaestro desktop application. Querying and analyzing address and network data and displaying reports are performed both in the GasnetMaestro desktop application and in the GasnetMaestro web and mobile applications. We have integration between GasnetMaestro and our subscriber management system. With this integration, the newly registered address data in the system is instantly ready for subscription purchase without the need for any action.
Before GasnetMaestro, numerical CAD data was kept physically in one result and verbal data was kept in a different database server. This situation included the risks of data loss due to reasons such as corruption of CAD drawing data, easy data deletion from drawing data with user errors, disconnection of CAD drawings from the database. In addition, we could not access the log information containing the information of which user and in which time period such data loss was made. At the same time, keeping verbal data and CAD data in different databases was a problem in providing web and mobile application support.
The satisfaction of other gas distribution companies that currently use GasnetMaestro has directly affected us in choosing this system. The biggest advantage of GasnetMaestro is that the database can be switched directly to the spatial data system without the need for an additional spatial license. Desktop programs can be used without the need for powerful computer systems, as CAD programs requires. We recommend it to companies that need a solution partner.