It's only a matter of time for the power industry...

Transpara has just announced version 3.0 of Visual KPI. In the press release, reproduced below, they note that AEP is now implementing Visual KPI. Transpara also noted that one of the uses of Visual KPI is Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. It is clear from even the demo that Transpara has posted online that, in the deregulated power industry, Visual KPI is an extremely easy tool with which to determine when a fleet has either excess power or not. This is already being used by some of Transpara's companies to help their spot energy brokers be more profitable. This is also the kind of data that stock market analysts would kill for. This is the kind of stuff that can make a short term killing on the market for the brokerage that is monitoring real-time performance of a power utility. No, nobody in their right mind would give a broker access to your company's Visual KPI database. Or would they? What happens if the broker approached the CFO and said the magic words, Sarbanes-Oxley? And demanded the information, since the CFO obviously has it, and it makes a difference to the performance of the company financially. Interesting thought, isn't it?  From the release: Transpara Announces Visual KPI 3.0 for Manufacturing and Utility Enterprise Users Composite Key Performance Indicator Software Delivers Advanced Flexibility, Data Delivery and Visualization   Pleasanton, Calif. - October 10, 2007 - Transpara Corporation today announced Visual KPI 3.0, the only composite Key Performance Indicator (KPI) software that delivers on-demand operations data from multiple data sources to any browser: laptop, desktop or mobile device. With version 3.0, users can consolidate hundreds, or even thousands, of real-time KPIs into a single, at-a-glance view of their entire asset hierarchy. Attribute-driven scorecards and True Roll-Up Charts eliminate the need to configure KPIs multiple times and provide an accurate picture of KPIs regardless of how many are present in the entire set. Visual KPI 3.0 provides flexibility for users to group relevant, role-based data at run-time, and advanced visualization for real-time decision making based on composite KPI maps.   American Electric Power (AEP), one of the largest electric utilities in the U.S., which delivers electricity to more than five million customers in 11 states, is implementing Visual KPI 3.0 across its fleet of generation plants and in its central generation dispatch office. "Since our initial pilot project more than two years ago, Visual KPI has proven to be a critical tool in delivering a visualized alarming capability for our PI systems, enabling our operating teams to quickly assess their situational awareness of key process indicators," said Kevin Stogran, Director of Market Operations Support, AEP. "In one tool, we now have the ability to deliver KPIs to either a PDA, a desktop monitor or a large flat panel, all driven from the same configuration setup. This has eliminated a lot of configuration duplication and has enabled the end user to truly see what they want, how they want, and where they want in one easy step."   Visual KPI enables users to easily create and customize composite KPIs and scorecards without any programming, using information from any combination of existing data sources, including the OSIsoft PI System, Rockwell RSSQL, Invensys InSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, SmartSignal, OLE DB and Web Services.   "Enterprise customers are looking for solutions to manage and effectively use the massive amounts of data generated from multiple and disparate sources throughout the organization," said Bharat Nair, SVP and Research Director with Aberdeen's Global Manufacturing Practice. "Transpara enables customers to extend the power of their existing data sources to mobile devices, and deliver actionable, role-based data to personnel, no matter where they are, in the field or in the office. With Visual KPI 3.0, data is presented in context, through intuitive KPI maps and scorecard views, ensuring users throughout the organization have real-time operations intelligence at their fingertips for smart, fast decision making."   New Features of Visual KPI 3.0 include: - True Roll-Up Charts (TRU Charts): Collapse KPIs into single view without additional configuration to view relevant, role-based KPIs. - Attribute-driven Scorecards and Views: Create Scorecards and Views using SQL queries with a built-in "˜Query by Example' editor (no SQL knowledge is required.) - User-Defined Calculation Engine: Create KPIs that include basic equations, allowing KPI Attributes to be derived from real-time values and other Attributes. - Run-time grouping: Regroup data at run-time and as needed, creating tailored views for the task at hand, e.g. show KPIs grouped by "˜Priority.' - Advanced Visualization: KPI and scorecard views with additional color, mapping and layout schemes provide users with improved visibility into role-based data. Bar charts improve analysis of KPI values in context, which is especially useful for KPIs with physical limits. - Advanced Navigation: Pervasive hyperlinks speed up information location and analysis. - Mobile Device Support: Support for more than 150 mobile devices includes the new Motorola MC35 Enterprise Digital Assistant (EDA) and the Apple iPhone. - Advanced Integration: With advanced support for data sources using ODBC, Web Services and Excel Services (part of MOSS 2007), users have more flexibility and access to use KPIs already calculated somewhere else in their organization.