ARCHIBUS FM Users' Group of Ottawa's Second Meeting March 06, 2001
The meeting took place on March 6th at Place de Ville Tower C 330 Sparks Street, Ottawa, Ontario on the 28th floor, Boardroom 2855.
Members from different organisations either from the public sector and the private sector has been invited to attend the meeting. 27 members attended the meeting including Wayne Liko, Dave Fedy and Fraser Atkinson from ARCHIBUS.
The Agenda items were
Ronald Saumure of PWGSC opened the meeting with some background information regarding the history of the "ARCHIBUS User Group".
Wayne Liko, Regional Manager of ARCHIBUS, Inc. Talked about the 2001 International ARCHIBUS/FM Users' Conference that will be held in Ottawa on May 6-9. 2001.
For more information, please visit the ARCHIBUS Web Site at: http://www.archibus.com/UserConf.Htm
Tracking Telecommunications Inventory with ARCHIBUS/FM by Warren Fischer from PWGSC, GTIS
Warren Fisher uses ARCHIBUS/FM to track voice unit and data unit. He performed a demonstration on the Telecommunication Module. Warren explained the link between AutoCAD and ARCHIBUS/FM.
Pros:
ARCHIBUS/FM help them to clean the data they have. In importing the
information from different source in the database, they have been able to find
duplication in their data. Which other wise, would have been very difficult
to do or impossible.
Cons:
They had to do all the drawings. This task could have been removed if they
would have had an agreement with other parties. They will look into this
possibility in the future.
Issue:
The main issue is to know who (organisation) will be responsible for the
maintenance of which portion of the information. This issue needs to be
addressed.
There is also the security issue with the confidential phone numbers and drawings with sensible information like the minister floor plan.
Implementing ARCHIBUS/FM-Integrated Palm technology for Furniture inventory at PWGSC by Ronald Saumure
Product name: Microview/FM
Company: Assist Global
Web Site: http://www.assistglobal.com/
Ron used an emulator to demonstrate the product. MicroView uses a Transfer Table Technology to download and upload the data. With this technology, users can do quality control on the information before updating their ARCHIBUS database. Ron highlights the fact that PWGSC will use this product for Tagged furniture inventory and they have around 12,000 pieces of furniture. Ron mentioned that the Telecom Module is yet not available with this version.
Questions and Answers
Question: How can I take the information that I have into ARCHIBUS/FM?
Answer: Using the ARCHIBUS/FM Import/Export feature. Depending on the data,
it may require some work.
Question: What cannot be done by Web Central ?
Answer: The only thing that you can not do with Web Central is to update a
drawing.
Question: With Web Central, can I open a document while somebody else is using
the same document?
Answer: Yes, but it will be on read-only access.
Question: Can I open AutoCAD drawings with Web Central?
Answer: Yes, in using a plug in called "Volo View", you can open AutoCAD
drawings in their initial format (.dwg). But, you won't be able to update the
drawings on-line. You can take some notes on it and ask somebody to bring the
necessary changes on the real drawing.
Question: How ARCHIBUS/FM cost?
Answer: There is an initial cost and maintenance cost. But, Wayne Liko
explained that it is very hard to advance a price without knowing the client
needs. There is an ARCHIBUS/FM trial version that can help the client to
identify their needs.
Check the forums at the Ottawa user group web site http://www.magi.com/~saumure/archibus.html
The next meeting will be held sometime soon.