Dominion Virginia Power is one of the nation’s ten largest investor-owned electric utilities. The company delivers power to more than two million homes and businesses in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1997, the company overhauled some of its core processes and technology. The goal was to improve customer service and cut operations costs by developing a new workflow and geographic information system. When the project was finished, service engineers who had sifted through thousands of paper maps could use computerized searches to pinpoint the locations of electricity poles. The project helped the utility improve management of all its facilities, records, maps, scheduling, and human resources. That, in turn, helped increase employee productivity, improve customer response times, and reduce the costs of operating crews.

Questions

1. What kinds of things does Dominion Virginia Power do that require it to know power pole locations? How often does it do these things?
Who benefits if the company can locate power poles faster?
2. Based on your answers to question 1, describe three tangible benefits that the company can receive from its new computer system. How can these be quantified?
3. Based on your answers to question 1, describe three intangible benefits that the company can receive from its new computer system. How can these be quantified?