Southern Company Meets Extreme Printing Requirements With Ingenica’s UniPrint

Published 23rd March 2007

With 4.3 million customers and more than 41,000 megawatts of generating capacity, Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO) is the premier energy company serving the Southeast United States. A leading U.S. producer of electricity, Southern Company owns electric utilities in four states and a growing competitive generation company, as well as fiber optics and wireless communications.

Known for excellent customer service and high reliability, Southern Company has received the highest ranking in customer satisfaction among U.S. electric service providers for seven consecutive years by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). With approximately 26,000 employees and reported earnings in 2005 of $1.59 billion, Southern Company is currently ranked number 165 on the latest FORTUNE 500 listing of the largest U.S. corporations.

More than Printing Maps
Responsible for the power needs of a 120,000-square-mile territory spanning most of Georgia and Alabama, southeastern Mississippi, and the panhandle region of Florida, Southern Company relies on detailed maps to maintain power service to its 4.3 million customers.

“In order to maintain the power grid Southern Company has to generate large maps that show its entire footprint, which mostly consists of farm country,” explained David Shelby, Senior Data Systems Analyst, Southern Company. “A map may need to be 24 by 45, and as many as 50 copies could be required to provide all the information necessary for maintenance purposes.”

Although Southern Company’s Citrix server-based environment provided excellent central management capabilities, it had one very significant shortcoming.

“Although the Citrix environment inherently answered our administration problems, its great Achilles heel was printing,” commented Shelby. “The Citrix tool simply could not compress files, and so if an engineer wanted to print up the details on every utility of a certain level, it could take 60 to 70 Megabytes for 100 maps,” Shelby continued. “This meant that it would take up to three or four hours for a remote office in Alabama using a low-bandwidth dial-up connection to get the maps it needed.”

Managing the printers within the Citrix environment was also a problem. Due to the huge amount of printing taking place each remote printer had to be mapped onto the correct print job. Also, with so many different printers being utilized by different offices, administrators constantly had to integrate new printer drivers to the server-based network.

“Many locations have a tractor trailer arriving just to offload printer paper, and the vast number of print jobs meant that it often took a long time just to log users onto the correct print job,” explained Shelby. “And, that was if the installed printer was able to print the maps at all,” Shelby continued. “It was a constant battle for administrators to ensure that all printer drivers had been synced.”

Another very-important issue was that the type of symbols contained within the maps had to be perfectly reproduced.

“The huge map books must be accurately rendered to show engineers such details as different voltages,” explained Shelby. “That means that the reproduction of the custom symbols has to be extremely accurate in order to ensure maintenance engineers had all the necessary information required in the field,” Shelby continued. “The Citrix tool could not meet this requirement.”

Above and Beyond other Printing Solutions
Shelby looked at alternative solutions but found none that could provide the extreme printing functionality Southern Company required. It was at this time that Shelby was told about another printing solution that was specifically designed for the server-based printing environment.

“Duke Energy recommended Ingenica’s UniPrint server-based printing solution to Southern Company as it had a great reputation within the utility industry.”

Shelby was impressed with how simple UniPrint was to install and integrate with the Citrix environment.

“UniPrint was simple to install, and because it’s just a client server application proved simple for the end user,” said Shelby.

Designed to seamlessly integrate with Citrix or Microsoft Terminal Server server-based environment, the UniPrint software eliminates printer-compatibility issues by replacing multiple manufacturers’ printer drivers with a single universal Portable Document Format (PDF) print driver that is recognized by all printers. As a result, Southern Company’s administrators no longer have to deal with multiple drivers or users that are unable to print on the system.

“Thanks to UniPrint, Southern Company does not need to worry about 400 printer drivers that would otherwise have to be synced, and since administrators no longer have to map printers onto print jobs, it’s simple to log people on quickly.”

UniPrint’s PDF-based universal driver also solved Southern Company’s bandwidth issue.

“As UniPrint can compress a print job that might normally be 30 Megabytes to 29 Kilobytes, it drastically reduces bandwidth to significantly increase print speed,” explained Shelby. “And, this can have a huge impact on efficiency when you consider that many rural locations have limited bandwidth, and a maintenance crew might need five full map books.”

Southern Company was also very happy with the assistance it received form Ingenica’s developers. In fact, Ingenica worked with Southern Company to ensure UniPrint could accurately print the engineering symbols that are essential to safe and efficient grid maintenance.

“Ingenica’s staff was always available when needed, and ensured that Sothern Company could accurately represent the proprietary fonts engineers require when out in the field,” noted Shelby. “This is critical, as all fonts and symbols have to be exact for engineers to safely work on the power grid.”

Hurricane Katrina: The Ultimate Test
Shelby’s confidence in UniPrint’s robust printing was proved beyond a shadow of doubt in the aftermath of the catastrophic events of August 2005.

“When Katrina hit last year it had a huge impact on the Southern Company footprint,” said Shelby. “So we printed huge map books and sent out maintenance staff to see what was still where it should be.”

The emergency repairs placed a huge burden on all staff, as well as the printing solution utilized to reproduce the maps required. But, Southern Company and its printing solution were both prepared.

“Southern Company knew UniPrint could be relied upon as during previous emergency testing UniPrint was able to print 1000 maps at a time without issue,” explained Shelby. “Testing is required in order to ensure that the electrical grid can be accurately tracked in a potentially-disastrous situation.”

As Southern Company’s highly-trained staff worked night and day to bring the power grid back on line, UniPrint was always there to ensure they had the maps they needed.

“During Katrina, UniPrint cranked out maps all day and night,” concluded Shelby. “And after 400 map books it was still going strong.”

UniPrint: The “Industrial Document Rendering” Solution
Southern Company required extreme printing capabilities for its Citrix environment to ensure the efficient and safe maintenance of its power grid, and UniPrint has provided that functionality.

UniPrint has not only enabled Southern Company’s outlying offices to expedite the printing of mission-critical maps over low-bandwidth dial-up connections, but has also solved all printer-related compatibility and management issues. And, backed by its accommodating and knowledgeable team, Ingenica has also been able to accurately reproduce the engineering symbols that are essential to the safe and efficient maintenance of the power grid.

And, Shelby is quick to point out that UniPrint has proved an exceptionally cost-effective answer to Southern Company’s printing problems. In fact, having met the exacting needs of Southern Company, he feels that it is inaccurate to simply classify UniPrint as a printing solution.

“At $1200 a license plus yearly maintenance UniPrint is a bargain,” noted Shelby. “It allows end users to use all the bells and whistles of an indigenous printer driver, and yet is so robust, that it can print huge batches with extreme accuracy,” Shelby continued. “UniPrint is much more than simple printing, it is industrial document rendering.”