FORTE-BASED DECISION SUPPORT BRINGS DETROIT EDISON INTO COMPLIANCE WITH NUCLEAR REG COMMISSION REQUIREMENTS

Forte Software, Inc. has announced that The COGNET Group has developed a Forte-based decision support framework for Detroit Edison, the nation's seventh largest electric utility company. The framework enables Detroit Edison's Enrico Fermi Unit 2 nuclear power plant to comply with a recent 1995 Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requirement. The new framework, developed using Forte and Forte Conductor, will ultimately support as many as 800 users, demonstrating the products' abilities to scale and deliver distributed decision support and workflow capabilities to mission-critical applications.

The framework includes two applications: a Critical Performance Evaluation Program (CPEP) for performance monitoring and decision support, and a Condition Assessment and Reporting Document (CARD) that rigorously manages the plant's business processes related to investigating, identifying, documenting and correcting problems.

"Forte not only helps ensure the 100 percent NRC compliance that Detroit Edison needs, but also reduces personnel errors and increases productivity," said Jim Zimmerman, vice president at The COGNET Group. "By quickly and correctly identifying the root cause of problems, plant management can take corrective action and put equipment back in service faster."

The new framework brings vital operational and configuration data instantaneously to the desktops of plant engineers, operators and maintenance personnel. Previously, it took hours to obtain the same data. In addition, there are fewer procedural errors now because CPEP workflow, powered by Forte Conductor, ensures that employees adhere to information processing guidelines without omitting steps.

"The Forte-based applications allow us to catch problems before they affect production, giving us preemptive capabilities that keep operations running and improve uptime," said Bruce Sheffel, director of performance engineering at Enrico Fermi. "This cuts losses and improves plant efficiency."

Forte's multi-tier architecture helps protect data from unauthorized access and gives Detroit Edison the foolproof security it needs. Furthermore, employing a three-tier architecture has reduced the client footprint and made overall application maintenance and enhancement simpler.

After conducting a "proof of concept," The COGNET Group and Detroit Edison selected Forte based on its scalability, multi-tier and object-oriented architecture, single infrastructure, workflow engine, performance, load balancing, lower hardware costs, reliability and its status as a proven solution. The company ruled out two-tier solutions because they are limited, costly, difficult to maintain and lack security capabilities.

According to Zimmerman, another reason for choosing Forte was its support for incremental development. CPEP is being developed and implemented in phases. The first phase was developed by a team of six people over a five-month period and deployed in November 1997. The second phase is being developed by only three programmers and will be deployed at the end of this year. The CARD project is currently in the pilot phase and will be fully deployed by January 1, 1999. There are currently 200 users; the system is expected to support up to 400 concurrent and 800 total users by the year 2000.

The COGNET Group and Detroit Edison Company are already reaping the benefits of Forte's object-oriented architecture. The CPEP object framework can be plugged quickly and easily into a completely different environment without changing code. In a significant example of application framework reuse, the CPEP application was deployed on a pilot basis within three weeks at Detroit Edison's Energy Marketing and Distribution organization, where employees are currently using it to perform queries, create reports and conduct business analyses.

The COGNET Group is engaged in management consulting, software systems integration and engineering services. The company was founded in January 1996 and is headquartered in Libertyville, Ill. The COGNET Group serves a number of major clients in the United States and Canada.

Forte Software, Inc. is a pioneer in advanced development and integration software for scalable distributed applications. For more information, see http://www.forte.com