After installing PCS, consider the following questions before you begin setting up PCS for operation. Answers to these questions determine how you set up PCS to fit your company's business needs.
How is your company's pipeline system organized?
Pipeline companies organize their distribution or transmission pipeline system using certain terms to describe how the system is organized. For example, terms such as Right-of-way (ROW), Pipeline Segment, Section, Section Map, District, County, Region, or State may be used.
Setting up PCS for operation requires that you define a pipeline system hierarchy. PCS supports up to five (5) hierarchy levels and can be organized and named in the same manner as your company's pipeline system.
How does your company identify inspection points on a pipeline?
A location name and location format must be set up for inspection points on a pipeline before users begin entering survey data in PCS. Once this information has been established, it is recommended that you do not change it in order to maintain data integrity.
When you first install PCS, default settings for location name and location format are Milepost and Station Number respectively. However you can change both of these to match your company's method for identifying inspection points on a pipeline.
What is your company's policy for scheduling surveys?
Default settings in PCS for survey schedules and grace periods are based on current regulations. You can however edit these default settings to match your company's survey policies instead.
For example, the grace period for surveying long lines is three months. However your company's policy may be less than three months. When setting up PCS survey schedules, enter your company's grace period to ensure surveys are scheduled correctly.
Does your company want to use PCS security features?
The User Management feature in PCS controls system security using a role based method. Each PCS user is assigned a user role. Users with SysAdmin security permissions have full control of the hierarchy and all system features. Users with User or Read Only security permissions have limited control.
For a list of user role permissions assigned to the User and Read Only user roles, see System Security.
Will your company need unique data recorded in PCS?
Although PCS provides many fields for entering data, you can create what is called a User-Defined Field (UDF) when a PCS field does not exist. Your company's data collection forms are a good place to gather data for a UDF you may want to create.
For example, if test points are identified by map numbers, create a UDF to be used for data entry of test point map numbers.
Will PCS themes need to be customized to fit your company's business needs?
PCS uses themes for many operations, such as themes for data entry grids, sorting methods, filtering data, and field computer prompts. The PCS software installation includes several installed themes ready for use.
You can modify PCS installed themes and also add new themes to include only those features that fit your business needs. For example, you might want to include specific data fields for entering and viewing a particular type of survey data.
Do you want to set up picklists that allow users to choose from a list of acceptable choices when entering survey data?
When a data entry field is limited to certain data, consider creating a picklist that includes only those items for selection, such as repair codes, priority levels, or status conditions.
For example, you may want to create a picklist with items for selection that identify insulator status as good, missing, and shorted. Picklists are helpful in reducing data entry errors by allowing users to select an item from a list of approved choices instead of entering data manually.