WHEN: Thursday, January 28, 2010 – 10 am – 2pm (Pacific)
REGISTER: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/554360930
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: All AssurX Energy/Utility Customers
AGENDA:
How to Manage NERC CIP Workflows & Documentation
NERC CIP Compliance Management – CIP-002 thru CIP-009 reached the Auditably Compliant stage July 1st, 2009. In this talk we will take a look at best practices for managing CIP workflows including configuration change management and process/plan review workflows.
How to Manage a NERC Compliance Framework
Part of a NERC audit includes submitting information about how your internal documentation (i.e. procedures, policies, etc.) relates to each applicable requirement. This presentation will demonstrate how CATSWeb ER can be used to establish this compliance framework.
NERC Standard Update Service
View how the NERC Standard Update Service is used to import new NERC standards and file attachments into your CATSWeb ER system.
Self Certification
Using the new CATSWeb 16Q Service Pack rules engine, view how your self-certification preparation process can be automated to create and assign all Gap Analysis records and monitor when all Gaps have been completed.
Using CATSWeb for PRC-005-1 Compliance
Demonstration of CATSWeb configured as a standalone system as well as an integration hub with various Work Order Management, ERP and Test Systems assuring that assets which effect the BES are in PRC-005-1 compliance.
Taking your CATSWeb ER system beyond your expectations
An opportunity to learn how companies use CATSWeb ER to steamline the management of documents, assets, approvals, certifications, testing, exceptions, etc.
Sessions will last anywhere from 20 – 45 minutes each and will be followed by a 5 – 10 minute Q&A, as well as a midway break. This four hour event will be recorded and available for replay shortly afterwards. Presentations will be available for download immediately following the event.
The concept of implementing SaaS is moving ahead quickly, especially in the medical device arena. Perhaps that shouldn’t be surprising; most industry experts say that device firms tend to be a bit more innovative when it comes to embracing new technologies.
That may be why Angiotech made the decision to go with AssurX’s OnDemand (SaaS) model as opposed to on-premise implementation for their global complaint handling system. Angiotech is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company that discovers, develops, and markets innovative technologies and medical products primarily for local diseases or for complications associated with medical device implants, surgical interventions and acute injury.
AssurX’s CATSWeb system is already rolled out across four facilities – three in the US and one in Puerto Rico – with Europe expected by the end of 2009.
Larry Murphy, Senior Manager, Corporate Quality, was part of the team that made the decision to go with the SaaS model because they needed to get up and running quicker.
“We got the blessing of the IT group after they reviewed the AssurX system and were able to get answers quickly about the level of security and support,” Murphy said. “As far as the users are concerned, they really like having everything centralized, including the reporting capabilities. We have significantly improved our efficiency and productivity,” added Murphy.
Prior to implementing an automated complaint handling system, various divisions of Angiotech were using either paper-based systems or homegrown Access database applications. Now the company-wide system using CATSWeb allows them to process complaints in a more structured and standardized manner that provides a much higher level of quality of information as well as the ability to track progress using metrics and dashboards.
Future plans include expansion of the current process and perhaps implementing electronic medical device reporting (eMDR) somewhere down the line.
Registration for this event is now open — please CLICK HERE here to learn more and register today!
This year AssurX will host its first annual Life Sciences Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting in Las Vegas, NV. This industry-specific event will start with a kickoff dinner, followed by two days of training sessions, best practices, customer case studies and more. Instead of holding an annual general user conference, we’ve listened to our customers and decided to hold industry specific events with our most recent one for our energy industry customers.
Don’t miss this great opportunity to:
- Learn from your peers
- Talk with experts about the latest industry developments
- Spend one on one time in the computer lab with AssurX’s professional services team
- Attend break out sessions
- See new product features
- Listen to customer case studies
- Participate in roundtable Q&As
- Network!
Tentative schedule:
- October 4, 2009 – Kickoff dinner and networking event
- October 5 – 6, 2009 – Case studies, training opportunities, all-day sessions, computer lab time.
Stay tuned for updates, final agenda and registration information.
The 2009 Annual AssurX Electric Reliability Special Interest Group Meeting was a great success. This year we met in Denver on June 9-10, 2009 and kicked the event off with a networking reception that mixed business and great conversations. During the conference sessions, we discussed the latest product upgrades for CATSWeb ER, which makes it easier to import new and revised NERC Standards and RSAWs.
In our open forum we learned about how everyone is using the product to manage compliance to the NERC Standards and much more. Presentations on CIP Compliance, Compliance Framework and a customer presentation were loaded with important, useful information. I want to thank RRI Energy for a very informative presentation on their NERC compliance process: recurring evidentiary documentation/
gap analysis process.
I also want to thank our customers and partners who participated in this great event. We look forward to the next one!
During the vendor search phase that started approximately a year prior to final selection, PG&E required three basic criteria: Vendor had to have a real product (no vaporware and no custom software), must have sold the product to at least one major utility, and had to have a proven GRC engine. One other criterion was that the system had to be on-premise.
After reducing the vendor count to three, all of them were invited to demonstrate the system using tightly scripted demo requirements created by PG&E. In the end, PG&E said AssurX stood out for several reasons:
- The live demonstration presented by AssurX was “flawless” according to a member on the selection committee
- AssurX scored the highest in the requirements matrix – functionality was at the top of the list
- PG&E was extremely impressed with the whole sales process and support from AssurX – “they were open and honest from day one and they were able to demonstrate exactly what we were looking for”
In fact, the live demonstration of the system went so smoothly that PG&E commented how “deeply impressed” they were. “That looked way too easy,” said one attendee. PG&E will be using the system for compliance, ethics and commitment tracking across the country and for internal auditing, NERC compliance, gas compliance and quality assurance.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, incorporated in California in 1905, are one of the largest combination natural gas and electric utilities in the United States with approximately 20,000 employees and revenues of almost $15 billion.
The CATSWeb Measurements feature makes it easy to track performance to goals, monitor trends and automatically send performance-based alerts. Measurements can be added to executive and corporate dashboards to provide important, easy to read, quality metrics information. Not only does this give you feedback about your performance to goal and trends, it also allows you to focus your resources on the areas of the business that need attention. Detailed information can be easily accessed by clicking on the metric of interest. All this is done within CATSWeb without relying on any third party tools or add-ons.
Because most of us don’t have time to look at these dashboards every day, alerts may be configured to automatically send E-mail notifications when the metrics change. Measurements can link to any data source such as internal system data like queries and filters, and with all system reports and graphs in CATSWeb – the source data can even be ‘external’ – such as from ERP and HR systems – or other Oracle and Microsoft databases.
It’s easy to set up a measurement:
- From the Manage page, click on Measurements and choose “Add” (or copy an existing one)
- Enter your company goals
- Then add the measurement to a Dashboard
Example of CATSWeb Measurements showing status of late actions in various departments
The CATSWeb Measurements Feature provides an easy way to track progress to goals and alert you when thresholds are crossed. This helps your company to:
- Achieve its corporate goals
- Broaden visibility regarding those goals
- Reduce cycle times
- And ensure that tasks get completed on time
Let us know what corporate goals you are tracking (or would like to track) and how you are using the Measurements Feature in CATSWeb.
How does one achieve five 9’s (99.999%) uptime or better in today’s crazy IT world? Easy. Have backups for your backups and have at least two of everything.
Okay, so maybe it’s easier said than done and perhaps that is an egregious oversimplification. The bottom line, however, is basically that’s how AssurX has achieved not five 9’s but a perfect 100% uptime for CATSWeb OnDemand systems for two years running.
We have multiple redundancies in all our critical infrastructure systems: at least two of everything. We have everything from multiple pipes to the Internet to multiple fire suppression systems. There are multiples of all server types; web servers, application servers, database servers, backup servers. There are multiples of all components of the servers; multiple drives in RAID arrays, multiple network cards, multiple power supplies, multiple CPUs. There are redundant monitoring systems, monitoring internally and externally the availability of CATSWeb and we are notified immediately when something is wrong. Fortunately (knock on wood), we’ve yet to experience this scenario outside of testing.
Our data center is the same way. There are redundant heating and cooling systems, redundant fire suppression systems, redundant UPS systems, redundant generators and everything is in “hot standby” mode, meaning if one fails, the other takes over without missing a beat. The network employs at least three major telecom providers for separate and redundant backbones to the Internet.
To someone unfamiliar with the true meaning of “mission critical”, all this sounds like overkill. Doesn’t having two (or more) of everything make life more difficult? Simple answer is, yes, life is more complicated with two of everything. There are the requirements of extra space, extra maintenance, extra power consumption, extra time for install/management/decommission of software packages and extra man hours spent working on all these redundant systems. Does it make financial sense? Absolutely! Just the same as one has homeowner’s insurance, car insurance, health insurance or life insurance, what redundancy means to an IT department is data and connectivity insurance. For hosted systems like CATSWeb OnDemand, it means happy customers who always get to their data, day or night. For IT guys like me it means peaceful, easy sleep and less hair loss.
At the end of the day, the simple fact is that AssurX has achieved something truly difficult in the IT world; 100% uptime, two years running. This is something major players, like Yahoo, eBay, Google, Amazon and many others cannot claim. We are proud of our commitment to hosting CATSWeb for our customers and will continue to implement new and better ways to achieve and maintain the best possible uptime numbers and availability as we forge ahead.
