ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Avineon, Inc., a successful provider of IT, geospatial, engineering, and program management solutions, today announced the completion of a $5.3 million data conversion project for the City of Chicago Department of Water Management (CDWM). Avineon partnered with GIS Solutions, Inc., EKI, and Scarfe Consulting on the two-year effort to establish a complete, functional GIS system for the citywide water distribution system, accessible by city personnel. The GIS system now contains current and accurate water distribution system data converted from map and data sources such as atlas maps in paper and electronic formats, more than 23,000 service plat maps, and break and leak data in hand-written formats.

The CDWM manages the Chicago water distribution system. To facilitate better planning and management of this system, CDWM determined that a GIS database and set of applications was necessary. As a result, the CDWM selected GIS Solutions and its partners to expand the GIS development program to include the complete City of Chicago water system. The data conversion consisted of populating the current GIS database with water distribution data from various sources.

The complete City of Chicago water system consists of approximately 4,200 miles of water main, 50,000 fire hydrants, and 50,000 valves within the 231 square mile area of the city limits. The GIS development consisted of the following four major tasks:

    --  Project Planning, Management, and Coordination;
    --  Water Distribution Data Conversion;
    --  Quality Assurance and Quality Control; and
    --  Digital and Hard Copy Data Delivery and Integration with Current Data.

"The completion of this project was critical to our strategic planning for replacement of our buried assets," said Mike Sturtevant, Professional Engineer, CDWM, Bureau of Engineering Services. "With our new GIS system, we will be able to better manage our distribution system and use the functionality of GIS software to perform analysis of our data which we never had in the past. Further adding to the project success, the GIS Solutions team delivered the project on time and on budget."

Joe Sanzo, Avineon's project manager for the data conversion effort, stated, "Avineon is pleased to have met expectations through delivery of quality data that will maximize the city's ongoing GIS implementation. The volume and complexity of the data made this project a challenge and the spirit of team cooperation exhibited by the city's staff contributed to everyone's success."

"I attribute the success of this project to the dedication of all team members to high quality work standards and a commitment to ensure an on-time, on budget delivery," said Tim Johnson, President of GIS Solutions.

About Avineon

Avineon, a CMMI Maturity Level 3 and ISO 9001:2000 registered company, is a diversified high technology company that provides information technology (IT), geospatial, engineering, and program management services. With headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, and offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia, Avineon also maintains subsidiaries in Europe, Canada, and India. In IT, Avineon specializes in web-based architecture, systems engineering, application development, and network and security support. For additional information, please visit www.avineon.com.

About GIS Solutions, Inc.

GIS Solutions, Inc. is a full service GIS consulting firm providing services and products to federal, state, local and private sector clients, including Fortune 500 companies. GIS Solutions, Inc. specializes in designing, developing, and deploying GIS solutions for clients including database design, application development and systems integration. GIS Solutions, Inc. is an authorized ESRI Software Developer, Distributor, and Consultant. Main offices are in Springfield, IL with a satellite office in Chicago, IL.

About Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI)

Electronic Knowledge Interchange (EKI) is a Chicago-based information technology consulting and implementation firm specializing in the design, development, implementation and management of enterprise applications for large organizations. EKI specializes in building large-scale portals similar to the present project for both Public and Private sector entities. Our staff of 60+ project managers, technical architects, business analysts, developers, and subject matter experts has built a sterling reputation as designers and builders of world-class enterprise portals.

About Scarfe Consulting

Established in 2002, SCARFE Consulting is a woman-owned, sole proprietorship company that provides Geographic Information Systems consulting, business process analysis consulting, and project management services for clientele in the planning, design, and implementation phases of GIS projects. As an independent contractor, Danielle Scarfe works closely with clients to ensure that their business goals and objectives are met. SCARFE Consulting is a certified Woman Owned Business with the City of Chicago, Illinois.

    Press Contact:
    Erin Hatfield
    DPR Group
    919-678-9200, ext. 103
    ehatfield@dprgroup.com

    Company Contact:
    Charles Erdrich
    Avineon, Inc.
    703-671-1900
    cerdrich@avineon.com

Web site: http://www.avineon.com/