InfoNet draws the crowds at WEFTEC 05

WEFTEC, the Water Environment Federation’s annual technical conference and exposition took place at the Washington, D.C. Conference Center between October 29th and November 2nd. WEFTEC is the leading gathering for water quality and pollution control technology and issues in the United States and annually attracts over 18,000 visitors and 800 exhibiting companies. Early figures for 2005 suggested that over 20,000 people attended this year.

Many visitors to Wallingford Software’s booth at WEFTEC last week specifically stopped by to take a closer look at InfoNet, the network asset management system for water and wastewater networks.

 

David Fortune, Director of Wallingford Software, is impressed with the high quality of visitors to the company’s booth:

 

“Representatives from all the major consultancing companies visited our booth. Lots of people had heard about the use of InfoNet around the United States and came across specifically to talk with us about this.”

 

InfoNet is purpose designed for users to store, integrate, validate and analyze their network data to provide accurate information and reports, both up-to-date and historical, on hydraulic network infrastructure and performance. Users in the United States include the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority who commissioned Metcalf and Eddy and the Michael Baker Corporation to develop a long-term plan for controlling combined sewer overflows in local rivers and streams. InfoNet was used to help manage the wastewater collection system data collected during the study. More.

 

Randy McDaniel, from Wallingford Software’s United States office, agrees with David Fortune’s assessment of WEFTEC: “We had very nice traffic to our booth and many excellent quality level prospects.  Andrew Walker did several extended demos/training sessions to several of our largest US customers and potential customers, with up to six folks simply pulling up a chair and making themselves at home with us for a while.  WEFTEC served as an excellent opportunity to confirm several large software sales in the pipeline that our sales effort will soon pay off.”

 

One issue emerging at WEFTEC as a matter of growing concern in certain parts of the United States is that of sewer infiltration and inflow, a major cause being damage and defects in both sewer pipes and manholes. “InfoWorks CS, Wallingford Software’s hydraulic modeling software for sewer systems is enormously beneficial when it comes to sewer infiltration and inflow,” believes David Fortune. “InfoWorks CS allows users to model infiltration and inflow explicitly. This leads to models that need far less adjustment under calibration and models that can be used all year round.

 

 

Tom Davies, from Wallingford Software’s Fort Worth, Texas office agrees but also points to the value of InfoNet in addressing infiltration issues: “InfoNet is the only asset information product that lets wastewater professionals manage both pipe and manhole data, including managing survey data and generating pipe and manhole gradings for use in asset management programs.”

 

Other issues raised by visitors to the Wallingford Software booth included the use of hydraulic models to determine variable discharge permits based on receiving water flows, and the greater use of real time data and models for operational planning. www.wallingfordsoftware.com