Jeremy Hughes

Company-X is working closely with Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency to help councils migrate to the new Asset Management Data Standard (AMDS).

Without a national data standard Waka Kotahi and 68 Road Controlling Authorities including the Department of Conservation, have an inconsistent approach to data capture and definition across the transport sector.

AMDS enforces a tighter level of control on data that is loosely defined. The tightening of constraints means those datasets need updating to comply with the standard, leading to more consistent use across the roading sector.

Company-X worked with the AMDS Programme at Waka Kotahi to help define the standard, providing critical advice ensuring the standard was implementable at Waka Kotahi and the 68 RCAs. Company-X was also intimately involved in prototype migrations and resolved many issues which fed back into changes to the standard.

Data standards are documented agreements on representation, format, definition, structuring, tagging, transmission, manipulation, use, and management of data.

Waka Kotahi consulted with Company-X’s transport sector subject matter experts Jeremy Hughes and Nigel Lynton as AMDS was defined. Between 1992 and 2014 Company-X co-founder and director Hughes worked with Lynton on the business analysis, data design and modelling of Thinkproject’s Road Assessment and Maintenance Management (RAMM) database. Their combined quarter century of experience not only gave them an unparalleled knowledge of RAMM’s data design but an essential grasp of the purpose and goal of that design.

Nigel Lynton

Te Ringa Maimoa Transport Excellence Partnership also consulted with Company-X on how to include minor structures in the standard.

Company-X also assisted with the AMDS prototype migration. The project tested migration of real-world data to the standard. It also validated the ability to implement the standard across the NZ roading sector including RCAs, maintenance contractors and professional engineering services.

Hughes’ team at Company-X developed toolsets to enable automated rapid migration to AMDS and testing.

Company-X’s automated toolsets interrogate the data in RAMM and, in the migration process, ensures it has the right structure and is migrated to the right location.

“AMDS is starting to have real impact on how we are thinking and working,” said Wellington City Council's Pamela Brown.

“We are preparing for the implementation into our database and already planning how it will enable us into digital engineering.

“AMDS is just in time for us as we support the data and information needs of the large, complex, and ambitious Let’s Get Wellington Moving projects. The interest and support from across the sector is fantastic as we make the changes we need for a new way of working.”

"Transport Insights helps us make better asset management decisions," said Waipa District Council Asset Information Officer - Transport Kim Wright.