01 · Model
The agent writes the as-built
Smallworld holds the network. A prompt that moves a house connection is an unreviewed change to the grid record.
Utility network documentation: the outage answer comes from a copy of the GIS, not from the GIS.
Utility network documentation for a municipal grid sits in Smallworld, while open work sits in Lovion and the equipment record often sits in SAP PM. Pexon answers from the copy the field crew already carries, including the meter numbers inside an outage polygon. The agent does not write the as-built geometry back into the GIS.
Three ways an agent on the grid goes wrong
02 · Freshness
The nightly copy is treated as live
Bielefeld's full extract from Smallworld into the field laptops takes about 24 hours. An answer from that copy is yesterday's network.
03 · Split
Customer and geometry are assumed to share a system
At Bielefeld the gas customer is in SAP IS-U and the house connection is in Smallworld. Lovion is the place those two meet, after a copy.
The number that changes the answer
About 24 hours. Bielefeld's full extract from Smallworld into the field laptops takes that long. An outage answer that omits the extract time is describing yesterday's network as if it were the GIS.
Live GIS access, or a chatbot on the work order, and why a Stadtwerk uses neither
Giving an agent the Smallworld datastore looks like the direct path. GE Vernova's product documentation sits behind a customer login. The platform is Magik on a version-managed datastore, and GNM 6.0 in September 2026 adds a PostgreSQL cloud option without publishing the integration specification. We found no Smallworld MCP server. A connector that guesses the datastore will guess the geometry.
The other path is a chat window on the work-order system alone. Lovion is where Marburg runs technical processes against Wilken, and where Flensburg's roughly 250 users raise notifications that synchronise with SAP PM and Smallworld. The work order knows the job. It does not, by itself, know which meters sit inside a polygon on the map. Bielefeld built that join on purpose: gas customers in SAP IS-U, positions in Smallworld, both copied into Lovion, and a polygon returns house connection, customer name and meter number.
STAWAG made the same choice in another shape. More than 250 people in network service read an asset pool that Lovion fills from Smallworld, SAP and the specialist applications. The pool is a copy, and STAWAG describes it as a fallback when a source system is down. That is the architecture an agent can stand on. It is not a second GIS.
Three stores, one question
Geometry, the working copy, and the customer record
Record
Smallworld
Editors change the as-built here. Magik and the version-managed datastore are behind a customer login. GNM 6.0 in September 2026 adds PostgreSQL in the cloud and still does not publish an agent interface. The agent does not write geometry.
Copy
Lovion
Marburg, Bielefeld, STAWAG and Flensburg put the field question here. Bielefeld's polygon returns house connection, customer name and meter number from that copy. STAWAG calls the pool a fallback when a source system is down.
Neighbour
SAP PM and IS-U
Flensburg kept SAP PM as the maintenance record, with about 250 Lovion users and a sync to Smallworld. Bielefeld keeps the gas customer in IS-U. The agent reads the fields Lovion already holds. It does not post a notification.
Use cases
Which question lives in which system
| Question | Where the fact is | What the agent may use |
|---|---|---|
| Which house connections does this outage cover? | Positions in Smallworld, joined in Lovion at Bielefeld | The Lovion copy, with the extract time attached to the answer |
| Which meter number is on that connection? | The same Bielefeld join, from the SAP customer record | The meter number on the copy. Not a write-back to IS-U |
| What work is open on this asset? | Lovion at Marburg and Flensburg, SAP PM as the backend in Flensburg | The work order, read. Geometry changes stay with the GIS editor |
| What did purchasing order for this job? | Wilken, via the Lovion interface Marburg switched on | The fields Lovion already receives: order, invoice, material. Not a new Wilken query |
Project reports on lovion.de for Marburg, Bielefeld and STAWAG, and the BITMI account of Stadtwerke Flensburg. Read 6 October 2026.
Bielefeld, as Lovion describes it
How a polygon becomes an answer
01
Two sources, copied in
Gas customers live in SAP IS-U. House connections live in Smallworld. A nightly job copies both into Lovion. The full extract is about 24 hours.
02
The polygon returns three fields
House connection, customer name and meter number. That is the question an agent may repeat. It is already a Lovion query, which is why a second GIS is the wrong build.
03
The answer names the copy
STAWAG keeps the asset pool so network service can keep working when Smallworld or SAP is down. The agent says which store it read, and when the extract ran.
The answer has a timestamp
The useful line is not the polygon. It is the moment the copy was made. Bielefeld's full run is about 24 hours, so an answer without that moment is pretending to be the GIS.
question: meters inside outage polygon
source: lovion copy of smallworld and sap
extracted_at: required
write_to_gis: noIf extracted_at is missing, the tool does not answer. A stale map presented as the live network is the failure this line exists to stop.
The copy is the product, and the GIS stays the record
01
Smallworld keeps the geometry
Editors change the as-built there. The agent has no tool that writes Magik objects, because that interface is not published and the change would be unaudited.
02
Lovion holds the working copy
Marburg, Bielefeld, STAWAG and Flensburg all put the field question here. The agent asks what those screens already join.
03
SAP PM or IS-U holds the equipment and the customer
Flensburg kept SAP PM as the system of record for maintenance. Bielefeld keeps the gas customer in IS-U. The agent reads the copy of those fields. It does not post a notification by itself.
What the GIS team already knows, and the agent must repeat
- Offline is a feature. Bielefeld's field laptops carry the extract because the pit does not have a session to Smallworld. An agent that requires a live Magik session fails where the crew works.
- 250 users is not a headcount of the utility. STAWAG and Flensburg both cite about 250 people on the Lovion side. That is the audience of the copy, not a claim that the company has 300 staff.
- A fallback copy can be wrong on purpose. STAWAG keeps the asset pool so work can continue when Smallworld or SAP is down. The agent has to say which store it read.
Before anyone writes a prompt against the map
- Name the copy. Lovion, not Smallworld, unless the installation has published a read we have not found.
- Attach the extract time. Bielefeld's full run is about 24 hours. Missing time means the tool does not answer.
- Keep geometry with the editor. No Magik write. Marburg's Wilken link already carries order, invoice and material into Lovion; do not invent a second Wilken query.
When an agent does not belong here
If the crew question is already a Lovion polygon and the team is happy with the 24-hour copy, another interface will not make the map fresher. Build the agent when the same question is being re-typed from Lovion into a ticket the billing team also has to see. The billing side of that customer is the billing integration. The geometry itself, if you are connecting Smallworld for a person and not for a model prompt, is the Smallworld integration.
From the asset to the other two stores
- Billing: Schleupen, Wilken, kVASy, IS-U, WinEV — the customer and the contract, which the GIS does not bill
- Energy data: BelVis, Robotron, SOPTIM — the metered series behind the meter number
- Smallworld integration — why the datastore is not an open agent API
What the network team will ask
Where does a Stadtwerk keep the as-built network?
In the GIS, most often Smallworld, and the work on that network in Lovion. Marburg runs Lovion against Wilken and Smallworld. Bielefeld keeps gas customers in SAP IS-U and house-connection positions in Smallworld, and copies both into Lovion for the field. Flensburg kept SAP PM as the maintenance backend and synchronises it with Smallworld and Lovion.
Can an agent answer which meters an outage affects?
Bielefeld already does that query inside Lovion: a polygon over the outage returns the house connections, the customer name and the meter number, from the nightly copy. An agent may ask the same question of that copy. It is a copy. Bielefeld's full extract takes about 24 hours, so the answer is not the live GIS.
Why not let the agent edit Smallworld?
The as-built model is the legal record of the grid. GE Vernova does not publish the Magik datastore interface, and we found no Smallworld MCP server. A write from an agent into that model would be an unreviewed change to the network. Field notes belong in the work order, and a person posts the geometry back.
What does it cost to put one asset question on an agent?
Scoping is a two-week Readiness Blueprint at €4,900 net: which of Smallworld, Lovion and SAP PM you actually run, how fresh the mobile copy is, and the first question the crew would ask. A production server after that is usually a pilot from €15,000.
What if we do not want to operate this ourselves?
Then the server still lives in your environment, and we can run it. Monitoring starts at €3,000 per month. If nobody on your side owns the GIS extract, the agent will answer from a copy nobody is refreshing, and we would rather not build that.
Next step
Name the asset question the crew already asks Lovion
Two weeks. We look at how fresh the mobile copy is, and whether that one question is worth an agent or is already a Lovion query.