Who We Are

NJUNS is a not-for-profit consortium of utility companies created for the purpose of providing "efficient utility communication". NJUNS provides software as a service that allows its members to communicate and track field workflow regarding joint utility ventures: joint pole administration, joint trench coordination, and large project notification. NJUNS is utility funded, utility managed and utility driven!

The History of NJUNS

As is with most change in the utility industry, electronic pole transfer notification came about as the result of a tragic accident involving a pole transfer. During the course of the litigation, in 1989, it was decided that Georgia Power and BellSouth needed a better means to notify each other on pending pole replacements. While being ordered to do so by the judge would give the story some color, it was actually the Claims Departments of the two companies that decided something had to be done to improve communication.

Discussions between the two companies lead the team to decide that certified letters and phone calls were not the way to continue the operation and a new technology was decided upon to provide the transmission medium for notices. That new technology was batch modem entry with automated fax delivery. This is the same technology that was being used by many one-call centers around the country. It was called The Electronic Notification Pole Transfer Program (ENPT). Ticket number 1 was created May 28, 1990 in the Savannah, Georgia area.

The Georgia Utilities Protection Center (UPC) hosted the software and pole owners around the state entered "tickets" in the system which, in turn, broadcast faxed them to all affected parties. Each company or distribution area was represented by a 5-6 character member code that was associated with a fax modem in their office. As the work was completed, each member updated the ticket via modem entry. The process was a great improvement over the manual method, and soon word began to spread to other states about the program.

A utility contract company employee was given the task of maintaining the system for both BellSouth and Georgia Power. In 1991 she was hired as a full-time employee of the Georgia UPC with responsibility of maintaining the ENPT system. In the 1995, a system upgrade was proposed and along with it, the Pole Attachment program was designed. This new system would be utilized over the new World Wide Web (the Internet) for ticket delivery. At that point, most member companies had to get special permission from their top management and IT departments to allow employees to have Internet access at their desk.

With that new technology, a new name was needed to reflect the spread of membership across the country: National Joint Utilities Notification System (NJUNS) was formally adopted in 1997.

Since 1997, NJUNS has continuously improved its communication system and continuously spread across the country to 30 states and over 13,000 users.

Staff

Executive Director
Angie Weaver
aweaver@njuns.com
818-485-2765 x2
Support Analyst
Mandy Johnson
mjohnson@njuns.com
818-485-2765 x4
Operations Manager
Linda Brumbeloe
lbrumbeloe@njuns.com

 

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