Written for the general manager or the engineer asked to shortlist a system. The questions apply to IntelH2O as much as to anyone; the point of the demo is to answer them on your own plant.
- Where does the data come from, and what happens when the link drops? A system that reads your SCADA only while the internet is up will have gaps in the record — and the gaps will be in the storm.
- What has to sit on my network, and does anything connect in from outside? Ask for the direction of every connection. “Outbound only” is the answer a security officer wants to hear.
- What does an alarm know about normal? A fixed high/low limit chatters or misses. Ask how the system tells a routine backwash from a failing filter, and who decides.
- Who is told, on what, and what happens if they do not answer? Ask to see an escalation policy for your on-call schedule, and ask what stops an upset from becoming a hundred messages.
- When the alarm fires, what does the operator see besides a number? Ask whether the explanation cites your procedures and your history, or whether it is a chat box.
- Can the monthly report be generated from the record, and can I defend every line? Ask what travels with an exceedance, how a correction is recorded, and whether the version you filed is kept as it was.
- Does maintenance know what operations is doing? Ask whether a work order and the alarm that caused it know about each other, and what a failed calibration does to the readings it affected.
- Whose data is it, and can I have all of it back? Ask about sharing with a regulator, about what the vendor’s own staff can see, and about what happens on the day you leave.
- Is my utility’s data kept apart from every other customer’s — and how would you prove it? A written answer, not an assurance. Ask whether the vendor has tried to break its own separation and what it found.
- How is the system tested before a release reaches me? Ask for the practice, not a badge, and be suspicious of a certification the vendor cannot name.