A progressive utility built on innovation
Helix Water District is a progressive industry leader serving over 278,000 people in San Diego’s east county communities. Known for leveraging innovation and technology, the district continually seeks smarter ways to deliver reliable, 24/7 water services.
As Enterprise Applications Manager, Quince Lunde oversees the district’s core business systems—GIS, ERP, utility billing, document management, and asset management. His first exposure to FME came in 1998 during Helix’s GIS migration from paper maps and CAD drawings to Smallworld GIS.
FME proved to be transformative. Importing CAD and shapefiles, manipulating geometry, and converting coordinate systems that would have required tedious manual effort were automated—significantly accelerating the district’s modernization.
Nearly three decades later, FME is still at the center of Helix’s innovation strategy.
The automation engine behind hundreds of daily jobs
Today, FME supports nearly all critical business workflows at Helix.
“FME is critical to daily business workflows that support our operations and our customers,” Quince shared.
FME connects systems across the enterprise without requiring expensive vendor-built custom integrations. Instead of maintaining a large code base supported by dedicated programmers, Helix uses FME to maintain workflows efficiently.
Quince estimates that building solutions in FME takes roughly one-quarter of the time required to develop and maintain custom Python scripts.
Modern customer service, powered by automation
Helix uses FME to power its online service request platform.
When customers submit requests—starting or stopping service, updating contact information—FME:
- Validates addresses using geocoding web services
- Confirms the address lies within district boundaries
- Routes approved requests into the billing system
- Sends timely customer confirmations
FME verifies information in real-time to ensure requests and updates are processed correctly before any changes take effect. The result is responsive, 24/7 customer service—even outside business hours—without increasing staffing levels.
The region’s first fully integrated outage notification system
Water utilities operate under high expectations: 24/7/365 service with minimal disruptions.
Helix’s outage notification solution, powered entirely by FME, is a regional first for comprehensive, fully integrated water outage notifications.
Using GIS network tracing, FME automatically:
- Identifies affected accounts
- Sends custom internal staff emails throughout the outage lifecycle
- Notifies seven regional fire departments with hydrant impact details
- Triggers automated customer calls
- Updates a live outage dashboard on the district website
Crews only enter impact details into GIS—FME handles the rest.
The impact goes beyond efficiency. The automated outage notifications have strengthened communication between Helix and regional fire departments, enabling more informed coordination around planned and unplanned service interruptions. By providing timely, detailed information, the system supports better public safety decision-making.
Financial accuracy without manual work
FME also bridges Helix’s billing and ERP systems through automated general ledger imports. It consolidates transactions, generates reconciliation reports, and ensures financial accuracy without manual intervention.
Collection reminder calls—once manual and labour-intensive—are now fully automated. FME generates bill-specific calls through Twilio and logs responses directly into the billing system.
Without FME, these integrations would either require expensive vendor customization or significant manual effort.
A platform that grows with the enterprise
One of the biggest advantages for Helix has been continuity. The original FME investment made in 1998 continues to deliver value today.
“FME was the definitive choice in 1998, and it remains so today because Safe is constantly adapting FME to new technologies and always listening to its clients,” Quince explained. “FME began as a specialized spatial tool but has transformed into a comprehensive solution for our technical and operational challenges.”
FME allows Helix to retain existing Python code and custom scripts while building modern workflows around them. The district is now preparing to implement a new asset management system, and FME will once again serve as the integration layer—handling data conversion and bridging gaps between systems.
Built for the long term
FME has evolved from a GIS conversion utility into Helix Water District’s enterprise automation backbone. It reduces development time, eliminates manual processes, lowers dependency on vendor-built integrations, and enables rapid innovation.
For a district committed to delivering uninterrupted water service to hundreds of thousands of residents, that reliability is essential.
