OQplus - Operator Qualification System

Request for your FREE OQplus Demo!

For additional information or to order OQplus, contact the Midwest Energy Association at:

6012 Blue Circle Drive
Minnetonka, MN 55343
(952) 832-9915

Who should use OQplus

ü       Gas, Electric and Water Utilities
ü       Advanced Service Providers
ü       Municipalities
ü       Maintenance and Test Facilities
ü       and many others!

System Requirements

ü       Microsoft Windows™ 95/NT or later
ü       Microsoft™ SQL Server, Sybase, or Oracle License (network version)
ü       XGA (1024 x 768) Video
ü       Minimum 32 M Ram
ü       50 MB available hard drive space

What are my support options

PTS will provide initial telephone/email technical support at no additional cost.  Periodically the MEA and PTS may issue a new update of OQplus with new features and functions for a reasonable cost.  A new support plan may be offered in the future.

Field Verification of Qualifications

Our experience has shown that using the latest in technology can simplify your processes and create substantial improvements in data accuracy and time management.  Handheld computers are great for collecting data in the field.  Our OQmobile and OQpocket offer the best of both worlds.  Contact the MEA to find out how these tools can help you!

Utilities and other industrial companies typically spend thousands of dollars each year training and qualifying personnel to properly perform maintenance and services on critical equipment.  The challenge is to adequately train, track, document, and validate your training to ensure each individual is qualified to perform the task at hand.  The Midwest Energy Association (MEA), in partnership with Process & Technology Solutions (PTS) introduces a powerful yet easy to use tool to help you maintain personnel qualifications to ensure safe task performance.  OQplus is designed to meet the needs of federally mandated programs issued by the DOT and listed in the Code of Federal Regulations, as well as support the Q41 initiative.

OQplus is an easy to use yet powerful system utilizing the latest in industry software standards.  Available for Microsoft Access, SQL Server, Sybase and Oracle you can be assured that the support you need will be there for years to come.  A corporate license is available for large utilities/companies wanting numerous locations to have access to OQplus, while single-user licensing is available for the smaller utility/company if desired.  To keep costs low, the single-user’s license is available with Microsoft Access as the standard database.  Best of all, P can provide a customized version of OQplus modified specifically to meet your unique needs.

Security

As with any organization, the sharing of your employee's personal data can pose a serious liability to both you and your company.  By operating on your own computer system, OQplus provides extensive security for both the standalone and network versions.  Depending on your login password, users can view, edit or manage data for individuals, departments or sites.

If transferring data between organizations is an asset, OQplus can transfer data across the internet, via email, on a floppy disk or using the more advanced “smart card” or “touch memory” technology.  Each file is encrypted so that only another OQplus user can decode the private data with a known pass code.  A special viewer will be provided to allow quick and immediate verification of an individual’s qualifications.

The easy to use Windows™ environment provides a common user interface and makes it easy for new personnel to understand.  The best part is that tasks are assigned to a position – then the position is assigned to the appropriate employees – no double entry!  Since all of a position’s tasks may not be required for every assigned employee, selected tasks may be removed.  New tasks can be selectively assigned as appropriate.

OQplus will satisfy your needs

OQplus was design by a team of MEA utility and vendor representatives to ensure that requirements of Q41 are satisfied.  The principles used in OQplus are extensively used in numerous technical industries including the military.  P designed a similar program for a leading Fortune 500 company to document the qualification status of their employees worldwide.  The experiences of this project were incorporated into OQplus!

Touch Memory

Dallas Semiconductor, under the trade name iButton™, manufactures a memory chip the size of a watch battery.  Attached to a key ring fob, the iButton™ can store the qualification status of the respective employee - and that individual can carry it with him or her at all times!  OQplus, OQmobile and OQpocket can each be used to view qualifications both in the office and in the field.  For complete portability, use OQpocket running on a Pocket PC computer for immediate verification of your employee's qualifications!  The best solution!

Key Features

Structure: OQplus provides for building positions made up of tasks, subtasks and qualifications that may be assigned to employees.

Employee and Group Qualification: OQplus tracks the qualification of employees at satellite sites (locations) for those companies that are not centrally administered.  It also provides for group qualification of employees at centrally administered companies.

References Documents: OQplus allows you to link individual qualification items to corporate and industry reference documents.  This link allows the user to view key information quickly.

Change Notification: OQplus can record change notifications and attach them to employee qualifications.

Evaluators: Information on an evaluator who observes an employee satisfactorily compete a qualification requirement may be stored in OQplus.

Approvers: An overall supervisor (one level above the evaluator) can document their approval of an individual’s qualification.  An approver is never required to qualify an individual.

Site (location) Structure: OQplus provides for a hierarchical site (location) structure facilitated by a tree view process similar to Microsoft Explorer.

iButton Features: Download employee qualifications to an iButton™ to check qualifications in the field. Read an iButton™ to view employee qualifications.

OQplus Field System: Import a compact version of the main database for use on a laptop in the field.  Display individual employee qualifications, qualifying an employee, download new qualifications to an iButton™, and transfer new qualifications to the main system.

Sharing Data: Transfer encrypted employee qualifications in a format that may be uploaded by another system running OQplus for maintenance of non-company employee qualification records. Receive updates from the MEA Q41 effort on an ongoing basis.