Our location intelligence quarterly update

Is it already July?

Usually, by this time of year, things slow down a bit, as many organizations’ fiscal years have come to a close. But not this year. This year we continue to be busy well into the summer!

We have a lot going on;

• Bryce and Tim just returned from Texas, where they met with a new client in the energy sector to discuss configuring our Performance Atlas to meet their needs. The requirements and refinement process will take up the next few weeks before we begin development. We’ll be sure to post more on that as the project proceeds.
• we’re continuing to working with the City of Portland’s Public School Administration to develop a GIS platform in order to extend location intelligence across business lines, with the initial focus on mapping out safe walking and biking routes to each of their 64 elementary and middle schools. You can read about our adventures in testing, as well as our two part series on developing a GIS-based methodology for Safe Routes to School route finding. Part 1. Part 2.
• we’re wrapping up a consulting project with the folks at Hennepin County, Minnesota where we made use of the brand-new URISA GIS Maturity Capability Model,
• our two-year project with Seattle City Light to provide Strategic planning and ongoing location intelligence support services is moving along nicely,
• we’ve wrapped up Phase 1 of configuring our Performance Atlas web application to provide the Etisalat team with a hosted solution that will increase their location intelligence related to performance across sales, marketing and facility planning business lines. We anticipate work on Phase 2 will start up sometime this summer.
• we’re kicking off a project with Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to bring the popular hunting and shooting ranges map to mobile devices,
• back in the Spring, we configured a web application to provide a client with a hosted location intelligence solution providing web access to college campus, floor-by-floor, viewing and updating of facility conditions and assets. We are now improving that application so that our client can make it available to colleges throughout the country.
• and of course, we continue to provide hosting services to many happy clients!

Just because we have a lot going on doesn’t mean that we’re too busy to talk to you. If you are in need of some GIS consulting, or need a web application for your GIS data, or need a home for your GIS data – or just want to talk – please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here!

An update on what's going on around here

Happy Spring!
I know, I know… it’s been Spring for almost a week now, but we’ve been really busy!

We have a lot going on;

• we’re working with the City of Portland’s Public School Administration to develop a GIS platform in order to extend location intelligence across business lines, with the initial focus on mapping out safe walking and biking routes to each of their 64 elementary and middle schools,
• we’re helping the Idaho Department of Transportation evaluate the best software for their specific needs,
• we just kicked off a two-year project with Seattle City Light to provide Strategic planning and ongoing support services in order to fully integrate location intelligence capabilities into the workflows, analysis, and reporting needs of this major electrical utility serving Seattle,
• we’re in the process of configuring our Performance Atlas web application to meet the needs of Etisalat, one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies; when we’re finished, we will have provided the Etisalat team with a hosted solution that will increase their location intelligence related to performance across sales, marketing and facility planning business lines,
• we’ve almost wrapped up a project to provide Pike Energy with location intelligence capabilities integrating centrally-managed data, web-tools for project planning and management, and mobile data collection in disconnected scenarios,
• we just wrapped up a project with Oregon’s Department of Fish and Wildlife to assess the best way to bring the popular hunting and shooting ranges map to mobile devices,
• we also just wrapped up a project where we configured a web application to provide a client with a hosted solution providing web access to college campus, floor-by-floor, viewing and updating of facility conditions and assets,
• and of course, we continue to provide hosting services to many happy clients!

Just because we have a lot going on doesn’t mean that we’re too busy to talk to you. If you are in need of some GIS consulting, or need a web application for your GIS data, or need a home for your GIS data – or just want to talk – please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here!

Mobile asset management

We’ve recently completed Phase 1 of a project with Pike Energy to build a mobile asset management tool.
Phase 1 saw us develop an app for the iPad that allows workers in the field to enter asset information related to the utility poles that they are responsible for. In the past, these workers collected the information on a paper form, and then, upon returning to their office, would enter the information into spreadsheets which lacked any integrated map view of field assets. Once this project is complete, field crew members will use iPads to directly record their observations and sync them to a centralized database we’re hosting for Pike. In addition to capturing details about the condition and attributes of assets, field workers will even have the ability to take and attach photographs to each pole’s record. Of course, all collected data will be map-based, so there will be strong support for an efficient QA process in which office personnel may easily navigate to particular project areas and features and review, correct, flag, or approve the data submitted from the field while viewing it in its spatial context.

Phase 2 of the the project is now well under way and expected to be complete within the month. In this phase we are configuring web-based data management tools that will allow project directors to see the information that the field workers are collecting as well as to define and assign project areas and related assets to individual members of the field team. This administrative application will allow managers to quickly develop map “packets” that the field workers will sync to their iPads based on their login credentials. Each “packet” contains a map of the area the worker will be operating in, as well as all of the assets they will be collecting information on. Storing project data locally allows field crews to access and edit data with or without WiFi connectivity.  Once the information has been collected, the “packets” are synced to the administrative application so that management can see, review, and share that information.

This tool will help Pike complete field assessment work with a new level of efficiency and accuracy and it is providing a valuable means to integrate and standardize asset data in support of both internal and customer needs.  We are pleased to be a partner in helping Pike realize these major operational improvements and new competitive advantages.