Gaining competitive advantage with location intelligence
In association with Esri Ireland
As fieldwork for broadband services has escalated in the last 18 months, so too has adoption of mobile technology in the SME and logistics sectors. For Esri Ireland, the market leader in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this has created a significant increase in demand for two of its principal applications.
These applications – ArcGIS Field Maps and Survey123 for ArcGIS – digitally enable mobile workforces to complete work faster and more efficiently. By replacing legacy paper-based workflows, job cards and asset maps with their digital equivalents on smartphones and tablets, the apps have been designed to fit the needs of personnel in diverse environments.
Esri’s ArcGIS system helps users visualise, analyse, and optimise business data for better business decisions. While ArcGIS Survey123 is a complete, form-centric solution for creating, sharing, and analysing surveys, ArcGIS Field Maps is a high-accuracy, map-centric application. Propelled by Esri’s world-leading mapping software, these apps harness the power of location to visualise data, improve coordination, achieve operational efficiencies, and gain insight.
World-leading software
“We benefit from being the local franchisee of a billion-dollar entity, which spends around €300 million on R&D and product development each year,” says Eamonn Doyle, chief technology officer, Esri Ireland. “That sets us apart not just from our competitors in the Irish marketplace, but in the global marketplace too. Esri is by far the biggest player in GIS worldwide, and Esri Ireland can tune global applications to Irish market conditions and requirements in a faster, more robust way than any local competitor could.
“Over the past 12-to-15 years, we’ve built a modern, adaptable, platform proposition, for location-based services, mapping and mobility that is state of the art, and can be configured and deployed to fulfil a broad array of use cases in our market.”
Geographic Information Systems
Still, this widely used technology remains slightly under the general public’s radar. Doyle explains GIS as “a spatial system that creates, manages, analyses, and maps all types of data. Put simply, it’s a way of visualising location-based data on a map. The interactive map gives you additional information about the objects it shows you. It’s a horizontal technology that’s used across hundreds of different verticals.
“When a lot of people think about maps, they think about the likes of Google Maps. Our systems are not dissimilar, but imagine if Google Maps had your own organisational information on it; if it showed you where your pipes and poles are, and where your team or next job are. That’s what our technology does.”
Use cases
Of Esri Ireland’s 400-strong customer base, Doyle says use cases vary hugely. “On an average day, I could talk to one client that’s rolling out fibre, one that’s collecting bins and another that’s trying to mitigate flood risks– the scope is tremendous.”
Generally, the through line is that “our clients have some sort of geographical aspect to their business,” Doyle says. “Maybe their workforce is distributed all over the country, or maybe their customers are, or their assets. In some cases, it’s all three. Our applications can be used to enable office and field personnel to work in unison, using the same authoritative data.”
The team initially built the apps for existing customers, but the impressive capabilities ended up attracting new ones too. “We’ve seen cases where people are buying the apps for their wide-array of benefits. Then they’re getting involved in our ArcGIS platform and doing more GIS on the back end as a result.”
ArcGIS benefits
By visualising, analysing, and optimising business data, ArcGIS helps its users gain a competitive advantage. Using the digital map, the application alerts users to jobs. That information can then be used to assign jobs based on urgency or proximity to the closest worker. Those workers can then travel to their assigned job in the most efficient manner, thanks to inbuilt navigation assistance and traffic-aware technology.
Once they arrive at their destination, the worker can use their app to record their actions, be it filling out a time sheet or carrying out an inspection. This can be configured to reflect the exact needs of client organisations and need not be GIS related in any way.
Tracking software
Interested parties can opt to track their team during working hours. The GPS on the device is used to report real time location back to base, and location tracks are stored for visualisation, analytics, and reporting.
“From talking with clients, I know the benefits that this capability can bring,” says Doyle. “Say your mechanic was meant to go to a site for two hours, you can have the data to verify that they were there for two hours, and you can bill for that. What’s more, if a customer needs a job done, an operations manager can see the availability of their personnel and their location, so they can assign the best person to fulfil the customer request.”
While the response to this feature has been generally positive, Doyle says there has been some resistance from workers: “Those that have opted in see the benefits first-hand. It’s not just about proof of attendance, or finding the best person for the job, but it’s safer too, especially for lone workers.”
An individual must opt-in to being tracked, and they can switch tracking on or off based on their working day. “We’re serious about protecting people’s data,” continues Doyle, “we’ve put in a lot of safeguards to make sure that access to information is very tightly controlled.”
Extensive portfolio
Esri’s portfolio of mobility applications is vast, and ArcGIS Field Maps and Survey123 for ArcGIS are only the tip of the iceberg: “We have hundreds of apps, but these two are the most popular,” Doyle says. “What we’ve seen is that ArcGIS and Survey123 drive adoption of the platform, and then people begin to embrace our other apps as they learn more about what’s best for their work.”
Esri Ireland’s collection of integrated, location-based apps are ready to work, wherever that work may be. If none of the apps in its extensive portfolio meet your businesses specific needs, the team can help users tailor the apps to create a better fit.
For more information, email: mapsmakesense@esri-ireland.ie or call: +353 (0)1 8693900
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