HBWS’ Mobile Asset Notebook (MANO) has brought GIS and up-to-date asset and work order information to the field.
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GIS Search
HBWS engineers and field workers communicate throughout the workday to answer infrastructure location, condition, maintenance and engineering questions. Rapid access to mapping and map-based links to other information improves communication and decision-making. HBWS recently conducted a limited deployment of XMF Accelerator to provide simplified access to GIS information.
The software features a simple search box, increases the speed of response and offers flexibility of search terms and keywords. Initial testing of the software has resulted in time savings to access water utility GIS data. An enterprise-wide rollout is planned in the upcoming months.
“As a manager, I need information to make decisions. They are not earth-shattering decisions, but day-to-day decisions that help our organization, infrastructure and services run more smoothly.” Hirayama said. “So I need to access a lot of different data ASAP. XMF Accelerator really helps me do that.”
The software will foster more collaborative decision-making between the main office and the field, she said.
“With XMF Accelerator, I and the field person I’m talking with can very quickly map the exact same asset in seconds and discuss what needs to be done referencing the same data. This will allow us to make more informed construction or maintenance decisions in the field.”
The software is also helping HBWS with QA/QC. Hirayama frequently checks updated datasets for redundant features like meter IDs.
“Because Accelerator brings up a list of hyper-links that meet my exact search terms I can quickly find redundancy errors in the SDE database,” she said. WW
About the Author:
Doran Geise is a partner in geoXMF LLC (Longmont, CO). He has 22 years of experience in remote sensing and geographic information systems integration for oil/gas, wireless telecom, mining, environmental analysis and enterprise GIS applications. He can be reached via email at [email protected].