July 13, 2009 - Dayton, OH - Research In Motion and TDC Group announce the 1st Annual GIS on BlackBerry Awards finalists.  Coinciding with the ESRI International User Conference, the GIS on BlackBerry awards will recognize the best GIS applications for Freeance™ Mobile software on BlackBerry smartphones.  Winners selected from these finalists will be announced at the ESRI UC during the First Annual BlackBerry(r) Mobile GIS Awards Thursday July 16, Room #10, 12:00 pm, boxed lunch provided to the first 150 attendees.  Plan to attend and hear how the top BlackBerry GIS applications from around the world are automating field services.

Winners and finalists are chosen by a Selection Committee in each the following categories:

   1. Best application for public safety 

   2. Best application for government 

   3. Best application for field services organization

   4. BlackBerry Beacon for innovative applications in the planning stage

Winners of the categories for public safety, government and field services organizations will be selected on the criteria of most productive and innovative use of GIS on the BlackBerry platform.  A special award category - BlackBerry Beacon - is open to organizations who want to launch GIS on BlackBerry smartphones.   

List of Finalists

Category                Organization

Field Services          Nova Scotia Power

Field Services          Vaughan ON

Field Services          Houston TX

Public Safety           Albany NY

Public Safety           Murfreesboro TN

Government             South Windsor CT

Government             Linn County IA

Government             Fort Collins CO

Beacon Award         Oxnard CA

Beacon Award         Energy Corp of America US

Beacon Award         Topeka KS

Beacon Award         Thiess Pty LTD AU

GIS on BlackBerry applications with Freeance Mobile will be on display at the BlackBerry booth 1601 at the ESRI UC.

 Category          Organization                Place    Contact

Field Services   Nova Scotia Power        Finalist  Brian Shannon

Nova Scotia Power delivers power with 5,000 km of transmission and 25,000 km of distribution lines.The need to have an accurate electric distribution model was recognized and a project was established to collect the customer connectivity data associated with NSPI’s 25,000km distribution facility. NSPI had to choose a mobile GIS data collection that would lend itself well to overcoming the following challenges:

·         The data collection solution would have to be cost effective to gather connectivity data of NSPI’s 25000 kilometer electrical distribution network.

·         Ease of coordinating multiple teams collecting data on handheld devices. The province of Nova Scotia covers an area of 55,284km which has population dispersed between major urban centers and small coastal villages. Crew will be deployed throughout the province, so ensuring they had easy access to the latest GIS data will be critical.

·         Eliminate the need to return to an office to transfer data. Allotting time to travel to a depot office everyday to upload data would significantly reduce crew productivity.

·         Simplify the data gathering process with easy to understand forms and pre-defined values. Thereby reducing potential errors.

·         Improve the data process flow thereby reducing time to get data into the production environment. Having the collected data transmitted directly to the GIS Server during the collection process eliminates the turnaround time between data collection and submission to the GIS Technicians for processing.

·         Reporting to sponsors the progress of the project in a visual way.

Using the BlackBerry as a mobile GIS solution enables field personnel access to the most current state of the GIS with very little overhead. The device can be used to view, query and collect data with minimal training. The solution can be centrally administered making application changes effortless as it enables updates to be pushed out wirelessly. From a safety perspective, field personnel have a means of contacting the office in the event of an emergency or for general questions/concerns.

Having live GIS data available to field crews and the ability to submit updates in near real-time will eventually become engrained in day-to-day operations throughout the company. The deployment of mobile GIS for the Customer Connectivity Project has triggered other divisions within the company to identify how mobile GIS could improve their workflow practices. The GIS is no longer thought of as a tool that supports another business operation like the OMS but is recognized as an enterprise system that serves as a central repository of all spatial related data. As a result, users take a higher sense of ownership of the data as they are able to see how their input can improve the GIS model.

Field Services   Houston TX                   Finalist  Anthony Powell

Currently, with a rapid growth in the amount of GIS data available, the major problem ahead will not be in the generation of the data, but in its accessibility. While more and more organizations move away from a manual

field data collecting practice and into automated processes, accessibility will continue to be an issue. In trying to enhance this workflow for DWO, GIS Services worked to introduce a wireless handheld device as a solution.

Blackberry Enterprise License devices were readily available to DWO. Implementing a solution such as Freeance Mobile provided the ability to leverage existing hardware thereby affording huge cost savings.  As a result, when responding to customer concerns, investigators now no longer need to manually fill out paper forms and perform data entry at the end of each shift. Now they only need to access the forms from their Blackberry, which is directly connected to a database. This enabled the City’s Drinking Water Operations Branch the capability to access critical GIS water utility data through a Blackberry device. They also have the ability to access, in real time, customer complaint information collected in the field by the investigators.

Field Services   Vaughan ON                 Finalist  Neil Davis

The City’s focus is enhancing productivity, cost effectiveness and operational innovation. We want to save time, money and labor, and give employees tools to perform better in the field since a large portion of the City’s work is undertaken away from the office.  Elected representatives and senior managers were unable to provide detailed answers to ‘on-the-spot’ questions from citizens, diminishing the City’s service excellence.

We were unable to leverage the City’s considerable GIS investment in a mobile form to drive staff productivity, cost effectiveness and innovation. Since much of the City’s workflow is related to location in some manner and conducted away from the office, we saw a major opportunity to increase staff productivity and service excellence if the GIS could be delivered to users in a mobile form.

Mobile applications, based on ArcGIS, CTS and Freeance Mobile, enable Vaughan to unify data and workflows across departments, systems and personnel.  As a result, the City is able to deliver new levels of service to citizens, and place innovative tools in the hands of senior management so they can make more effective and timely decisions on the spot.

Elected officials, senior management and staff can meet citizens they represent and see outstanding service issues on a live, interactive map on a BlackBerry device. The application lets users see aerial photos with overlying property boundaries and icons identifying which properties have open service cases, colour-coded by priority.  Councilors and city staff can click on a property, see the case details, and give an immediate answer to a citizen, viewing the information right on their BlackBerry Smartphone.  Business graphics provide visual feedback as to the number and current status of all open issues.

Public Safety    Albany NY                    Finalist  David Casciotti

Central to the GIS system of the city of Albany, NY is the GIS Hub. The hub provides for application and data sharing among city departments and divisions, and the public. Among the many GIS Hub goals to be achieved in our mobility efforts, a few stand out:

·         Integrate GIS into daily operations

·         Improve data development, management, and output capabilities

·         Develop an ability for the delivery of cartographic and geographic record data via web-based and wireless applications to the city agencies, the public, and other groups

Launched in 2008, the Block by Block campaign was a process to strategically address code compliance, public safety, abandoned buildings, and community development. Freeance Mobile has allowed us to develop a cohesive, coordinated effort to gather, analyze, and disseminate information, tackling a wide range of issues from discovery to investigation to prosecution.

Using Freeance Mobile to connect our ArcIMS server to BlackBerry smartphones, we were provided situational awareness of parolees, probationers, active warrants, house photos, current property ownership, ROP’s, rental registry, and vacant buildings. Prior to this, the system was available to Albany Police Department via desktop applications and mobile data terminals through an intranet. Now, the Albany police community service officers are able to check quality of life complaints anytime, anywhere, with the data being current. In the past, an officer couldn’t tell if an address had been visited.

Future examples of utilizing the BlackBerry device and Freeance Mobile include:

-          Field crew visits a property with an initial inspection and then needs to update in the office

-          Fire department can see the status off a ROP in the field and can issue and update in field or office

-          Zoning official can see the status of ROP’s prior to issuing a zoning compliance letter

Public Safety    Murfreesboro TN           Finalist  Gerald Lee

Inventory of Tornado Damages and the reconstruction process and demolition permitting progress. The ability to capture GPS coordinates, pictures and data into a single database will increase efficiency tremendously and free up manpower for additional applications to be deployed across the entire city government.

Now we capture field information with digital cameras with no GPS and paper forms, this would allow immediate data capture along with coordinates and photos together into a single database.

Government      South Windsor CT          Finalist Scott Roberts

Using BlackBerry smartphones to track the locations of public works crews in real time, enabling increased productivity and reduced operational costs. This is made possible by the combined use of BlackBerry smartphones, Freeance Mobile and existing GIS data. Public Works managers now deploy a BlackBerry with each piece of equipment. The devices let managers track crews during the day and monitor their progress. The technology tracks such tasks as leaf removal, lawn mowing, sidewalk inspections, zoning enforcement and,

later this winter, snowplowing.

To track data, to have real information when somebody complains about something, to be able to evaluate efficiencies and how long it takes to do certain activities, and track where you’ve been with these different programs - we’re talking about saving a lot of manpower both by managers and the people out in the field working.  We can better monitor the programs as well as provide information on an almost instantaneous basis as to what’s going on.

Government      Linn County IA               Finalist  Jason Siebrecht

Some of our departments have the majority of their employees doing work in the field and they rely on communication and job tracking done by someone at their office to assign and check work they have done or need to do.

After deploying a mobile GIS application that foreman can record a lat/long location, take a picture of the problem, record a series of notes and upload the information to a database where the office manager can then and assign each of the subsequent tasks to the proper employees.

Although it is still early in our deployment phase we can see both a qualitative and quantitative benefit to our mobile GIS application.  This also helps departments customer service needs because the owner of a property doesn’t have to call into that office to let them know there is a sign missing near their property.  They take an active approach to solving the problem and the overall result is a better model for accomplishing their everyday business tasks.

Government      Fort Collins CO             Finalist  Dan Coldiron

Having real-time AVL information available anytime, anywhere to a number of staff persons was the goal of the project.  The project was fortunate to have an implemented and stable AVL system.  The remaining challenge was to deliver that information to field staff in an efficient and cost-effective manner.

Our Streets Department staff is very happy with the final product.  Being able to tie their existing AVL system to a real-time application on their handhelds will provide them extremely valuable information in the field during critical operations. 

Word is already spreading throughout the organization and numerous other ideas for the delivery of information to the Blackberrys are being raised. 

Beacon Award - Oxnard CA         Finalist - David Endelman

A field GIS solution is vital in order to document location, description, condition, and date of installation of field assets. Accurate field data will help with maintenance planning, financial planning, and GASB 34 reporting. We have a very progressive Public Works department with an innovative approach with curb to curb asset management. We need a compatible wireless field GIS solution.

Benefits of having more accurate field data include:

- Finding assets faster in the field. Meters for example.
- Better gauging of maintenance needs.
- More efficient routing of field crews .
- More accurate GASB 34 reporting may reduce insurance premiums.
- Better responsiveness to emergencies.
- More accurate master plans.
- Useful for grafitti abatement program.
- Better community relations.
- Less negative fiscal impact from road repaving.

Overall benefits will be saved time and money because Oxnard will have a city-wide, wireless GIS capability which will support Oxnard's mission to be a safe, clean, and prosperous city. About 200,000 residents will benefit if Oxnard has a robust wireless GIS solution.

Beacon Award   Energy Corp of America                     Finalist     Jason Mace

Energy Corporation of America is the culmination of 40 years of growth and diversification. The company combines Appalachian Basin natural gas development, deep exploration, marketing, and pipeline gathering and transportation to industrial end users, utility purchasers and other customers with higher risk, higher reward exploratory drilling in Texas and internationally.

Currently, we deploy our field personnel with laptops, cell phones, and other small handheld devices for data analyzing and capturing purposes. Our operations are central to the rugged Appalachian region where fragile devices will not last. We also face network issues where a cellular connection or high speed internet is not always available for some distance.  We would like to culminate all of those into one avenue of access to every data source available. The BlackBerry platform would be a great solution to our needs.

With less time spent feeding data in several different patterns, our office personnel can spend more time improving the information we are providing and analyzing outcomes.  We currently have a handful of MDS applications deployed that capture and deliver data to some of our field workers. By adding the ability to integrate GIS data, we can offer data from several systems at once and start to offer locational awareness as a factor in our decisions. Previously, our field personnel would work independent of each other and report their outcomes weekly by traveling to a district office and unloading data. With a wireless GIS solution, our field personnel would be able to analyze a larger picture of their surroundings and make more informed decisions. The field personnel would also be able to report their data as soon as they had a strong enough phone signal. This would remove the weekly delay in obtaining data and allow management to make more informed decisions for the company.

The wireless GIS solution would allow us to remove the social walls that often develop between field and office personnel. The improvements in field decision making as well as the freshly channeled focus on the data being delivered will create more production and in turn help our corporation to continue growing.

Beacon Award   Topeka KS                    Finalist  Kyle Tjelmeland

The challenge we face is keeping our always-changing assets in the field synchronized with our GIS database in the office.  We utilize Cityworks by Azteca, completely integrated with ESRI GIS, for our maintenance management system. To get the most out of Cityworks we need to have current and accurate records of our field assets in GIS.  We have a very limited group of people that maintain the GIS records and honestly we cannot keep up with the changes being made in the field.  We need a better way to record the changes as they are made in the field. Currently, we run the risk of having our crews wanting to abandon the use of GIS and Cityworks if things become too far out of sync.  That would be catastrophic as we have spent time and money investing in these as an organization, and are heavily dependent on them to operate.

Our project is fairly simple in concept, but we believe it has a significant application for all public utilities who are doing similar work. The Blackberry could be linked to the Cityworks database, and then the crew leader could also fill in the work order information and never need a piece of paper.

Beacon Award   Thiess Pty LTD              Finalist  Jason Clark

Thiess is one of the largest construction, engineering and services companies in Australasia. We have been operating for 75 years and have built Australia's largest infrastructure projects and operated Australia's largest mines.

With typical staff numbers in the thousands on projects we have a market that does not have access to the current spatial data in the field or need to take time out from the field to visit the office. Mobile solution will center around field deployment of our current ArcGIS Server data and will cover:

- Environment: monitoring data collection, vegetation surveys and field communications
- Community: stakeholder data collection, incident recordings, community consultation and field access to data
- Operations: location of personnel, vehicles, equipment, status of works, feature locations and access to information
- Services: location of utility services
- Traffic: traffic management, vehicle management, live traffic feeds & optimal routing
- Property: ownership details, property condition surveys and property damage reports
- Safety: field incidents, locations of safety/emergency features and hazard mapping

Have a seamless approach from field to office will make this deployment the most innovative solution our company will have seen. It will save the company money and provide endless benefits and efficiencies.