Open side-bar Menu
 Mobile GIS & LBS

Posts Tagged ‘simple’

Can GIS Help the Mad Hatter?

Friday, May 20th, 2016

 

As the Mad Hatter says:

“I’m late. I’m late. For a very important data. No time to say hello, goodbye. I’m late. I’m late. I’m late.”

Ours is a Mad Hatters world. Fast paced. And getting faster. Decisions increasingly need to be made yesterday. In this blog post we will consider making business decisions fast and where GIS fits.

Can GIS Help the Mad Hatter?

I’m going to rephrase our question: Is GIS a 3 click solution? Is it a software solution which might help those who are moving quickly like the Mad Hatter….

My answer to this question is definitely YES. And definitely NO.

“Curiouser and curiouser!”

Why Yes – GIS IS a 3 click solution

Today GIS has become an in demand technology. Let me re-phrase that: more WHERE questions are being asked by more people. Traditional users of GIS have been swelled by the addition of non-GIS users. Business users in particular are looking for answers to questions traditional BI platforms cannot answer. People are realising GIS is far more than mapping technology. It can analyse and answers complex WHERE questions: Where should we open a new store? Where is our highest flood risk exposure? Where will be the greatest impacted areas of an oil spill?
(more…)

We need GIS apps which are super simple to use

Wednesday, August 12th, 2015

 

We seem to hear so often now: “We need GIS apps which are super simple to use” . Why?

A history of GIS App Complexity

I’m afraid its true. We’ve been building GIS apps which are too complex. Too many GIS apps need users to be trained before use.

GIS has a history of complex and confusing apps

In 2005 Google Maps introduced us to simplicity. True, their target audience were consumers, not the enterprise, but still the simplicity was a thing of beauty. GIS has been pushing out applications filled with (too many) tools. Tools which are complex to use. Applications which are not intuitive. Applications which need training.

New Non-GIS Users

We are in the midst of geospatial revolution, driven by cloud and mobile technology. The geo world is being turned on its head. Traditional GIS users are being joined by a new far wider user base: non-GIS users. That’s not just consumers, but private organizations recognizing their business intelligence (BI) software is only giving them part of the story. By your staff who are looking to location based technology to improve how they work, and improve their organizational insight to make better decisions.

(more…)

5 things you need to know about Web mobile ArcGIS

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015

 

ArcGIS Online is still relatively new. Many organizations have begun looking seriously at this cloud based GIS solution. Sure there are still worries about credits, cost concerns, confusion around named users. But wider scale adoption is on the horizon.

Web Mobile ArcGIS

As organizations dig deeper into ArcGIS, the question of mobile is often raised. In this post let’s discuss 5 things you need to know about Web mobile ArcGIS.

1. Ubiquitous – run on any device and platform

In today’s world we use many devices: PC’s, laptops, smartphones, tablets. These are all basically computers. Devices like smartphones, and tablets mean we are no longer limited to our office or home based computers. Now we can use applications anywhere and at anytime. GIS technology is particularly useful on mobile devices. Not only does it provide (easily understood) maps as output, but detailed, focused information based on location:

“Show me all the water valves which have not been inspected in Sandy City in the last 2 months”

“Alert me if I start digging with my excavator within 30 ft of an oil pipeline”

We all have a mix of different mobile devices: smartphones, tablets, Apple, Android, Windows, Blackberry. Ideally we want our mobile ArcGIS applications to run on any and all of our devices. Web ArcGIS is the perfect solution. Write once run everywhere is the true power of web ArcGIS technology. Pull up a browser on your device and you are good to go.

(more…)

Expanding the Reach of GIS

Thursday, February 12th, 2015

Let us in the post revisit the notion of emerging GIS. We have in other posts discussed what emerging is not: wearable’s, virtual reality and the like. We see emerging GIS as expanding the user base beyond GIS trained staff. Traditional GIS still serves a narrow user base. A huge untapped audience is crying out for the services provided by GIS. A user base so far largely excluded from this technology.

Widening the use of GIS Internally

Look across your organization. Think about your staff. Who today uses the output and services from your GIS? My guess is in many organizations this is a small group. Now consider who COULD benefit from maps and GIS services: maintenance workers, attorneys, engineers, surveyors, inspectors, installers, auditors, sales staff, site managers the list goes on. So the question is how to provide access to the benefits of GIS to these staff?

The question the is how do we widen the reach of GIS within organizations? We see the key is providing new intuitive, user friendly GIS tools. Take as an example the Web based offline ArcGIS editing application we have just released. This provides the ability to view and edit ArcGIS maps when in or out of wi-fi range. We’ve designed it so no training is required. The diagram below shows the application interface:

Easy to use GIS applications which provide focused functionality (editing, redline, custom forms etc) and improve on how users currently get their jobs done, is crucial for wider adoption of GIS technology

New GIS User Base

Many organizations simply do not use location technology. Visualizing organizational data on maps, and searching or analyzing this data spatially is hugely powerful.

Spreadsheets are common in many organizations to track assets, analyse and chart other business components. Pen and paper remain popular with many field based staff; recording work done, completing forms, and more.

GIS brings the power of maps and location intelligence to organizations. It brings new tools to users which can be made available across devices (PC, tablet and smartphone).

It has never been easier nor cheaper to implement and use GIS. ArcGIS Online from Esri is one of a number of cloud based GIS solutions which make publishing and providing access to maps and mapping services very easy. Historically we have helped our customers configure ArcGIS Server, which had its challenges. Now much of our focus is getting organizations quickly set up with ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS. A super easy process.

Business GIS the New Frontier

The use of GIS to help run businesses remains limited. Business systems such as ERP’s historically have lacked spatial components. This is being recognised as a huge gap. Geo-enablement has become increasingly more important. This is the application of location or geospatial information as part of business processes or using ‘location intelligence’ to augment non-spatial information systems and/or Business Intelligence (BI). This leverages location information in processes and workflows of a business system without the need to fully integrate with a geographic information system (GIS).

Geo-enablement provides the best of both worlds – location intelligence combined with business intelligence – without the expense and complexity of full integration. We’ve taken a data driven geo-enable approach with a web based framework called Geo-EnableJS for ArcGIS. This is one of a number of powerful new geo-enabling frameworks.

Emerging GIS is focused on widening the reach of GIS. To provide new spatial tools to non-GIS users to improve both insight and workflows.

What do we mean by GIS Integration?

Sunday, October 12th, 2014

In previous blog posts we’ve discussed the split in GIS. Not so much a split in the core technology, but in the users served and thus solutions provided. Traditional GIS will continue to support GIS professionals. “New” GIS is now serving a far wider user base. These are users who want to move beyond charts and graphs and visualize data on maps.To query business data based on location. These are users who want to replace their use of pen and paper while in the field, with mobile GIS. They want have access to maps and data in both populated (connected) and remote (disconnected) areas. There is much much more.

Its an exciting future. But just how do we bring GIS to this wider set of users?

Through integration that is how.
(more…)

GIS in 2014 is Simpler and Cheaper

Tuesday, January 7th, 2014

True: GIS in 2014 is simpler and cheaper.

Why? Cloud services and low cost (mobile) hardware.

Simple? Let others host and maintain while you focus on the solution.

Our conclusion from conversations over 2013 was that many still see GIS as this complex system. They have nightmares remembering GIS technology choices, licensing fees, tuning/maintaining/upgrading servers, publishing data. But their thinking had still to move forward.

(more…)




© 2024 Internet Business Systems, Inc.
670 Aberdeen Way, Milpitas, CA 95035
+1 (408) 882-6554 — Contact Us, or visit our other sites:
TechJobsCafe - Technical Jobs and Resumes EDACafe - Electronic Design Automation GISCafe - Geographical Information Services  MCADCafe - Mechanical Design and Engineering ShareCG - Share Computer Graphic (CG) Animation, 3D Art and 3D Models
  Privacy PolicyAdvertise