Challenge. Provide efficient means of accessing, using, and updating enterprise GIS information during daily field visits
Solution. The NMSLO manages more than 13 million acres for the benefit of schools and public institutions in New Mexico, and has the unique challenge of ensuring the “highest and best use” for generating revenues in perpetuity. As all transactions are tied to the land, it is critical that each District Resource Manager (DRM) have current and accurate geospatial information at their fingertips while traveling to the remote corners of their districts. Approximately 1 million acres of Trust land is monitored by each DRM, with the acreage distributed over 16 to 20 million-acre districts. INTERA developed an efficient means for DRMs to access, use, and update the agency’s enterprise GIS information with newly collected data from daily field visits. We accomplished this by implementing an ArcGIS Mobile application on the agency’s Trimble Yuma GPS devices, allowing DRMs to query, update, and create new data while in the field and then dock into the network to synchronize content with the GIS Server. To develop this solution, we analyzed end-user requirements in relation to the NMSLO’s existing spatial server and geodatabase infrastructure and data maintenance protocols. INTERA provided data modeling, assembly, and formatting as well as application interface configuration and project deployment to the devices. End-user training as well as technology transfer and documentation for the system administrators were also provided. An important aspect of this implementation was that the system be standardized and simplified so as to best encourage adoption by users with varying skill sets and field task priorities. The aim was to maintain database integrity in the simplest form until, with regular use, the priority datasets, workflows, and organizing principals surfaced organically. INTERA brought the right combination of technological expertise along with business understanding to implement the entire solution within the client’s short timeline. After the first year of using the application, we analyzed the data usage and data creation trends and reconfigured the data model and related tool configurations to optimize the preferred workflows.
