„Mobile First“ in Utilities
Our users need to be able to work with their Utility network data outside in the field. This requirement has become more and more important once smart phones and tablets became so important in our personal and work life. We simply expect our Utility GIS to work mobile. “Mobile First” is the new motto for many Utility organizations; the same goes for “Bringing Your Own Device” and use it in a mobile context.
A modern Infrastructure for mobile Working
In the Land Management area almost all data are made available to the end users through the internet! What is the role of mobile devices? Is it necessary for a Utility company to replicate GIS data about the network to a mobile device to work locally? Answers to questions like this depend on your requirements. There are scenarios where the online use of data is sufficient for working with Land Management and Utility networks on our smart devices.
Especially for Utilities it is important to have all relevant network data on a local computer in order to be independent of internet access being available; just think about black-outs in an electrical network!
AED-SICAD provides different solutions based on Webservices as well as on the basis of data replication for the various scenarios.
UT WebApp Mobile for Utilities
Utility network data can be published with our UT Server using the Portal for ArcGIS of Esri. Apps that are built with the Esri Web AppBuilder can be configured to work on mobile smart devices automatically. Based on the same technology, our UT WebApp Viewer may run in your office on a browser or on a smart mobile device out in the field. The User Interface automatically adjusts to the size and the capabilities of the smart device. The user experience is intuitive by definition.
Working Mobile - Offline
Imagine that it rains cats and dogs in the middle of the night. In your electrical network there are many damages and outages and due to the weather there is no internet available. Any Utility company must be prepared for such scenarios and they require mobile laptops with replicated GIS data on it: data that are send from the central server onto the local computer. Mostly we’re talking about ruggedized laptops that are built inside the vehicle of a technical support team.
UT Mobile
UT Asset Manager Mobile is a standalone ArcGIS Engine bases application that runs directly on the mobile laptop or a windows based tablet computer. It is independent of the internet, due to an Esri based data replication concept that allows exporting all data, or an area, or a subset of feature classes from the server to your local mobile computer. Since a full set of network data or a subset is replicated this ensures the full searching, selecting, analytical and tracing functionality for the mobile worker in the field.
The Esri based replication supports different options for editing of the mobile replicated data: ranging from attribute editing, over simple redlining to full blown sketching and editing in a planning context. Dependent on the replication configuration we support to only read the mobile data (1-Way) or to send modified and new data from the laptop or tablet to the server (2-Way).
Combine with Esri Product Apps for …
Esri offers several Product Apps, e.g. Collector for ArcGIS, or Navigator and Workforce for ArcGIS. These apps contain a limited amount of well-defined functionality. They may be downloaded from the different app stores. With the Collector for ArcGIS app it is possible to share Webservices that are prepared in your company with the smart mobile device. One gets to see the right network data very easily. Additionally it is possible to collect data by means of simple features. A good example would be the Notification for Damages or Outages in the network.
A challenge in this context would be how to get collected information like this into your UT network geodatabase, or how to get them into your SAP System? The answer to these questions is our UT Integrator that can easily be configured such that it consumes the simple feature Webservices and transforms them into the right format and on the right position in your GIS and in your SAP.
