Client Success Story
Mobile
Computing Works for City of Monash
Julien Harrison-Rogers, City of Monash, Victoria
Like many municipalities, the City of Monash is always looking
for ways to improve the efficiency of their business.
Recently the City made its first foray into mobile computing
to explore the potential of this technology to assist field
staff better target their work and reduce the time spent chasing
paper documents.
Each year a Monash inspector assesses every property in the municipality
to determine whether trees on private property encroach on the
footpath. At any non-complying property, the inspector may either
leave a card or return to the office to generate a letter to the
owner requesting that the vegetation is pruned (“Notice to Comply”).
After 14 days, the inspector revisits any non-complying properties
to determine if they have heeded the Notice. The inspector may
make further trips to verify whether the owner has complied. The
original business process to support this activity required several
hours of administrative follow-up in the office to generate letters
and maintain records.
To improve the efficiency of inspections and follow-up administration,
the City contracted Spatial Vision to develop a mobile
computing solution that was integrated with their corporate
GIS. Spatial Vision developed a mapped based application
using ESRI’s ArcPAD and Microsoft Pocket Access that operated
on a PDA, a handheld computer. The tree inspection application
enables field capture/updates of non-compliance. In the office
it is docked to a PC to load the latest data and previous
inspection results so that the inspector can easily see the
location and the status of non-complying properties, and areas
already inspected. To reduce data-entry errors, the application
was designed to use GPS to orientate the property map to the
actual location of the inspector in the field. On return to
the office, the inspector again docks the PDA and captured
data is synchronised with the corporate database to enable
analysis of field captured data and the generation of letters
to property owners.
Figure
1: A major focus for the
design of the application was ease-of-use (inspectors may
have no prior computing or technical skills).
Figure
2: The Tree Inspection Mobile
Application
A major focus for the design of the application was ease-of-use
(inspectors may have no prior computing or technical skills).
Spatial Vision worked closely with Monash staff in
the design and testing stage to ensure any operational issue,
regardless of how trivial, were fully resolved. The
final Mobile Tree Inspection module was implemented after
a single training session of an hour. As Julien Harrison-Rogers,
Monash’s Project Manager, noted, “What came as a surprise
was that the uptake of the new mobile technology proved to
be problem free. We were expecting that inspection staff would
have difficulty adapting to the GPS technology, and again,
surprisingly, the transition was painless”.
After implementation by Spatial Vision, the reporting tools in Council’s office were further developed by the in-house team. A number of specific reports were developed for the tree inspector and others were developed for management. After bedding these down, the tree inspector, administrative staff and local laws management operate the module with minimal support from the Council’s GIS group.
According to Harrison-Rogers, the project has resulted
in improved business efficiencies in four ways. First,
automating and minimising the paper chase for the tree inspector
provides significant time savings and increases the accuracy
of the recording and processing of non-compliance. Second,
the automated mail-outs have greatly reduced the need for
administrative support from many hours each week down to less
than half hour.
Third, the details of non-complying property owners are linked to their records in the Council’s property and rating system. This helps other Council staff respond to public and senior management queries more effectively.
Finally, this new approach provides a full audit
trail and reporting mechanism for management. The
tree inspection program can now be actively monitoredand resources
directed effectively to address problem areas. The system’s
management tools have improved the effectiveness of the overall
program reducing the Council’s potential liability.
Not only has the mobile tree inspection application project achieved its objectives, it has proven to the Council that well designed and implemented mobile technology can offer significant business savings.
Copyright
© Spatial Vision, Wednesday, 7-April-2004
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