Freeance Mobile Use Cases

Birmingham Water Works AL - Utilities

Using Freeance Mobile in conjunction with their GIS servers and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), Birmingham Water Works set up applications using Freeance Mobile to field map water valve locations.

Birmingham Water Works' circumstances are similar to most water utilities throughout the US. Service water valves, used to turn water service on and off for individual customers, are sometimes not well mapped and are difficult to locate in the field. Birmingham Water wanted an easy-to-use tool for work crews that would make it possible for them to accurately map and database water valves in the field as they performed service orders related to water valves.

Using Freeance Mobile, the IT Department created a form that can be filled out and then populated in the field with a GPS lat/long coordinate recorded by a BlackBerry handheld. Once a form is populated and tagged with a GPS location, Freeance Mobile sends the record back to the Water Work's internal database. Freeance Mobile further allows the organization to create a Web mapping application on BlackBerry handhelds that connects to an existing ESRI ArcIMS server and permits field crews to bring up live GIS maps on their BlackBerry handheld.

Freeance Mobile works with the Water Work's BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). Using the BES adds tighter security to the application because only BlackBerry handhelds owned by the Water Works and registered with its BES can access the forms and GIS maps.

Freeance Mobile for Utilities

Allen County OH - Street Addressing 911

Allen County uses Freeance Mobile to locate new street addresses out in field.

In recent years, the Allen County completed a large GIS data conversion project that produced street address points for all locations in the County. Once data were delivered and installed on the County's server, GIS staff were able to update a GIS layer with new street addresses as the County grew in population.

Using Freeance Mobile, the County's GIS Department created a mobile application for its BlackBerry handhelds. The mobile GIS application was built to collect new street address locations, with GPS points, at the physical location of a new street address. , which would then be sent to a server for real time viewing on a digital map produced by Freeance Web-based applications. Custom forms created by the County and pushed out to BlackBerry handhelds, lets field crews update street address records and then map points using inexpensive, yet accurate, Bluetooth GPS receivers.

The GIS Department also constructed a mobile map viewing application so field crews can display the County's GIS maps on their BlackBerry handhelds.

Freeance Mobile provides Allen County an inexpensive tool to quickly and easily map new street addresses directly to enterprise databases without time-consuming downloading and post-processing of field collected data.

Freeance Mobile for GPSing

Whitfield County GA - Code Enforcement

Freeance Mobile is helping Whitfield County's code enforcement and inspection group by equipping code enforcement field crews with mobile databases, GIS maps and GPS locations.

Whitfield County was looking for a quicker, more accurate and thorough process for inspecting the condition of large groups of buildings. The code enforcement team needed functionality that incorporated completing a standard form in the field, associating the form with an accurate map location and viewing the County's GIS maps on BlackBerry handhelds.

Whitfield County's GIS/IT Department, which was already using Freeance Web based applications, installed Freeance Mobile on in house servers. Freeance Mobile was then deployed to County employees for display of enterprise databases, custom forms and GIS maps on BlackBerry handhelds. Inspection forms were created for the BlackBerry handhelds that matched existing hardcopy forms in use. Code inspectors call up inspection forms created with Freeance Mobile, complete a form and then add a GPS location to the record directly from a BlackBerry handheld. The newly created record and its location are sent back live at the push of a single button to the County's database server. Field crews are also able to access GIS maps by means of Freeance Mobile applications, allowing them to effortlessly view parcels, aerial photography and other GIS map features.

The Code Enforcement Group's success with Freeance Mobile and BlackBerry for housing inspection led the County to build additional Freeance Mobile applications for soil erosion and nuisance logging workflows.

Freeance Mobile for Code & Inspections