Empowered Solutions Blog
One of the great things about getting to work for a company like SSP Innovations is that we often get the chance to use new technologies, new operating systems, and sometimes even new devices before folks who work at larger companies. Many times, there is just too much red tape and cost associated with acquiring, installing, and evaluating new technology as it comes out.
Not true for SSP, and in fact, SSP often encourages the evaluation of new technologies as they are released enabling us to help our customers move boldly into the future.
This article is a good example of that as we are upgrading to Windows 10, so we can evaluate Esri&#;s Collector for our utility and telecom friends and speak to the benefits of doing so. (Incidentally, many of you who follow our Energy Advisor will see this SSP idea of assessing and adopting the best of new technology when we unveil the new WFM, which has gone through a complete facelift so that utilities can use WFM in the office and on their mobile devices! Stay tuned!)
If you haven’t heard the news (maybe because your focus was drifting toward the much needed breaks for the holidays), Esri came out with Collector for ArcGIS for Windows 10 in December This is the first Collector release for Microsoft Windows as Esri won’t be supporting earlier versions of any Microsoft Operating Systems, which is understandable given how fundamentally separate the Windows mobile and desktop underlying platforms have been prior to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
As a side note, if you’re interested in looking at custom form data collection for an earlier version of Windows look at Esri&#;s new Survey
As discussed previously, IT departments at utility or telecom organizations can take anywhere from a very slow to mostly conservative approach in the upgrade of their users’ operating systems (primarily Windows). That said, several IT departments have already started supporting iOS and Andriod devices, which has really helped some folks in our industry get up and running on Collector (previously only released for iOS and Andriod).
I believe that this Windows release is a key release for utilities and telecoms because I’ve started to notice new Microsoft and other desktop/mobile crossover devices popping up and used by you at many of our current customer sites. I also believe that IT departments will be quicker to adopt Windows 10 than previous versions of Windows. And as you know, Microsoft’s Surface has pushed PC device makers even further into the world of touchscreen computing.
I believe increased mainstream desktop/mobile crossover machines, coupled with a quicker and mainstream adoption of Windows 10 will increase the use of Collector for Utilities and Telecoms in the coming months and years. For instance, in the new Windows world, it’s so easy to get. Simply open the Windows Store, enter Esri, and ‘Voilà’! (Incidentally, I didn’t know that entering ‘Esri’ into the Window Store’s search I could also quickly purchase my favorite Eric Clapton songs!).
In case you’re less familiar with Collector and ArcGIS Online, there is some prep work you’ll need to do to get up and running in Collector. You’ll have to have an ArcGIS Online account for your organization, and you will need a map or two setup for the in the account to be selected when you start Collector. If you’d like help getting this setup in a safe and secure way for your organization, please contact us.
Once your ArcGIS Online site is prepped, and Collector is installed, you’re ready to go.
The first thing you’ll notice is that Collector for Windows looks and feels a lot like Collector for iOS or Android. You can still do all the essential activities such as data collection, creating photo attachments, querying the map for information about operational data, performing searches, toggle map layers, change the background from available online backgrounds, and use the measuring tools to gather distances to collected or inspected features:
Collector for Windows 10 comes with a few nice features that can only be done in the Windows version. For example, Collector can be run in a separate window, which allows me to view other important document or files I might need side by side with the map and data I’m collecting in the field.
One thing we were excited to see is that Collector for Windows also includes many of the new enhancements that were made later versions of Collector for iOS and Android, such as editing for related records. So for our final test we decided to extend an ArcGIS Online and Collector pattern we presented in a previous blog for Pole and Joint Use Inspections.
We tested the latest in Collector functionality by setting up a new Collector pattern that involves collecting pole inspection data using related tables instead of inspection features. In the database, we used our existing Support Structure feature class and our related Joint Use Attachment table containing all our legacy pole attachment data. Then we created a related table for Pole Inspections to store all of our Pole and Joint Use Inspection Data:
This database structure allowed us to setup a pattern where field inspectors could view existing pole data stored in the GIS, collect new or modify existing attachment data, while also collecting the data for the inspections they’re meant to perform. The following shows a selected Pole and in the Collector map and the attachment and inspection data as related records that could be viewed or added:
For our important Support Structure data, we made all the fields ‘read-only’ except a new field called ‘Inspected.’ This allows users to mark a pole as ‘Inspected’ when the inspection is completed, which changes the color of the pole in the map making it helpful for field inspectors and supervisors back at the office alike.
In summary, this new release is going to help a lot of utility and telecoms start collecting essential operational data by providing utility and telecom IT departments yet another Operating System option for their users. As always, let us know if you’d like some assistance getting you started!
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