AUTOMATING OPERATIONS PART 2: AVAILABLE DATA

My father tells a story about meeting with a GIS Manager of a very large company in the early 2000’s.  My dad was talking about how the data in the GIS system could be used by the Engineering group, and the Marketing group, and the Survey group, and the Regulatory group.  The GIS Manager laughed and said, “There’s no way that Engineering can use this data.  I don’t trust any of it and neither does anyone else!”

It’s a strange day indeed when the owner of the data doesn’t trust it and so won’t put it to use.  While it is a correct choice to not distribute untrustworthy data, it is quite a waste of time and money to continue collecting and processing untrustworthy data.

This is a very common dilemma, and while the larger corporations naturally have a larger problem with data reliability, smaller groups will suffer the pains at the same ratio.  Small or large, companies are severely limited because of their lack of data.  Out of the hundreds of GIS groups I’ve worked with, there have only been a handful who, from the beginning, have been able to distribute reliable data.

Ooo, that may sound like burn, but I don’t mean it that way.  The solution I’ll present below is logical, but it’s not intuitive, meaning it’s not really obvious.  It’s taken a LOT of experience and a LOT of education from people who are a LOT smarter than I am.  If you’re struggling with any part of this process, you are in good company.

Reliable data really has three aspects to it, and each comes with its own challenges.  It’s not an easy thing to accomplish, yet the results are absolutely fantastic.  

When a GIS group can accomplish this, they can become one of the most valuable groups in the company.  They become the source of all important knowledge, and will impact every person in the organization, from the new Intern in Accounting all the way up to the CEO.

Reliable data means 3 things and we’ll cover the first one here.  That is, making the data always available.

Always Available

Of the 3 components of reliable data, making data available is the easiest to accomplish.  What this means is that the web portal, or the map, or the database (or however you distribute your data), is accessible when your internal customer needs it to be.

We’ve all used web apps that look awesome, sound awesome, and end up not working most of the time.  I’ve done this a lot of times, but I can’t remember the names of any of them.  This is because when I sign up for a new service, and can’t log in, I usually don’t try again.  And if I’ve been using a web app for awhile and all of the sudden it becomes hard to access, I usually try to find a different solution very quickly.  When you’re looking for an app to use, vet the software company before spending a lot of money, and see if they seem professional or amateurish.  A sloppy software company will struggle with a web-based app because the architecture is more complex than the old-school desktop applications.  

There are a lot of really savvy apps available for almost any industry.  For example, we built Orbital with a 99% uptime guaranteed, and unlimited user logins.  This means that it is available for virtually everyone in your company basically all of the time.  We have hundreds of users and the application has been in use for years.  Services like ArcGIS Online, PowerBI, or PipeTrak are also great solutions to serve other types of telecom and pipeline data.  Whatever your niche, you can likely find a solution.  If you can’t, ping me and maybe we can start a new venture!

Find a software solution that is reliable and this will get you most of the way there.  The rest is up to how you manage that solution. Here are some quick tips for doing your part.

Make It Easy To Find

We are a software company, and naturally we use software in every part of our business.  Every team has moved off of paper, and into automated, online systems.  We’ve had our fair share of failed deployments of new tools internally, and thankfully a lot of successes.

One of the basic problems of deploying a new app is that people can’t find it.  Especially when you are using an app to share data with another team, which means you don’t have the authority to make them use it, you have to make it easy to find.  

Burying the link in an email is not great.  Losing it on the company Sharepoint is a bad idea.  Telling people verbally doesn’t work most of the time.  So how do we make it easy to find?  You use every method.

When we deployed our Remote Working Plan at the start of the pandemic, we had all of our team members use Google Meet for online meetings.  Links to this app could be found EVERYWHERE!  

We pinned the link in Slack.  We emailed the link.  We attached the link to calendar events.  We reminded people verbally on calls.  We talked about it on text.  We added it to the internal company site.  You literally could not get away from it.

This is what we do for every new internal deployment.  Do we have a new form for data requests?  It’s pinned to Slack, it’s sent in a team message, it’s mentioned in meetings, and the communication keeps repeating until everyone is using it.  New app for managing source code?  Yup, we talk about it and link to it everywhere.

And don’t change the link very often.  Some services let you setup a custom url (called a vanity url).  Don’t change this url unless required to.  If you do, you will need to repeat all of your communication, and remind people to change their bookmarks. 

Let People Manage Their Logins

Letting people manage their usernames and passwords by themselves is important for two reasons.  Not only does it make logging in and resetting your password more convenient, it also greatly increases your security.

Let’s face it.  It’s 2020.  If you’re using an app that requires a Super User to create and reset everyone’s password, you are not using an app that’s professionally engineered.  If that Super User gets hacked, it’s over for everyone.  If this Super User gets unscrupulous one day, this person has access to everyone's passwords.  It's not a secure system.  If you get hacked, and this Super User didn't do anything wrong, it's likely they will still take the blame.

Also if a user needs to reset their password at 6pm, and your Super User has already gone home, you’re going to experience a major delay.  Heaven forbid this Super User gets really sick, or is in the hospital for weeks.  

This is basically an app that is not consistently available.  In B2B software, this problem is very rampant, so keep an eye out.

Next Up

Next I’ll be writing about how to keep data always up to date.  Check back soon!  

Jacob Ramirez
President
Blue Sky Evolution
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