The Location Powered Enterprise
Part Two: GPS for Asset Location Verification
Last month in
Part One, we introduced the idea of the
Location Powered Enterprise, which leverages
location information throughout its overall
business process to more effectively address its
operational and strategic goals. This month, we
look a one area when new positioning
technologies can be integrated with other
business processes to meet specific operational
goals.
The idea of using GPS for field asset management
and engineering is well established by
organizations that rely on Geospatial Information
Systems (GIS). This has usually taken the form of
using high-end mobile GPS systems to take precise
location measurements of inventory in the field. A
location is associated with an asset or piece of
infrastructure for use in GIS and Customer
Information Systems (CIS) applications.
New lower-cost GPS technologies in mobile devices
offer organizations the opportunity to more deeply
integrate location into their activities in the
field. More workers can include a location
component in their interactions with assets. Of
potentially greater importance, enterprises can
move beyond simply attaching location information
to physical things and begin associating location
with specific activities and transactions.
An example of how location can be more broadly
used in an
 organization
to manage assets involves a utility company that
made GPS a part of their mobile solution to manage
the replacement of conventional meters with
wireless meters for automatic meter reading (AMR).
As each obsolete meter was swapped out for an AMR
meter, the technician recorded a number of pieces
of information about the meter and used GPS to
collect latitude and longitude information for the
meter. The utility then uses this location
information to plan more effective routes for
mobile collection vehicles that drive by meter
locations and wirelessly download usage data from
the AMR meters.
This example represents the evolution of the
location powered enterprise from engineering
to operational usage:
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The asset being tracked was a low-value meter
versus a high-value piece of infrastructure such
as a utility pole or valve.
-
The level of GPS precision needed for this
application was well within the 3-5 meters
delivered by handheld GPS devices.
-
The location information was incorporated into a
mobile computing application that also recorded
customer and meter information.
-
The entire process was conducted by a meter
installer, rather than a trained GIS technician.
-
The data collected had value in documenting the
utility’s infrastructure in its GIS, but also
allowed for the more effective completion of
another operational task (routing the vehicles
that wirelessly read the meters).
In this case, GPS resulted in numerous operational
benefits with a minimum of costs. The same concept
of collecting location data on assets other than
major pieces of infrastructure should also be
considered. This is especially significant for
customer locations, where the street address may
not correspond to the location required by a field
worker. An example of this could be a business
where the street address fronts on one street,
while the service area or entrance is found on
another. Or a delivery address where the loading
dock does not correspond with the address for the
“front door.” The use of this kind of information,
especially with GPS navigation technology can be
highly valuable, as actual work locations can be
imported as “Points of Interest” into many
navigation systems.
In Part Three we will look at geographic
transaction verification, or “geostamping.”
Mike Forbes
LinksPoint, Vice President
Marketing & Product Development
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