CASE STUDY
Accelerating digital transformation and moving to the cloud with Carnell
Accelerating digital transformation and moving to the cloud with Carnell
Carnell provides specialist maintenance and support services that help ensure safety and efficiency for the UK’s highway infrastructure. For almost three decades, major public and private sector customers have relied on Carnell for cost effective, sustainable innovations to improve their network assets.
The challenge:
Carnell are always looking to improve the efficiency of their field operations including their highways drainage surveys for DDMS (Drainage Database Management System). They had been using Trimble devices for their drainage asset capture, but the equipment was top-heavy and performed poorly in difficult conditions, adding time and complexity to time-sensitive jobs, and reducing productivity.
Furthermore, the field-to-office workflow was a manual process that was slow and often rendered incomplete information. The field operative or supervisor would have to bring the device into the office for data to be downloaded and analysed. Photographs and sketches were also not linked with the data, so files often went missing, causing delays.
With a successful history of working together, MGISS were consulted on how best to integrate new hardware and software for maximum efficiency and cost savings.
The solution:
MGISS quickly identified areas for improvement. The Eos Arrow Gold GNSS Receiver was proposed as a possible alternative to their existing hardware. The Arrow Series is lighter and more streamlined, which was useful for field operatives in tricky situations, as well as being more cost-effective and accurate down to 1cm.
A collection of three Arrow Gold Receivers were accepted initially, soon followed by an additional seven with the support of a successful business case.
At the same time as consulting on the field solution, we were also identifying possible improvements to the field-to-office workflow. Many of the issues that were being faced – loss of data, significant delays between data capture and analysis – could be solved by moving the workflow into the cloud. To achieve this, we implemented Esri UK’s market-leading ArcGIS software, including Survey123 – a great way to share, analyse and interpret data between locations. MGISS’s Z-Transform plugin for ArcGIS Field Maps was also deployed to provide real-time cm accurate UK elevation, crucial for drainage network modelling.
Now with everything in the cloud, there is no longer any need for field operatives to physically travel to the office with hardware or hard drives. All data can be captured, viewed, and downloaded in real-time from any site or office, saving significant time and reducing fuel consumption company wide. “We’ve noticed several improvements in our field-to-office workflow,” said Dave Nicosia, Technical Services Manager at Carnell. “One of the best things is you can download data from the cloud as soon as the field survey finishes.”
The online ArcGIS portal also provides a convenient overview of project plans and workloads, so gaps can be identified where surveys and other work are overdue or required.
The results:
Due to their superior accuracy and resilience, the Eos Arrow Series have now fully replaced Trimble’s products for field work and data capture. ArcGIS Field Maps with the MGISS Z-Transform plugin adds efficiency, security, and accuracy to the asset capture solution.
The online digital transformation of Carnell’s back-office workflows is ongoing, but already the new cloud-based systems have significantly reduced delays and have resulted in cost savings. At the successful completion of the initial digital transformation project, Carnell’s Technical Services Manager Dave Nicosia said: “MGISS know our systems very well. They can identify where we can save time and money, and how to improve our workflow. The speed of support is impressive and it’s a pleasure to work with them.”
We continue to support and identify areas for improvement on an ongoing basis. In the short-term, we will be looking at valid commercial applications for the 3D rendering of assets and augmented reality.
About MGISS:
MGISS independently advise on the smarter use of Geospatial data, technology, and the digital transformation of field operations, taking organisations on a journey from asset Location to Insight. MGISS is a multi-award-winning company that informs organisations in the smart use of geospatial data and technologies to enable strategic asset management techniques. MGISS delivers innovative geospatial solutions that significantly improve the resilience, efficiency and performance of Utility, Infrastructure and Environmental assets. MGISS’s primary purpose is to support critical infrastructure operators and their contractors to optimise asset performance based on an ‘accurate and authoritative version of the data truth’ by providing solutions that locate, capture, validate and use infrastructure asset data. MGISS was recently ranked at number four in the Northwest Tech 50 disruptive companies creating innovative technology solutions and as one of the top 21 companies in mapping software.
Contacts:
Editorial enquiries to [email protected]. For further information visit mgiss.co.uk/contact or Twitter: @mgissuk LinkedIn: @MGISS
About Carnell:
Carnell provides specialist maintenance and support services that help ensure safety and efficiency for the UK’s highway infrastructure. For almost three decades, major public and private sector customers have relied on Carnell for cost effective, sustainable solutions to improve their network assets. Carnell has a proven track record of collaborating with clients and other supply-chain members to safely deliver excellence and certainty of outcome. With a history of award-winning innovations, they operate nationally from their HQ in Staffordshire and offices throughout the UK, working with the local communities to provide social value. We imagineer tomorrow today.
For further details around Carnell and the innovations and services they offer, or to contact the team visit www.carnellgroup.co.uk or social media @carnellhighways