Solutions used: APOS LOCATION INTELLIGENCE SOLUTION
Product Components Used: Integration Kit for ESRI GIS
Background:
Troy, Michigan is the 12th largest city in Michigan by population and the 2nd largest city in the state based on total property value. The City of Troy’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) were developed in part to allow its citizens and employees to make informed decisions with timely, spatially accurate information. In their efforts to design high quality public improvements using sound engineering principles and cutting edge technology, the City of Troy was looking to fill the gap between their GIS and reporting systems.
Challenge:
The City of Troy manages over 1,600 survey benchmarks made available for the public to use as survey reference points. The engineering department receives requests from contractors and citizens of Troy to locate the benchmarks closest to a particular location. The nature of this task lends itself to a GIS application but the official survey benchmark information given to the public is manually generated from a Crystal Report. This requires the desk clerk to locate the ID’s of the benchmarks in question from the GIS, write them down, then generate a Crystal Report and print the report. Often the citizen requesting the survey data will also request an aerial photo to be printed to help locate the survey benchmarks. This requires an additional step for the desk clerk to generate a printed map from the mapping application.
The City of Troy wanted to use Crystal Reports Server to utilize its URL reporting capabilities to send a request for a report and receive a Crystal Report back with a map image embedded from their ESRI ArcIMS server, based on a variable in the report. For example: a map zoomed in 300ft around a fire hydrant that was featured in the report.
Solution:
The APOS Solutions Kit for ESRI GIS provides a powerful bi-directional bridge between two industry-leading business intelligence solutions. It enabled the City of Troy to leverage location intelligence with their reporting analytical capabilities using ESRI ArcIMS and Crystal Reports Server XI Release 2. "It was very easy to implement and didn’t require extensive custom development. The end users were very accepting of the APOS Solutions Kit as it made their job much easier," said Alex. All 400 of the City’s employees can utilize the report and mapping tools without the assistance of the IT department. It also turned a multi-step process into a one step process. The City of Troy foresees utilizing the APOS Solutions Kit for ESRI GIS in many other applications throughout all the departments at the City of Troy.
Why APOS?
"APOS was wonderful to work with and demonstrated a deep understanding of the inter-workings of both the Business Objects and ESRI ArcIMS platforms. When questions arose APOS was quickly able to find the solution," states Alex.
For more information:
Allan Pym, VP Sales and Chief Operating Officer
519.666.2020 or apym@apos.com