Three Legs of the Stool: Embracing ArcGIS as Anchor Technology for Facility Operations
I’ve enjoyed reading the Esri Campus Operations Community Blog since its inception. I find over the past couple years the submissions and content are quite valuable to both owner/operators on the front lines as well as Esri and the Esri partner community.
Having been around the GIS for campus facilities water cooler for half a minute (see my background bits below), I’d like to weigh in, share some observations, and pay some compliments. I’d also like to make some suggestions, and perhaps, help provide some guidance to those joining this group for the first time and others that may have questions. If I had to choose a category for this blog, I’d chunk it into “strategic technology planning”.
Let’s start with the premise that location is “the glue”. And let’s go one step further and agree that this glue binds or connects what I call the “three legs of the stool”. This “three legs of the stool” paradigm is by no means new, but I believe we should dust it off and lean into it with a fresh set of eyes. My motivation – achieving what many of you are looking for – valuable decision support apps that improve operations and reduce costs using tools [read: the legs of the stool] that are easy to integrate, maintain, and scale.
Collectively, folks lump these tools into their set of “integrated building (or facility) information systems”. So then, if location is the glue that binds the legs of these systems, it would stand to reason that the main leg supporting the integration of the other legs should be a location-based technology or system. I’d argue that ArcGIS is that glue and the key leg of the stool – the leg that supports all the others. Without it, the other legs are less effective, cost more to maintain, and introduce unnecessary risk.
Today, the entire ArcGIS platform is floor-enabled. I’ve personally been on the journey with many of you since 2007. The somewhat clumsy days of developing the Building Interior Space Data Model, the Campus Viewer App, and the Facility-Streets feature dataset in the Local Government Information Model have evolved nicely into ArcGIS Indoors, the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model, and ArcGIS platform-wide support for building data (and floor awareness). In fact, we now simply call it “Indoor GIS” and folks know what we are talking about. We can now seamlessly query, filter, and search for rooms and assets and quickly locate and visualize them in 2D/3D regardless of which floor we are on or which buildings the selected room(s) or asset(s) occur in.
The Glue, the Key Leg of the Stool
The glue, the ArcGIS platform, the key leg of the stool … now serves better than any other enterprise system that I have seen over the course of 25 years. It is THE INTEGRATION PLATFORM for other building information systems. I mean, why would it not be? ArcGIS is now a complete, seamless outdoor/indoor location-based decision support system that integrates with and extends powerful location-based analytics and visualization capabilities to the other legs of the stool. So, tell me about the other legs of the stool. The legs may vary but they typically include a master design repository that houses ones “as-built digital twins”, or more practically, one’s digital floor plan files (e.g., CAD and BIM files; and increasingly related reality capture datasets like 360 imagery) and one or more of an enterprise asset management (EAM) or maintenance management system and/or an integrated workplace management system (IWMS).
Alright then, I’m not here to evangelize. Rather, provide strategic technology planning food for thought. In fact, I started this blog in this manner to get to the bit I enjoy the most … extending thanks and compliments to the owner/operators that contribute to this blog. The folks in our community that have fully embraced the three legs of the stool paradigm utilizing ArcGIS as anchor technology. These champions and the institutions they serve benefit from the improved decision support apps and reduced cost of ownership (and risk) for the combined “legs of the stool” technologies. So, who are they?
Campus Operations Leaders, Thank You for Setting the Example
I think of folks like Kade Smith at Brigham Young University, Daniel Gessman at the University of South Florida, and Jeffrey Ulricksen at the University of Rhode Island. If you have not read their blogs in this forum, I’ve listed them here:
- Brigham Young University-Idaho: Optimizing Campus Space Planning and Asset Tracking with ArcGIS Indo...
- University of South Florida: A GIS Roadmap for Facilities Management
- University of Rhode Island: Deploying GIS Across Campus to Improve Public Safety
- University of Rhode Island: Managing Garden Inventory with GIS
I also think about leaders in the K-12 school district space like Carol Crutchfield at Beaufort County Schools in South Carolina. I’ve known some of these folks for well over ten years, and others like Jeffrey, I have met briefly and admired for their willingness to lead, and [IMO] make the right technology decisions for the future of their institutions.
Each of these folks is achieving improved facility operations, space planning, and/or safety/security while also providing ArcGIS-grounded system integrations that can scale and easily adapt to utilize the wide variety of “plug-in” data sources from sensor and monitoring equipment to building automation and access control systems. As such, these folks provide location intelligence and decision support tools (web and mobile) that serve a wide variety of end-users, which often includes the COO, facility operations supervisor, risk/emergency manager, trades teams, space planners, engineering, capital projects manager as well as contractors and school visitors.
And the brilliance of all this is the application, the extension (and seamless connection) to those systems managing outdoor assets like utilities, roads/sidewalks, grounds/gardens, etc … The folks mentioned above understand that it’s all about “the glue”. Being grounded in location, they understand that their investment in ArcGIS as the integration platform allows real-world analysis of outdoor-indoor problems like “show me valves or end points inside the building that are impacted from a service disruption from an outdoor utility, i.e., show me the dependencies” (e.g. a break in a water line or gas line). Or other unplanned event maintenance and emergency management analyses focused on finding the best path or route for first responders – analyses and resulting 2D/3D visualization of the solution traversing outdoor-indoor environments.
The folks I mentioned above could be called visionaries and pioneers. More practically, I’d submit that they are enterprise technology professionals utilizing systems that best set up their institutions for success (and achieving the aforementioned value), and professionals that understand these systems must also include helpful tools and training options for day-to-day end-users as well as system management, maintenance, and administration. They also understand the importance of having access to a healthy work force supported by a mature, thriving professional community that gains its early skills at university and/or on-the-job. I’d argue the GIS community is likely one of the best in the U.S. and globally for that matter.
In summary, it’s all about “the glue”! ArcGIS is perhaps the best enterprise technology integration platform for building and facility information – the three legs of the stool. Embracing this paradigm helps campus operations leaders achieve measurable value for their institutions. The apps/tools they provide directly assist find it/ fix it faster, improved preventative maintenance and capital planning, increased staff productivity, and the ability to keep people healthy and safe. Stay dialed into the Campus Operations blog and utilize the professionals and Esri partners highlighting new tools and the benefits of using ArcGIS for managing your campus facilities. We are all here to help.
More About the Author and Langan Digital Solutions
Langan Digital Solutions is an Esri Gold Partner with the Indoor GIS Specialty. Associate and senior consultant, John Young, spent 17 years of his career at Esri where he helped start the GIS for real property and facility management practice. He was also instrumental in building the core of what is today’s Indoor GIS. John has devoted his career to building technology and community focused on the application of GIS to improve the planning, operations and safety/security of building facilities. See Langan’s Esri Partner profile here.
Reach out to John directly to learn more or simply have a chat about your goals for indoor and facilities GIS at jyoung@langan.com or 980-425-1695.
