Eliminating Redundancy in Asset Inspections
By Emery Poulsen and Tom DeWitte
Simplifying and optimizing the field user experience of completing an asset inspection seems to be a high priority on every utility’s to-do list. Many utilities will refer to this effort as a paper to digital transformation. With any transformation comes an opportunity to improve on the legacy method. So, what can be done to improve asset inspections?
Eliminating Redundancy
On every asset inspection is a set of questions about what asset is being inspected. These questions ask the utility mobile worker to enter information such as AssetID, size, and material. These are nuggets of data that the organization already knows. With legacy paper forms this information had to be manually entered by the utility mobile worker. With digital forms this information can be automatically passed from the asset record to the inspection record. The passing of this known information can be achieved with app linking, eliminating this type of redundant data entry.
What is App Linking?
App linking, sometimes called deep linking, is not an Esri-specific term, and you likely take advantage of app linking every day. This capability can be used in many different ways, but the general idea behind app linking is that it allows separate applications to communicate with each other. A common example – you have the Contacts app on your cell phone open, and you’re looking at a friend’s contact. When you click on the “call” button, app linking is the mechanism that then opens the Phone app and dials that phone number.
A more Esri-specific example – you're in Field Maps, and you’ve selected the asset that needs to be inspected. Within the pop-up for that asset, you click “Directions.” App linking is the mechanism that not only opens the navigational app of your choice, but also inserts the coordinates of that asset as the destination, without any copying or pasting from you.
How Can App -Linking Improve Asset Inspections?
App linking between ArcGIS Field Apps allows the field worker to view the asset in Field Maps that needs to be inspected, click on a special link that can be found in the pop-up associated with that asset, and open the Survey123 app directly from there. Not only this, but that specialized URL can open the correct survey (using the desired survey’s unique item ID) and pre-populate the survey with information about the asset from the asset record in Field Maps. All of these steps happen with the click of a button, creating a seamless experience for the field worker.
Benefits of Passing Asset Data
If your utility maintains unique IDs for all assets, and you have a lot of assets, those IDs can get long and complicated. Manually entering this ID is tedious and prone to error. It’s imperative, however, that the ID gets transferred into the survey correctly in order to associate that inspection record with the correct asset. App linking automatically enters this ID into the inspection form.
By using app linking between Field Maps and Survey123, you can take the human error out of the equation, saving the field worker time and energy while also ensuring that that information is accurate, the first time around.
The primary workflow I’d like to highlight is app linking between Field Maps and Survey123 to optimize a valve inspection workflow. This workflow is just one example of how app linking between ArcGIS Field Apps can help to maximize efficiency and minimize human error.
The workflow is designed so that the field worker views the asset in Field Maps and clicks on a link embedded in the pop-up. That link then opens Survey123, creates a new survey record, and pre-populates the asset’s attribute information into the appropriate places within the new survey record.
This saves the field user from having to copy over all of the information from the asset record into the asset inspection record, in turn saving the utility mobile worker time, energy, and potential frustration. This app linked integration eliminates mistakes and typos that can be made with paper forms.
How Does App Linking Work?
App linking works by using a specialized URL (called URL schema or URL parameters) to open an external app and communicate information. When utilizing app linking in Field Maps, this specialized link is constructed as an attribute expression in a web map...
... and then that attribute expression is put into the pop-up via a text element in order for the end user to access it.
Within that text element, the attribute expression is inserted as a hyperlink. The attribute expression represents the specialized link to the desired survey, as well as the instructions directing the pre-population of information from the asset’s fields into the appropriate questions in the asset inspection survey. From the end user’s perspective, they are simply clicking on a link; this creates a seamless experience for the field worker and increases the likelihood that correct information is entered the first time around.
How Else Can App Linking be Used?
The field apps that can launch or be launched using app linking include ArcGIS Survey123, ArcGIS QuickCapture, ArcGIS Field Maps, ArcGIS Workforce, and ArcGIS Navigator. The workflows that are possible are only limited by your imagination and creativity.
For example, in addition to creating new survey records in Survey123 from Field Maps, the field worker could start in Field Maps and open up an existing survey, make any necessary edits, and submit like normal, rather than digging through hundreds of survey records to try and find the correct one to make edits to.
Another use case for app linking would be creating specialized links for field crew to directly open their routes for the day in ArcGIS Navigator, as shown below.
A Workforce Launchpad is another potential use case; the field crew could open ArcGIS Workforce first, and from there launch Survey123, Navigator, and Field Maps. The possibilities are truly endless.
It’s About the End User
By utilizing app linking, we allow the utility mobile worker to complete asset inspections in a way that saves them time and effort. This also eliminates data redundancy and improves data quality. This connectivity between apps, creates a way to pass those already-known nuggets of data from the asset record to the inspection record.
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