The integrated approach of Trimble’s new Municipal Reporter takes their leading GPS-enabled handheld devices and marries it with a field-based solution for reporting standard maintenance issues and a web services back end for reporting with an aggregate dashboard for decision makers. The tool provides a quick and easy means to record the location of issues such as potholes, graffiti, illegal dumping, toxic spills, etc., with a means to also match a photo and sketch to the field report.
Field workers can send their reports in wirelessly, or can work in a disconnected mode where connectivity is an issue. The reports go directly into the hosted aggregate Municipal Reporter Web service where field work can be assigned and workers can be tracked and located. The real-time view of workers in the field helps ensure optimal field operations, reducing costs and improving citizen satisfaction.
This scalable and low-cost system for field reporting is meant to be a standalone adjunct to other systems such as GIS, but with no need to install or maintain any software. The web services approach is appealing for this market, given the low cost and flexibility.
Given the maturation of the GPS handheld market, similar integrated solutions like this can be expected from other vendors. The barriers between hardware and software vendors have been breaking down for years, but this solution and others on display at Trimble Dimensions this week, seem to foretell greater capabilities for users and more friction between vendors in the year to come.
