Tech Focus: Data Collection

“Time is money” is an aphorism often heard in business settings that dates back to the early 1700s – and still rings true today. Langan understands the importance of time – both for our clients and our projects – and has analyzed how we can develop and leverage digital solutions that reduce the time spent on labor-intensive field tasks and increase cost savings for our clients.

To develop these solutions, we examined the environmental data life cycle to distinguish where the addition of new technology would have the biggest impact. It was quickly apparent that the amount of time spent capturing data in the field led to time and cost implications associated with the efforts to transcribe, validate, analyze, and report this information.

Drawing upon field experience, institutional knowledge, and firm-wide resources, our GIS team developed mobile solutions to help streamline all stages of the data life cycle. With successful implementation of these solutions, saving time – and money – is just a few steps away:

1. Field staff is equipped with dedicated tablets, encouraging consistent electronic data collection across projects
2. An internal Mobile Application Hub acts as a one-stop shop for all apps and streamlines the workflow associated with environmental field activities such as due diligence, sampling, inspection, operations, and maintenance
3. As data is collected using these apps, that information is validated and shared with project stakeholders in real-time through automatic notifications and web dashboards, providing transparency
4. That data is then easily shared with third party apps focused on managing and visualizing the data, resulting in an agile software system that produces results in a timely and effective manner

It is no secret that time is money, especially in business. When looking for efficient, cost-effective ways to move your projects forward, look to professionals who collect quality data by leveraging innovative, integrated digital solutions.