The Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County, North Carolina, (MSDBC) was recently awarded a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) from Esri. External project management for this project was provided by True North’s David Speight while Chris Prater served as web developer and technical lead.

Being 5 years in the GIS web development business, True North was a prime choice for MSD due to their being an early adopter of the Flex API combined with their knowledge of utilities. ~MSDBC

The application provides provides real-time updates to aid in collaborative workflows.

“Due to the shifts towards collaboration, transparency of operations and data quality, MSD’s productivity in key areas has definitely improved,” said Kathryn Brewer, GISP. “Previously silo-oriented employees are coming together to discuss how data should flow between them and willingly changing processes to accommodate this new approach.”

Award information on Esri.com: www.esri.com
Previous article on this project: www.tngeo.com
Learn more about MSDBC: www.msdbc.org
Public-facing application: gis.msdbc.org/MSDExternal

May 2011

Immediately following a series of devastating tornado incidents across the Southeast and Midwestern United States, the True North team quickly provided damage assessment applications for county governments in two states. The Bradley and Hamilton County, Tennessee, applications as well as the Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, site assisted local governments in overall damage assessment by enabling residents to submit information.

By reporting not only the location of the damage but also the severity (on the four levels of Affected, Minor Damage, Major Damage, and Destroyed), county residents take an active role in disaster assessment and help to ensure an accurate, targeted, efficient response.

Citizens can locate their address and submit a damage location which is then submitted to county officials for verification.  The site shows both county and public reported locations.

The True North team quickly prepared a damage assessment website showing field-verified damage locations along with NOAA storm events. In a press release dated 15 June from the Office of the EMA Director, volunteer resources and some supplies are still needed, especially construction material. If you would like to help, you can go to the Bradley County website or visit the Cleveland-Bradley Community Action Network website.

For More Information

• Hamilton County, Tennessee information
• Wiki article regarding the April 25-28, 2011, tornado outbreak

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True North recently helped the Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County (MSDBC), North Carolina, to move to a server based application and positively change their day-to-day operations.

“Due to the shifts towards collaboration, transparency of operations and data quality, MSD’s productivity in key areas has definitely improved,” said Kathryn Brewer, GISP. “Previously silo-oriented employees are coming together to discuss how data should flow between them and willingly changing processes to accommodate this new approach.”

The application also provides real-time updates to aid in collaborative workflows.

“An amazing result to experience was the monitoring of a large wet weather event through our system using the real-time Flow Monitor graphs on the MSD Flex Viewer. The inundation could be watched by everyone using the Viewer as a spike moving through each of the monitors on its way to the Wastewater Reclamation Facility. Besides the ability to watch this information in real-time in a geospatial visual format, the resulting discussions were unique in that many more eyes and therefore perspectives were brought to the table to discuss issues and opportunities based on the event than ever were captured before.”

Update – December 2011

2011 SAG Award Winner - Metropolitan Sewerage District of Buncombe County, North Carolina

Read the full article

True North was recently a Gold Sponsor for a new charity event in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

Borodash, an organization that exists to raise money for two local charities, held its first race event on Thanksgiving Day. Over 1,600 people ran the 4-mile route through historic downtown.

Money raised from registrations and donations goes to Neema House, a Murfreesboro-based ministry that operates an orphanage in Tanzania, and Greenhouse Ministries, a ministry serving the under-served in Middle Tennessee with a variety of services designed to give clients and volunteers hope.

With implementation from True North, Jefferson-Cocke County Utility District (JCCUD) is taking advantage of Esri’s Small Utility Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) program to improve outage response and better meet regulatory requirements with the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology.

Mobile GIS technology as well as streamlined data collection give the Newport, Tennessee, utility district a less expensive and more reliable approach to maintenance and servicing outages among 7,300 homes in two counties.

Esri Energy Currents Newsletter Feature, Winter 2010/2011
Esri News Release, August 30, 2010

Esri and the Esri Logo are licensed trademarks of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.

True North was selected by the ESRI Regional Office in Charlotte as the 2010 Partner of the Year for the Southeast. The award was presented by Jack Dangermond during the recent 2010 Business Partner Conference in Palm Springs, CA.

“True North Geographic is a real testament to the fact that sheer size is not an indicator of the important role that an Esri business partner can perform within a strategic market. It focuses on creating solutions that help small to medium-sized organizations make the transition from desktop GIS to enterprise solutions. The overall client satisfaction has been the trademark characteristic that has catapulted True North to such an important role. Its willingness to work collaboratively and creatively with Esri sales staff has been instrumental in winning many joint sales opportunities including the displacement of competitive technologies. The positive attitude and progressive technology provided by the True North staff have played a significant role not only in selling solutions but also providing the community of users with timely service such as the rapid establishment of a recovery Web site following a devastating tornado. For all its service to Esri and the community in general, we proudly declare True North Geographic Technologies to be our Partner of the Year.” ~ Esri

True North is focused on creating solutions that help small- and medium-sized organizations make the transition from desktop GIS to enterprise solutions connected to key business systems. With a proven track record of GIS/IT projects that include integration of ArcGIS software and enterprise geodatabases with industry-specific applications, True North can provide the services and experience to help organizations bring enterprise technologies to the desktop as well as the field. In addition to desktop software and database services, True North’s staff is experienced with multiple Web development technologies and can offer strategies for quickly incorporating data from existing line-of-business applications to create custom applications, such as operations management portals and business performance dashboards, using the .NET, Flex, and JavaScript tools for ArcGIS Server.

ESRI Partner Awards | True North Partner Profile

Esri and the Esri Logo are licensed trademarks of Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc.

Consolidated Utility District was the first utility in the US to take advantage of the ESRI Small Utility Enterprise License Agreement (SU-ELA) and implemented one of the first ArcGIS Server applications built with the Flex API. True North provided application development services and system integration.

“The SU-ELA program really does make it affordable for smaller utilities to license the ArcGIS Server technology, and with the application development options that are made available, we can quickly build custom applications that incorporate information from multiple business systems,” said David Speight, president of [True North Geographic Technologies]. “Utilities can save money on the core software and also on consulting services that may be needed for implementation and integration.”

2010 SAG Award Winner: Consolidated Utility District

Using existing tablets and wireless data links, Consolidated Utility District contracted True North Geographic Technologies to develop a fast, efficient Web application that combined mapping, service orders from CIS, and AVL to provide a valuable tool to field staff.

Technology Implemented:
ArcGIS Server 9.3 • Flex API for ArcGIS Server
Adobe Flex Builder • Microsoft SQL Server 2005
Harris Northstar CIS • Radio Satellite Integrators AVL • Xplore Tablet PCs

Development Team:
Andy Koostra, GISP, Consolidated Utility District, Information Systems Manager
Charles Boston, Consolidated Utility District
David Speight, True North Geographic Technologies
Chris Prater GISP, True North Geographic Technologies

More Information

This project was featured in the April 2009 edition of Water & Wastes Digest.

Read the Water & Wastes Digest Article Online or PDF | Read More About SU-ELA

Immediately after an EF4-strength tornado struck Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on April 10, 2009, True North Geographic Technologies was in contact with Rutherford County Emergency Operations to provide assistance in disaster relief and damage assessment efforts.

True North provided Rutherford County with ArcGIS Server application development services. This public-facing viewer was built using the Flex API for ArcGIS Server and provided damage assessment updates, a precise damage path, damage visualization and other services for both private and public uses.

It was also featured on the cover of the Fall 2009 ArcUser magazine from ESRI.

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