Technology as a Service

The relationship of surveyors and civil engineers to the GIS market is critically important. Civil engineers design infrastructure while surveyors collect and deliver highly accurate geospatial data and provide a strong foundation for industry and government to build upon. But are we seeing a transfer of technology roles withing the industry? Absolutely. As budgets grow tighter, more civil engineering, land surveying, and geospatial firms are beginning to offer technology as a service. And simply stated, no one is in a better position to do so.

Think about the overhead required to keep systems in multi-disciplinary firms functioning. Not only are firms required to employ top-notch licensed professionals to design and build our environment, but they also require top-notch IT professionals to keep the backend running. But in terms of production, IT teams and IT systems have historically been viewed on the books as overhead. When it’s time to cut back on a workforce in a tight economy, those professionals will be the first to receive pink slips. Unless…

Follow me: Let’s say I’m the owner of a small to mid-size firm, I’m concerned about the economy, and I’ve got an IT guy or gal I’d hate to lose, but I can no longer afford – unless I can make him or her profitable. Your clients need engineering, land surveying, and geospatial services. But at the end of the day under the traditional model, the deliverables just seem to disappear in flat files as time moves on and projects are completed. But what if the savvy IT staff found cost effective ways to store and serve up the data from their own garage so to speak?

When projects near completion, facilities management kicks in, and not a firm on the planet is in a better position to store, manage, and serve up the data than the firms who originally created it. And almost overnight, the management of the data becomes a service. As storing, protecting, an managing data for clients becomes a more complex task, you’ll be forced to upgrade your IT staff, and a verifiable production team is born.

As an example: Complete a topography analysis for 1000 acres of land currently being studied for development. If part of the “solution” were to include incorporation into a GIS, however broadly that’s defined, no one would be in a better position to host the data and serve it up as a service than you. And because the data isn’t changing hands, costs to the client can be kept at a minimum – a mutually beneficial relationship is born. More complex data requires more savvy IT staff, but make no mistake, they’re still your staff; except now they pay for themselves in terms of not only the intangible services they provide you, but the absolutely tangible services they provide your clients.

Still don’t think you need a “CAD Manager?” Might be a good time to re-think your position. Civil engineering, land surveying, and geospatial studies require the accumulation of data. With regulations like GASB34 and SarbOx in place, someone has to attest to the validity of the data and sign off that it is indeed accurate. No one is in a better position to do so than those who initially complete the studies. The management of the data can be overseen by the one guy or gal in the office that understands your systems as well as your most expensive design tools – the traditional CAD Manager. As the need for an IT staff grows, so can your business. Hire the right people, and you’ll build a staff savvy enough with hardware, software, and data management, that you might be in a position to build your own internal training team as well.

I got an e-mail last week from one of the largest construction firms in the world, certainly the largest in central Texas. They weren’t interested in my services for training. They needed a consultant to test a new terrain modeling package they’re developing as part of their internal BIM solution. Think about it: A Civil Engineering, Land Surveying, GIS, Architectual Design and Construction firm that offers technology as a service and has a powerful technology staff that writes their own software. Be afraid.

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