Continually Improving County GIS Functions

Escambia County!s GIS staff regularly collects, maps and analyzes field data for several applications -- now with GeoAge FAST, more data is collected in less time. For county officials, this means more confidence in decisions and better decision making overall. Using FAST on its
Dell PDAs, the GIS department has been continuously improving its performance due to FAST's ability to modify data collection parameters in near real time.

Situation
Escambia County, FL!s GIS office manages technical aspects relating to county-wide GIS and overall planning, management, and
completion of GIS projects and technical implementations. With a 650-square mile county comprising 300,000 citizens, the GIS office
has ongoing time-sensitive and data-sensitive responsibilities. The volume of remote work includes many steps handled manually for
functions such as post-disaster damage assessment, flood conditions, traffic signal inventory, hazardous materials location,
fire hydrant location and other GIS-related projects.

Application
Escambia County GIS deployed a FAST solution from GeoAge to add real-time data collection, assessment, reporting and mapping
components to their projects – speed and accuracy. With one day of FAST training, Escambia County teams were in the field collecting data. Their 10 Dell PDAs are available for staff needing to collect field data. FAST Designer!s ability to quickly generate forms for
specific uses means that staff can react much faster than before. It also enables data collection needs to continuously evolve and
improve, often within minutes.

Results
“Demands on our department to generate more GIS data has increased,” noted Charlie Gonzalez, GIS Manager. “FAST makes it
easy to collect data quicker. This means more layers, more data collected in less time.” FAST further enabled greater accuracy in the
GIS data. “Now we!re better able to compare conditions,” said Mr. Gonzalez. “This leads directly to better decision making, as well as
more confidence in the decisions. We!ve experienced time savings, accuracy improvements and higher quality service to our customers within Escambia County.” With their new data collection, data accuracy and rapid forms creation capability, Escambia County!s
flexible FAST solution has opened the door for continuous improvement in GIS.