Multiteam geospatial enablement
Digital transformation for public transport
Metro Trains is Melbourne’s metropolitan rail service operating across 15 lines, 222 stations and transporting around 450,000 commuters daily.
In 2018, Metro Trains engaged NGIS to perform a strategic review of their current capabilities in geospatial information systems (GIS) and building information modelling (BIM) with a view to producing a roadmap for their future development.
A key driver for Metro Trains and the aim of the strategic review was to stay at the forefront of technology change and to ensure alignment with current and future government and industry policies, particularly in Digital Engineering.
Digital Engineering has been a key focus area for the Victorian Government given the potential to minimise costs associated with the design, building, operating and maintenance of public infrastructure rail networks.
Identifying digital requirements
Metro Trains identified that parts of the organisation were using unsupported mapping technologies with the potential to introduce road blocks and reduce operational efficiency.
With a range of highly skilled teams using non-corporate mapping platforms, there was a perceived risk that teams may be using replicated, conflicted or fragmented datasets.
NGIS conducted a review for Metro Trains and provided recommendations to achieve a centralised GIS, BIM and ERP platform that can be managed within one corporate environment.
NGIS used the review to build a roadmap that focused on an improved GIS capability within Metro Trains, in support of their asset management systems in the future.
A centralised approach
Through gathering user requirements and assessing the tools available within the market, NGIS created a broad implementation roadmap based on gaps in Metro Train’s existing capabilities and the maturity of their existing GIS toolset.
NGIS worked together with Metro Trains by engaging with several user groups and gaining management support to confirm an approach using appropriate information communication strategies.
Each step in the strategy focused on important data governance and industry policies around accessibility, standards and the integration of new technologies.
NGIS aimed to promote the GIS and BIM capability within metro trains Melbourne and provide a pragmatic roadmap for future development during the strategic review.”
Oliver Looker, NGIS.
Paving the way for a unified GIS system
Metro Trains are increasing their capacity to address issues and to support decision making using a geospatial context that may not have been available previously.
A unified GIS, BIM and ERP platform will provide different business units across the company with access to centralised data using readily available tools to support their everyday activities.
NGIS was selected by the Research Service as its preferred partner through a request for proposal (RFP) process. A leading technology partner, NGIS helped the Research Service build a customised solution for their specific requirements using CARTO.
To provide MPs with data that is both useful and timely was the most important requirement of the map. The idea wasn’t simple, with variation and customisation a consistent challenge, the Research Service knew it needed a tailored and user-friendly solution.
NGIS’ Senior Software Engineer, Clinton Kimsing was able to deliver the Research Service a bespoke solution to make the data more accessible. After discussions with Daniel about the Research Service’s project requirements, Clinton created a template that would enable rapid production and deployment of maps in a matter of weeks. Furthermore, he trained Research Service staff on how to work with the different components of the template; ensuring elements like the legend and layers could be fit for purpose.
NGIS provided simple, user-friendly features for the solution, allowing employees to build by requirement and create maps that are accessible for consumption by MPs and the NSW public. Other capabilities included: custom search data, custom filters, customised legends, multiple layers and layer popups, social media links and configurable text descriptions.
Improved efficiency and accessibility
The map template is firmly embedded within operations at the Research Service, enabling employees to publish new and insightful data regularly. Recently, it published a map that illustrates the number of people receiving Youth Allowance and JobSeeker payments across NSW by State electorate.
Of the solution, Daniel reported that he was pleased to have a customisable template on hand for rolling out data in a timely fashion. In the future, the Research Service plans to use the template to publish a number of datasets on current political issues for public consumption.
We wanted to be able to build a map that made it easy for the user… I think it’s hit a sweet spot, so to speak, in terms of looking really professional while also meeting our time and technical capability restrictions.”
– Daniel Montoya, NSW Parliamentary Research Service.
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Improving the online retail user experience
Maps improve the online shopping experience
Data Runs Deep is a Google Marketing Platform and Google Cloud Platform Partner servicing industries including retail, headquartered out of Melbourne, with offices in Sydney and Hobart. Data Runs Deep assists its clients with the structure and implementation of Google Analytics in their business – most importantly, giving companies the ability to quickly churn through large amounts of customer behaviour data in order to make fast business decisions.
Through the optimisation of Google Analytics capabilities, Data Runs Deep’s clients can focus their efforts on the acquisition, retention and conversion of their customers based on their behaviour during an online shopping experience.
Google Maps complements online shopping through easy-to-navigate store locators and visualising the nearest store to a users house for click and collect orders. Moreover, the Google Maps Places Autocomplete functionality saves user time inputting their home address during the checkout process and reduces human error by validating their addresses for deliveries. To the average shopper, this may only seem like a few seconds saved – but to retailers, three in four customers abandon their shopping carts and long check out processes can cost retail businesses thousands of dollars every year.
Data Runs Deep noticed the influence of Google Maps in shaping the retail user experience and engaged Liveli with a view to add value for their clients.
Two Google partners join forces
Google Cloud Partners have different specialisations for the many Google products available. Data Runs Deep initially engaged Liveli, a longstanding Google Maps Premier Partner, to assist one of their customers in operating their store locators and address lookups at scale, while also working to ensure that new project owners were able to closely monitor their company Maps usage going forward.
The collaboration between Data Runs Deep, their client and Liveli saw store locators and address lookups setup for scale. In addition to this, the client was able to access Liveli’s advantageous partner volume discounts to significantly reduce their average monthly spend.
As more clients came forward with similar issues to their first client, Data Runs Deep and Liveli formed a strong partnership, working together to optimise the retail user experience.
“Liveli made the process of moving under a google maps partner seamless. If you look at google cloud’s offerings, there are over 200 products – no partner can possibly cover them all without becoming a ‘master of none’. So we seek to form partnerships with those who are experts in what we don’t do. We’re really excited to see what the future holds for Liveli and look forward to many years of collaborating together.”
Vinoaj Vijeyakumaar, Director of cloud services at Data Runs Deep.
Maximising Google maps value with optimisation workshops
One of Data Runs Deep’s clients contacted them in mid-2019 with a new challenge. They were experiencing volatile monthly usage and found it difficult to budget for their monthly Google Maps bill. Data Runs Deep recommended that their client undergo one of Liveli’s Google Maps optimisation sessions.
Liveli’s developers conducted the optimisation workshop in partnership with the client’s development team where they shared their knowledge on:
- How to set up and organise their project structure for monitoring purposes
- Review the cost benefit for the client associated with each API on their website
- Identify inefficiencies in how Google Maps was being used and make recommendations, with the aim to minimise the client’s monthly Google Maps bill.
A client-focused first approach
Through their partnership with Liveli, Data Runs Deep can now provide partner discounts on Google Maps pricing and offer additional optimisation sessions to help reduce their client’s monthly Maps bill.
Currently, several of Data Runs Deep’s clients are accessing Liveli’s Google Maps partner benefits and a wider range of support across both maps and cloud that wasn’t accessible under just one partner.
Data Runs Deep is looking to expand their partnership offering with help from Liveli. They are keen to look at the option of integrating more location context into their customer behaviour data to further improve the customer online shopping experience.
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