forestry commission - arcgis as a platform part 1

Moving 1000+ ArcGIS for Desktop Editor users to the Web

Morag Hawkins Forester Programme Manager

Tony FarndonTechnical Development Manager

IFOS

IFOS

Economic

IFOS

Economic

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Social

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Environmental

IFOS

Forester Desktop

Forester Desktop is a bespoke GIS software application

• Over 1200 desktop users

• Distributed architecture located in 16 Forest District offices across England and Scotland and 4 offices in Natural Resources Wales (NRW)

• Users edit and manage their own data using Forester

• Embeds business rules to ensure standard, consistent, accurate and timely data is collected and recorded

IFOS

Forester Desktop

Key Points

• Forester encompasses all of the FC business

• An intuitive solution allowing non-GI users to use GI

• 60%+ of all FC staff use this solution

• 85% of users see it as a critically important to their job

• We have delivered a truly enterprise GI system for the whole organisation

IFOS

Why move 1200 users to the web?

Business drivers for change

• We want a wider user base

• Our workforce is a mobile workforce

• We want a consistent view of GB data to the make best decision for the future of FC

• Future proof Infrastructure

IFOS

Key Principles

In developing a web editing application it was of paramount that the key principles of desktop editing were adhered to:

• Embedding rules to ensure standard, consistent, accurate data is collected and recorded across countries.

• Intuitive easy to use UI thereby enabling business users who own the data to manage the data.

IFOS

Forester Web Demo

Demo

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Efficiencies

• A truly flexible web application that is configurable by the FC without software development, thereby reducing future development costs.

• Available to all staff on the FC network with no requirement for specialist GIS desktop software, only a web browser, thereby significantly reducing support and infrastructure costs

• This enables staff to work at any location across the FC, thereby reducing travelling costs.

• Intuitive and easy to use, achieved by reducing complexity. No requirement for training.

• Potentially release cycles can be more frequent and deployed instantaneously across the FC. Change can be implemented at pace.

 • Ultimately reduce hardware, software, support and maintenance. 

Benefits

IFOS

Resilience

• Robust technology platform that will serve the FC well for the long term future business needs.

• Forester Web accommodates organisational change and through the provision of an application that can be easily configured, ported hosted, or provided as a service

Benefits