Wireless field access to view and update corporate mapping and asset data.

IntelliWhere, a division of Intergraph Mapping and GIS Solutions of Huntsville, Ala., announced IntelliWhere OnDemand, a new vector-based mapping software product for personal digital assistants (PDAs). IntelliWhere OnDemand is an off-the-shelf solution that is ideal for organizations employing mobile workforces in government, transportation, utilities and the military. With this new PDA software solution, a location-enabled mobile workforce benefits from wireless field access to data such as intelligent maps, diagrams, and asset information by connecting to a corporate geographic information system (GIS).

A crucial advantage of IntelliWhere OnDemand is its data independence and support for open industry standards. Enterprises with multiple GIS data formats can use IntelliWhere OnDemand for publishing to hand-held devices and accepting updates from the field without the significant time and costs associated with data translation. IntelliWhere OnDemand will begin shipping in April.

Meeting the demands of the mobile workforce IntelliWhere OnDemand delivers fast performance and user-friendly features to meet the field demands of a mobile workforce. To ensure optimal speed, highly compact file formats are used without sacrificing the performance benefits of advanced spatial indexing. The interface is very simple for field workers to use, requiring no prior GIS knowledge and only minimal training. With a few simple clicks, the field worker can zoom in and out, run basic searches and queries, redline, call up details of an asset, capture GPS positions, capture other critical data, and edit attributes for uploading.

IntelliWhere OnDemand includes key capabilities.

Work in occasionally connected mode. IntelliWhere OnDemand allows field workers to work in an occasionally connected mode. They can extract data from the GIS, view it, and work in disconnected mode, and then synchronize updates back to the corporate system using a cradle or wireless connection.

Use many GIS and CAD data formats. IntelliWhere OnDemand is data format independent, which enables the use of many standard GIS and CAD data formats. The software's adherence to industry and IT standards supports IntelliWhere's commitment to the Open GIS Consortium's Open Location Services (OpenLS) initiative.

Support for PocketPC and Windows CE operating systems. IntelliWhere OnDemand can be used with most devices that run PocketPC and Windows CE operating systems, giving customers a choice in hardware selection.

Retain characteristics of source data. IntelliWhere OnDemand comes with a gateway for GeoMedia that allows GeoMedia to act as a complete, interactive visual authoring environment for data to be transferred to a PDA. This advanced system even preserves many behavioral characteristics of the data, enabling IntelliWhere OnDemand to maintain many of the characteristics of the source data. Data captured and edited in the field can be uploaded back to the GIS as part of an update workflow.

Customized application support
Although IntelliWhere OnDemand can be deployed as an off-the-shelf product, it is also very easy to create customized applications to integrate the software into enterprise workflows. Forms and workflows, such as inspection or installation reports, can be created using embedded Microsoft Visual Basic or Visual C++ to allow field workers to enter and update data. This can result in significant improvements to workflows and data accuracy because information is entered only once - at the source.