Customer Spotlight - Scott County, Iowa

Meet Ray Weiser (left) and Sunny Shang (right) of the Scott County, Iowa GIS Department!

Meet Ray Weiser (left) and Sunny Shang (right) of the Scott County, Iowa GIS Department!

Ray has been with Scott County longer than he can remember, but not long enough to retire. Before that he worked at Shive-Hattery and Bi-State Regional Planning Commission just across the river. Sunny has been with the County for just over 3 years. Prior to that, she completed her masters degree in Geography at the University of Iowa. 

Ray manages all aspects of the county GIS, and Sunny provides backup while also focusing on department support and web programming. The County has two ArcGIS server installations and a multi-versioned parcel database that replicates weekly into a publishing geodatabase. They support innumerable public users of the GIS websites which pull layers and data from both ArcGIS Online and an ArcGIS Server instance on Amazon Web Services. Sunny recently built a web-based Integrated Roadside Vegetation Management (IRVM) application which tracks native and invasive species along County roads. The two help the Conservation Department maintain maps & layers of the county’s recreation areas, assist the Health Department to determine at-risk parcels for lead contamination, guide County Assessors to recent permit locations, delineate watersheds and erosion in County ditches for the secondary roads department, and support emergency first responders & computer aided dispatch operations for the Scott Emergency Communications Center. 

Here you can see some of the maps that Ray and Sunny have compiled for Scott County.

Here you can see some of the maps that Ray and Sunny have compiled for Scott County.

Since Ray and Sunny are the only two full-time GIS personnel in the IT department, they are constantly using the technology to solve problems for other County departments. The best method of isolating issues for County departments is a simple conversation with County staff. A recent Check-Up from Cloudpoint has helped analyze these relationships and created an opportunity for additional outreach and support actions. 

The technology is always changing and updating. Ray and Sunny are involved in several regional GIS user groups and have attended large Esri conferences in the past. It’s difficult keeping up with all of the templates, data models and applications available from Esri but, with some help, this dynamic duo is looking forward to a bright future of GIS with Scott County leading the Quad-City region in GIS and the geospatial field!

Thanks for sharing your experience Ray and Sunny, and thanks for allowing Cloudpoint to assist Scott County in reaching its goals!

Adventures in Iowa: Spreading the word about Cloudpoint!

One great thing about working at Cloudpoint is the wide variety of clients we have and the array of projects and services that we provide. Although we're pretty well known in Illinois and Wisconsin, some of our other Midwest brethren are less familiar with the company. This past Wednesday, Cloudpoint's Joe Christian started to change all that by hitting the rural roads of Western Illinois and Eastern Iowa to spread the good word about GIS and Cloudpoint.

Veteran's Memorial at Riverview Park overlooking the frozen Mississippi River in Ft. Madison, Iowa.

Veteran's Memorial at Riverview Park overlooking the frozen Mississippi River in Ft. Madison, Iowa.

With stops in Knoxville, IL; Galesburg, IL; Monmouth, IL; Burlington, IA; Ft. Madison, IA; Keokuk, IA; Hamilton, IL; Carthage, IL; Macomb, IL; and Bushnell, IL, Joe covered over 300 miles and met a variety of professionals including: Public Works Directors, Public Works staff, GIS Coordinators, Cemetery Sextons, County Engineers, and County Highway Departments. Whether he was talking about our SignOps sign inventory program, or he was talking about overhauling existing utility infrastructure maps, Joe was able to connect and impart the importance of updating maps with GIS with everyone he met.

Would you like to learn more about all of the services and solutions that Cloudpoint can provide? If so, please follow the link below to signup for our Technical Blog and Quarterly Newsletter below.

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Where. IT MATTERS

Bloomington's sewer database gets overhauled!

The City of Bloomington, IL has contracted Cloudpoint Geographics to assist in updating their sewer network data. This project includes migrating their sewer network data into Esri's Local Government Information Model, creating features for missing assets, assigning new feature ID’s, and improving workflows for 3rd party software integration within their GIS environment.

The City of Bloomington, IL continues to improve upon their already robust GIS. This time by contracting Cloudpoint Geographics to overhaul their sewer database.

The City of Bloomington, IL continues to improve upon their already robust GIS. This time by contracting Cloudpoint Geographics to overhaul their sewer database.

Once the database has been quality checked, Bloomington will have a much better view of their features in the real world. This will help with planning future work, improving efficiency, and speeding up work in the field. 

To learn more about our GIS database management, contact us at 877-377-8124.

Where. IT MATTERS

Cloudpoint Year in Review

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This has been quite the eventful year at Cloudpoint Geographics. We've been fortunate enough to have completed several projects ranging from a SignOps sign inventory for Macon County, IL, to flying a proposed drag racing strip south of Eau Claire, WI. We also said farewell to our friend and colleague Paul Stephenson as he headed west to Nevada. All in all, it was a great year full of great successes. We've put together the gallery of pictures below as a recap of the great events that we attended, and the projects that we completed in 2017. We can't wait to see what 2018 has in store, and we look forward to bringing more great GIS solutions to the masses! 

Happy New Year from the Cloudpoint team!

Where. IT MATTERS

Up, Up, and Away! Another Cloudpoint Team Member Earns His Wings!

Cloudpoint would like to congratulate team member Tyler Severson on passing his FAA UAV Drone Pilot exam!

Cloudpoint would like to congratulate team member Tyler Severson on passing his FAA UAV Drone Pilot exam!

Tyler (Ty) Severson has been an important member of the Cloudpoint team for a little over 2 years. He works on a wide variety of projects including culvert inventories, sign inventories, parcel mapping, and more. Well now you can add being a UAV pilot to the list. Yesterday Ty passed his Federal Aviation Association UAV pilot exam, which will allow him to complete flights for upcoming projects. Ty has been studying hard for the exam as he continues his education at Illinois Central College, and we are very proud to see his hard work pay off. With the addition of another pilot, Cloudpoint has once again positioned itself as the best choice for geospatial services!

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This is in-fact on a different day, he just really-really likes that flannel shirt!

This is in-fact on a different day, he just really-really likes that flannel shirt!

Way to Go Tyler!!!

Want to learn more about Cloudpoint Aerial Services? Give us a call at 877-377-8124 or visit www.cloudpointgeo.com/drones

Where. It Matters

It's Conference Season!

As the Summer projects start to slow down, Cloudpoint's conference season is heating up. In the past month our team has been to the Illinois GIS Association (ILGISA) conference in Normal, IL; the Illinois Association of County Engineers (IACE) conference in Moline, IL; the Traffic and Engineering Safety (TES) conference in Champaign, IL; and the Esri Wisconsin User Group (EWUG) conference at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, WI. Next week Jonathan and Joe will be attending the Illinois Public Safety Telecommunications Association conference in Springfield, IL, and in two weeks they'll be at the Illinois Association of County Officials conference in Peoria, IL. Needless to say, we've been busy, but what value are we bringing the masses at all these conferences?

The value of GIS, that's what! As an Esri business partner with specialty designations in ArcGIS Online and Local Government, we cover a wide range of professionals with our services and solutions. That means we discuss our parcel mapping, inventorying assets, survey grade GPS data collection, drone mapping capabilities, and much more. One of our favorite aspects of work here at Cloudpoint is talking with real people about how they can get more accomplished with our solutions. Please enjoy the collection of pictures above from the conferences so far, and don't hesitate to reach out to us if we can ever assist your organization in completing its goals.  You can learn more at www.cloudpointgeo.com or call 877-377-8124.

Cloudpoint Geographics

Where. It Matters

GeoConX In Chicago

Esri has their mammoth User's Conference every year in San Diego. See Joe's review of that. In an attempt to accommodate specific industries, they also hosts a few much smaller events across the country throughout the year. 

This year the gas, electric & telecom conference, named GeoConX (pronounced geo-connects) was hosted in Chicago. With our client base and perfectly aligned conference in our backyard. both Micah and Paul attended. 

Here are some highlights: 


We were happy to attend at the behalf of our gas, electric and telecommunication clients. There is much to look forward to in the upcoming technology. Notably an entirely new Utility Networking system built to last,  Attribute Validation Rules, Survey123 working with Collector & Workforce, ArcGIS Enterprise Builder, Web-based Dashboards, Hexagon Bins ... Well lets just say it was all notable. 

Ask us more!

Worried about crop health? Cloudpoint Aerial Services has you covered!

Cloudpoint Aerial Services is excited to introduce new imagery capabilities! We've recently added a drone to our growing fleet, but what makes this drone special is the camera that it carries. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a way to collect data regarding plant health and live vegetation by calculating the amount of visible and near-infrared light that is reflected off of a each plant. By doing this, we can now show which plants are healthier than others. I could explain it all day, but it's probably easier to just show you some imagery.

Here you can see an example of NDVI imagery. Although you can adjust the colors to your liking, healthier plants show up as various shades of green, and the red hues reflect plants that are struggling.

Here you can see an example of NDVI imagery. Although you can adjust the colors to your liking, healthier plants show up as various shades of green, and the red hues reflect plants that are struggling.

With this new feature, we have expanded the geospatial services that we offer. We already have GIS solutions for agriculture land assessment, and now we can help farmers increase their yields with the NDVI. Are you a farmer who's looking to take your crop management to the next level? Contact us today at 877-377-8124 or cloudpointgeo.com/drones to learn more.

Also, a special thanks to Mike & Eric Hoeft and Stewart Family Farms who were kind enough to let us fly their test plots.

Is your Address Data ready for NG9-1-1?

Do you know the quality of your address data in your GIS?  Did you also know that the accuracy of this data is of critical importance for the future of NG9-1-1?  As an Esri business partner, Cloudpoint Geographics understands the value of ArcGIS Solutions for Local Government, including address data management, and has been implementing these solutions for several years.  Our professional staff has the ability to review the quality of your road centerline address ranges, as well as a review of your road names in accordance with standards from the USPS to provide you with a rating score on the quality of your data.  In addition they will make recommended updates and provide a cost estimate associated with such updates.  The following are just a few solutions powered by Esri's Local Government that the Cloudpoint team can implement for you:

Data Reviewer for Addresses

Address Data Management

Address Crowdsourcing

Address Field Verification

Community Addresses

 
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Our local government experience in building GIS solutions on the Esri platform helps us offer value-added services to agencies needing a professional solution in a timely manner.  Don't wait for Next Generation 9-1-1 to come to you, make the effort to be prepared.  For more information on pricing contact us at 877-377-8124 or submit below.

Cloudpoint becomes official aerial service provider on DRONERS.IO

Cloudpoint Geographics excited to announce its official approval and receipt of pilot's badge from Droners.io, an online collection of drone service providers where customers and drone pilots can connect on projects.  

"As a professional service provider its not only important to know what we do well, but also to know what we don't do.  Droners.io provides us the opportunity to specify which drone services categories that we offer creating the best possible client-vendor match", says Jonathan Hodel, founder & CEO of Cloudpoint.  For Cloudpoint Aerial Services we currently limit our drone services for locations in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Kentucky for the following categories:

  • Surveying & Mapping
  • Agriculture
  • Construction
  • Infrastructure
  • Roof Inspection

Using droners.io customers can easily create an account, post a job to the job board, and get quotes immediately.  Of course we also offer our customers to contact us directly for an immediate quote through our contact page, however droners provides another networking opportunity for people to reach out to us when they need professional drone mapping services.  With two (2) professional certified pilots on staff and growing, Cloudpoint Geographics is a fully insured mapping and geospatial service provider and able to deliver short turn-around times for drone imagery and topographic mapping projects.  Our recent entry into the Agriculture market is allowing us to offer value-added services to growers and researchers in a timely fashion.  For more information contact us at 877-377-8124 or visit our site.