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Big News From Esri

The annual Esri Users Conference (UC) took place this year in San Diego July 8-12, and is the largest Geographic Information Systems (GIS) conference in the world.  And Xentity’s client, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), was one of 179 organizations recognized to receive ESRI’s Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award.

A Well Deserved Award

Founded in 1969, Esri is one of the global market leaders of GIS software solutions. The SAG Award is presented to organizations from around the world.  The intent being to show appreciation for their use of spatial technology to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. Out of over 100,000 nominations received worldwide, Esri presents it to but a handful of organizations. The award is presented in recognition of their innovative use of GIS to collect data, extrapolate it, make informed decisions, and effect change.

CDOT received their SAG award in recognition of their implementation of their Esri System of Engagement (SoE). In the 21st century, US Departments of Transportation (DOTs) have been operating in an increasingly growing & complex data landscape. Advanced technologies are changing the way data is accessed, utilized, & analyzed. The ESRI SoE is driving change & innovation in the DOT space, supporting the goal of integrating business needs with technology.  Hence at CDOT, the goals of the SoE are aligned with the mission & strategic objectives of the CDOT Chief Data Office (CDO) to create an end state that: 

  • Advances data discovery, access, analytics & utilization. 
  • Facilitates reusable & repeatable exchange of data between systems.
  • Fosters interoperability; breaking down data silos.
  • Inspires innovation, creative & cooperative problem solving.
  • Maximizes business insight & data driven decisions. 

How CDOT Did It

Working across all CDOT divisions & regions, the SoE is expanding the use of data & geo-spatial tools across the agency, and integrating data from siloed systems to create purpose-built applications used by the entire organization. The transportation network facilitates the movement of people and goods, and impacts sustainability, safety, economic vitality, environment, mobility, and more. And most significantly, it utilizes the common language of location which inextricably links the network, communities, and us all.

Take for example the smartphone and our 240 character society where information is on 24/7 demand. The delivery of information is no longer a passive event, and the community at large has become active participants. CDOT recognizes that the abundance of data, and the explosive amount of related content generated daily. They also demand new ways to use location intelligence to turn data into actionable knowledge. Also, to inspire new, creative, and cooperative problem solving.

Hence, location intelligence is integral to a holistic understanding of the transportation network. Safety, congestion, mobility, & infrastructure are key performance objectives of CDOT. Utilizing location data, the SoE targeted apps are enhancing operations for field mobility, situational awareness, data management, & more.

For example, a Traffic Operations Dashboard combines diverse data sources: real-time traffic, weather, road conditions, alerts, etc. onto a single interface.

An Asset Condition & Inventory App provides, for the first time, a single view of conditions of various roadway assets. An interactive Statewide Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) viewer allows users to explore project funding & related information. An unprecedented number in Colorado in 2019, an Avalanche Dashboard provides key personnel metrics & an integrated view of snow events, snowfall, road closures, avalanche mitigation activity, time frames & locations.

A Night Inspection App eliminates paper & digitally collects data on the reflectivity of signs and roadway markings. 

The Outcome of it All

At Xentity, we can strongly believe in the importance of Data Quality, Utilization, Access, Analysis, Discovery,as does CDOT. Aligned with the roadmap of the CDOT CDO, the SoE also enriches raw content with context to provide the diverse community of users with the greatest possible understanding of data maximizing quality, utilization, access, analysis & discovery. Context is critical to inform decisions and analyses based upon the data.

Enhancing context, location data helps inform us of our surroundings with unprecedented accuracy. The SoE targeted, fit for purpose apps – dashboards, viewers, collectors are allowing for the direct interaction with data in new, dynamic & engaging ways. Also, the variety of apps are capturing data from the field and/or ingesting data from disparate data silos – synthesizing and standardizing it. Furthermore, the apps are helping identify trends, distilling increasing amounts of information, enhancing workflows, and transforming raw data into actionable insight. The SoE is providing CDOT with new resources to optimize operations and data quality.

How Did Xentity Help?

Xentity can not only help provide an understanding of those five important pieces to the proverbial puzzle. We are also proud to have not only attended this year’s ESRI. Furthermore, we came away with so much new knowledge. And to have also worked with CDOT in past projects. Helping provide context to better understand data maximizing quality, utilization, access, analysis and discovery is something both CDOT and Xentity take pride in, especially in this data-driven age. So congratulations to CDOT for a well-deserved award for their efforts with SoE. Also, we at Xentity look forward to what SoE will accomplish next, along with whatever will be the main topics of conversation at next year’s ESRI conference.