epochfield Archives | Epoch Solutions Group

Streamlining Utility Infrastructure: The Rise and Importance of Digital As-Built Systems

Posted on October 29, 2024November 6, 2024 by Ciara Tobin

The digital transformation of the utility industry is progressing rapidly, driven by escalating energy demand and the need to modernize the grid for greater capacity, reliability, and resilience. This evolution is touching every aspect of a utility’s organization, including field operations.

As utilities strive to provide field crews with accurate, real-time data about assets and infrastructure, digital as-built solutions are becoming a vital component of their technology ecosystems. And solutions like the EpochField map-first workforce management platform are leading the way in delivering the digital as-built capabilities that premier utilities need to thrive.

What’s Driving the Need for Digital As-Built Solutions?

A utility’s as-built environment can differ significantly from the design documents as changes occur during and after construction. Utilities traditionally attempted to update as-built records manually—continually redlining paper-based construction packets and distributing new versions. Even after investing in geospatial information systems (GIS), many utilities have continued to use a manual workflow that creates mapping backlogs and stretches already-thin staffs. It’s a slow, laborious, inefficient process that inevitably yields inaccurate information.

Yet, to do their jobs effectively, field crews need to know the exact location, condition, and history of the assets they inspect, maintain, and repair. From pipelines and electrical lines to transformers and water mains, high fidelity asset data is a must. Without it, the risks to the organization are significant: Slow response to outages, maintenance work backlogs, inefficient resource use, and low customer satisfaction.

This reality is encouraging leading utilities to adopt digital as-built solutions, generating a map-based, dynamic, digital representation of the utility’s infrastructure and other field assets as they exist today.

A digitized as-built record is much more than an electronic version of a paper document, as digitized data is transformed in ways that create tremendous value. Data is collected in real time where the work is occurring, so it’s accurate and reliable. The as-built record is comprehensive, providing critical context by combining documents, GIS data, photos, and other details on both existing and newly installed assets. And since the digital as-built system is typically cloud-based, data is readily accessible, free of siloed legacy system constraints.

Digital As-Built Solutions Transform Field Operations

For field technicians, the difference between paper and digital as-builts is substantial. Manual records don’t provide the spatial intelligence they need to quickly locate assets, and inaccurate or incomplete records leave gaps that hinder their work. It’s especially problematic when time is of the essence, such as during power restoration activities. In contrast, digital as-builts provide field crews with timely, accurate information about the current state of the utility’s infrastructure, so they can locate assets faster and approach their work with reliable data.

By implementing digital as-built solutions, utilities can manage field assets from a position of greater knowledge, equipping field technicians to perform their work efficiently, effectively, and safely. A best-in-class digital as-built solution transforms field operations by delivering six key benefits:

Real-time Data. Field workers are more productive when they have instant access to real-time asset information, including visualizations like GIS-based maps. Digital as-built systems empower them to make faster, more informed decisions when performing maintenance and making repairs.
Better Accuracy. Digital as-built solutions eliminate manual data entry and the resulting errors. Field workers can approach each task with confidence, knowing they have an accurate, up-to-date representation of the field infrastructure.
Improved Safety. Inaccurate information about their environment can place field workers in harm’s way. A digital as-built system reduces risk by ensuring field workers are fully informed of hazards, changes, safety protocols, and other essential information.
Faster Response. Digital as-built systems improve collaboration and information sharing among field workers, engineers, and office staff, enabling them to respond more quickly to an outage or other emergency and coordinate effectively on large, complex projects.
Cost Savings. By eliminating repetitive manual tasks and speeding the process of updating as-built records, a digital solution reduces field operation labor costs.

Digital As-Built Systems Improve Tracking and Traceability

Utilities must be able to track and trace every asset from the time it’s installed through its operational life and eventual decommissioning, including its movement, condition, upgrade, and maintenance. Proper tracking and tracing is integral to effective asset management—both reactive and proactive—and it’s vital for maintaining regulatory compliance.

Digital as-built systems make tracking and traceability significantly easier by providing better visibility into every asset throughout its lifecycle, noting every change made over time.

When assets are affected by outages and other events, digital as-builts arm field crews with the historical information needed to speed restoration efforts and provide responsive customer service.
When traceable data is paired with advanced analytics, utilities gain data-driven insights that enable teams to make informed decisions to improve asset management.
When utilities need to demonstrate tracking and traceability for compliance purposes, digital as-built systems provide easy access to detailed, fully auditable records of all field activities.

As technology continues to advance, digital as-built capabilities will evolve and further improve. Generative AI is likely to have a major impact, especially when it comes to making massive data sets understandable and usable. With high fidelity data becoming even more integral to utility field operations, utilities will look to their vendors to incorporate AI and machine learning to empower field crews and office-based staff to make better data-driven decisions.

EpochField: The Complete Digital As-Built Solution for Field Operations

Today’s utilities can’t afford to struggle with outdated asset data that reduces field crew efficiency and jeopardizes their safety. That’s why many are implementing the EpochField map-first workforce management system—an industry-specific solution purpose-built to address the evolving challenges of a dynamic utility industry.

EpochField transforms as-built documentation for utility field workers, streamlining operations, improving efficiency, and enhancing customer service. This digital as-built solution delivers the spatial intelligence that field crews need and seamlessly integrates with legacy utility solutions and other enterprise applications, performing real-time updates that ensure high fidelity data. It enables the organization to continuously monitor assets and infrastructure, providing the tracking and traceability capabilities that are essential to effective asset management and regulatory compliance. And it’s easily configurable and scalable to meet the needs of any sized utility, from small-scale to large infrastructure networks.

Contact an Epoch Solutions Group sales consultant or visit EpochField to learn more.

EpochField Updates Reflect the Utility Industry’s Evolving Needs

Posted on September 24, 2024September 27, 2024 by Ciara Tobin

Today’s utilities are under greater pressure than ever. Electrification is rising dramatically thanks to accelerating AI use and electric vehicle adoption, creating a pressing need to expand and modernize the grid. Climate change is driving major, costly decarbonization efforts while threatening energy reliability. And skilled labor remains difficult to find and retain, creating workforce capacity constraints.

Epoch Solutions Group recognizes the challenges your utility faces in delivering safe, reliable, cost-effective energy. We’re committed to keeping our EpochField workforce management solution in sync with your dynamic needs—not only responding to customer feedback and requests, but anticipating the future of field service management.

This year we released a major EpochField update along with several minor updates as part of our drive to continually enhance this mission-critical solution for leading utilities. Here’s a recap of the invaluable features we added or enhanced in the latest EpochField 5.2 versions, designed to streamline field service operations, improve the efficiency and productivity of your crews, dispatchers, and schedulers, and equip you to deliver the level of service your customers expect.

A More Intuitive Mobile UI/UX for Better Efficiency

In sync with the industry’s shift toward mobile-first solutions, we redesigned the EpochField mobile app for better mobile workforce management. A more intuitive interface makes the app simpler for field workers to use and navigate and more engaging—a major benefit at a time when it’s tough to stay fully staffed and you need to accomplish more work with fewer people. Our app facilitates streamlined workflows, enabling field crews to complete work order-related tasks faster and easier using a mobile phone or tablet for a better overall experience.

.NET Maui Migration for Improved Performance

The migration from Xamarin to the .NET Maui (Multi-Platform App UI) platform accomplishes two important objectives: It improves cross-platform performance when your field crews use EpochField on Apple, Android, or Microsoft mobile devices and ensures you can maximize the value of the latest app development technologies. By taking a forward-thinking view, we’re future-proofing EpochField to provide a solid foundation for developing more mobile capabilities that work across platforms.

Work Order Process Improvements for Greater Productivity

EpochField now includes many enhancements that help your teams process work orders more efficiently. We enhanced the solution’s data collection capabilities to reduce administrative steps, simplify data entry, reduce the risk of data errors, and streamline workflow.

Self-managed work order creation: EpochField now allows your field crews to initiate and manage the creation of ad hoc work orders themselves by uploading CSV files through the mobile app, using asset data IDs or geographic coordinates. They can organize their own work and complete routine inspections and other jobs without waiting on external dependencies that risk slowing the process.
Improved editing of multiple work features: Utility field crews can use the solution’s lasso tool to precisely choose work features for editing just by clicking on the map. This tool makes it easier to select and edit tasks individually or in bulk, improving accuracy, efficiency, and oversight. The newest software version also allows end users to delete work features individually or in bulk through the main form, further saving time.
Better workflow form flexibility: An improved workflow forms layout is more intuitive for your field workers to use, guiding them logically as they complete the form. By combining Categories and Fields on the same form, and enhancing the Workflow Bulder with simple drag-and-drop functionality, we’ve made it simpler to create and use workflow forms.

State Model Functionality for Better Control

Many EpochField users expressed a need to better control field work order statuses. In response we introduced state model functionality that provides clearer workflows and better operational visibility across the EpochField platform.

Other EpochField Enhancements

In addition to these major functionality enhancements, EpochField now provides improved icons, particularly in the Print tool, to further improve the user experience. And of course, we’ve continued to prioritize the security of our platform by applying critical security patches as they become available.

Evolving in Sync with Utilities

EpochField is transforming field service management for leading utilities—streamlining how your teams work, improving efficiency from the front line to the back office, and empowering you to provide safe, reliable services to your customers. Our map-first approach leverages the power of GIS data to improve your field operations, supporting you as you evolve your business model to address the trends that are reshaping the utility industry.

By continually enhancing EpochField with updates that reflect customer input and industry trends, we’re adding the innovative capabilities you need today while keeping one step ahead of the future of field service management.

Learn more about the EpochField workforce management solution or schedule a live demo.

Shane Hullinger

Shane Hullinger is the Epoch Solutions Group Director of Product Management for EpochField, responsible for shaping the product and leading cross-functional teams to execute strategies, embark on impactful market research, and refine the customer experience.

Leverage Utility Field Operations Digitization to Enhance Customer Service

Posted on June 23, 2022February 28, 2023 by Epoch Solutions Group

The economy is digitally transforming, and utility companies are taking note. In fact, according to IDC, by 2023 digitally transformed organizations will contribute to more than half of the global gross domestic product. And the investments made by public and private entities to digitize operations are clearly paying off – so much that organizations the world over are doubling down on the strategy.

Consider industry research showing that 35% of business executives claim digital transformation helps them “better meet customer expectations,” 40% say it helps improve their firm’s operational efficiency, and “38% of executives plan to invest more in technology to make it their competitive advantage.”

To keep pace with innovation and deliver the kind of customer experiences expected today, utility companies are modernizing their infrastructure, automating and digitizing workforce management processes to improve employee productivity and operational efficiencies.

More than Cost Savings

While digital transformation strategies can yield significant time and cost savings for utilities, eliminating manual touchpoints from gas and electric customer service processes is a delicate balancing act. Even though modern consumers value – and expect – the easy, fast access to information they get using your website, social media outlets, chatbots, and other self-service resources, there are many instances in which only a live agent can meet a customer’s service needs.

Though the quality of the customer service you provide isn’t typically associated with your field operations, having an enterprise-grade, digitized workforce management platform in place can prove invaluable during the most critical, time-sensitive customer service interactions. Without immediate digital access to remote field service teams and infrastructure data, your agents may be ill-equipped to respond to customer inquiries during times of need – such as when an outage disrupts their daily lives or ability to conduct business.

Investing in the right utility digital tools can transform service interactions into positive customer experiences that resolve issues faster and instill consumer confidence in your brand. The most advanced solutions on the market today empower live agents and other internal staff members with these and other benefits:

Instantaneous exchange of data across systems, applications, locales, and personnel
The ability to distill data into strategic insights for more informed decisions on field deployments and other aspects of your operations
Automated workflows that expedite processes and reduce human errors
Faster, more accurate responses to service inquiries, for more positive customer experiences and better consumer sentiment overall

Beyond Technology

While the breadth of functionality achieved through digitization can prove transformative to your utility company’s operations and service levels, as with any organization sweeping changes to your infrastructure should be supported by a comprehensive change management strategy. Ultimately, staff members need to be well trained on the technologies you are introducing and comfortable assuming any new tasks and responsibilities your digital transformation initiative requires of them.

When evaluating field operation solutions, ensure possible partners provide the training and support resources utility companies need to educate both internal staff members and critical field operations teams on our industry-leading technologies. Implementation teams should be part of the process from the design and development phases of a project through the platform’s roll-out and beyond.

Why Choose EpochField

Epoch Solutions Group’s EpochField Service Platform transforms customer experiences by laying the foundation for business process automation, enterprise-wide data access, and real-time communication between field operations and internal teams, including vitally important customer service agents.

Based on the industry’s most advanced geospatial and workflow management technologies, EpochField enables seamless integration across your utility’s digital infrastructure and automation of processes ranging from data collection and reporting to field operation scheduling and work order management.

With EpochField, utility companies achieve deep visibility into what is happening throughout the regions and communities they serve and can therefore communicate up-to-date information to customers and other stakeholders in real time. Broad data access also helps internal teams quickly prioritize field operation team deployments to optimize service levels and minimize downtime when adverse events occur.

Highly configurable to meet an individual utility company’s unique infrastructure and service requirements, EpochField offers a breadth of essential features, including:

Mobile offline viewing for field personnel who are often working in remote locales
High-performance maps that dynamically update as new data is fed into the system
Configurable work order forms that can be customized for the customer service request at hand

With a track record of success extending back decades, we bring to clients a deep understanding of the technological, operational, and customer service challenges facing utility companies today – and proven industry best practices you can easily adopt now to ensure your investments in digitization deliver on their promise for years to come.

Digitization in Mobile Workforce Management: Overcoming 5 Barriers in Field Operations

Posted on April 11, 2022March 9, 2023 by Epoch Solutions Group

The pandemic added a level of urgency to digitization in utilities unlike anything the industry has ever seen. And yet, for many companies, the ongoing work towards digital transformation has been anything but smooth.

In this report, we cover some of the barriers we’ve seen firsthand as companies follow the path to streamlining and simplifying end-to-end mobile workforce management.

Read the guide to learn:

How digitization is reshaping field operations and bridging the gap between field and office workflows
The top 5 obstacles companies face when implementing technologies meant to promote digital ways of working
How to overcome these challenges with a phased, achievable roadmap to digitization

Download the White Paper

EpochField 5.0.2 Release for Mobile, Administrator, and Work Scheduler

Posted on September 2, 2021February 28, 2023 by EpochTester

It’s officially Fall 2021 and the products team here at Epoch has been busy working on a few new enhancements and updates to EpochField for iOS, Android, and Windows. EpochField 5.0.2 can be found in the Apple App Store, Google Play, and Microsoft Apps store.

We are introducing a number of new features and enhancements in the EpochField Mobile 5.0.2, EpochField Administrator 5.0.2, and EpochField Work Scheduler 5.0.2 release. Read on for the summary release notes below.

EpochField Mobile

Lasso tool enhancements and fixes
Click Integration enhancements
MapMarkup text box fixes
Click Integration Tool multiple selection fixes
Multiple ad hoc task type with same geometry fixes

Known Issues

Android – Due to a Xamarin Essentials bug reported with Android 11, users will need to set their Android device location permissions manually. To do so, go to the “App Location Permissions” section of your device’s “Settings” app and choose “Allow Always” or “Allow Only While Using App” for the EpochField app.

Copying text does not work with APRX documents published to ArcGIS Server 10.7.1.

EpochField Work Scheduler

Manage Group Visibility enhancements
File attachment fixes
Zoom to asset fixes
Work order grid status enhancements

Known Issues

None

EpochField Administrator

Work order comments in Scheduler for mobile fixes

Known Issues

None

Increasing Readiness and Assessment Efficiency with a Sound Damage Assessment Solution

Posted on August 6, 2021February 28, 2023 by EpochTester

EpochField optimizes storm management, before and after a storm, by automating common damage assessment workflows.

Old Methods and Process

Historically, utilities have utilized manual methods and processes when approaching a damage assessment workflow. A common approach to a manual assessment typically goes as follows: the use of printed paper maps, assigning work tickets to a field worker, handwriting assessed damage data, and then manually updating back-office outage management systems (OMS) once the data has been delivered.

Open Loop Damage Assessment Process:

Printing of maps.
Assigning damage tickets and maps to field crew.
Field crew collects and reports damage by hand, on printed maps.
Driving back to the storm center with maps notating damage.
Aggregating all the notations on each map to a) make sense of it, and b) determine a game plan for repair.
Someone else manually entering the status of the damage ticket in the Outage Management System and creating a work ticket.
Beginning the routing process for work tickets.

The open-loop damage assessment process is a lengthy process, inefficient, and prone to errors when compared to modern methods. Often, a damage assessment team can run into several problems such as difficulty interpreting handwritten notations, lack of accurate data collection, and the difficulties of printing and using paper maps.

Automating a Damage Assessment Workflow

Although automating damage assessment workflows is a process in itself, the long-term benefits are worth it. Even though a damage assessment workflow will change case by case, generally the automation approach starts with using mobile devices in the field to collect damage data, electronically synching that data with outage management systems, then planning a restoration plan based on that data.

“Utilities can increase restoration efficiency following a major storm by automating data collection, scheduling, and restoration planning with EpochField.

Where Does EpochField Fit In?

Damage Assessment starts in the back office with supervisors viewing outages on dashboards and crew locations on a spatial map in real-time with integrated GPS tracking. By using EpochField Administrator and EpochField Work Scheduler, a plan and assessment strategy is developed based on crew location and outage areas. Field crews utilizing EpochField Mobile on lightweight tablets receive work orders from the back office and note damage specifics on configurable forms. Progress is tracked in real-time with tools and dashboards, enabling utilities to prioritize restoration areas.

Sometimes, in areas such as with high hurricane or tornado activity, the damage is so severe field crews cannot determine where utility assets were located. With the tablet’s internal GPS and GIS information, field crews will know exactly what materials are needed to be replaced. EpochField will then build a list of materials required for restoration and sync that data to the OMS for warehouse personnel to load construction materials on trucks for the crews.

Utilities can quickly restore power using EpochField by taking advantage of timely damage assessment information. With EpochField, utilities can quickly gain a detailed picture of the damage, identify and prioritize damaged areas, and assist staff with a restoration plan based on accurate GIS data.

Schedule a demo today to learn more about how EpochField can transform your storm damage assessment and response processes.

Network Tracing with EpochField Mobile

Posted on July 7, 2021February 28, 2023 by EpochTester

Historically, network tracing has been a critical piece of functionality needed by field crews in the utility industry. While certain functionality needed in tracing may not be as sophisticated as back-office uses, for example, capacity and flow analysis, it still is heavily utilized in the field along with one very definite requirement: it must work offline.

EpochField Mobile was designed from the ground up with “offline first” being one of the most important factors a utility field worker needs in a working mobile solution. With the capability of being scalable enough to download large areas, or all, of service territories for asset and map visibility to performing field workflow data collection and network tracing, all need to work offline.

At Epoch Solutions Group, we have supported an optimized offline connected model and tracing for many years. Three main factors led us to this decision that is the driving factor of this post. Our product, EpochSync, used for cross-platform spatial data integration for technologies such as Smallworld and Hexagon G/Technology, will now be integrated into the EpochField platform. There have been many discussions recently regarding Esri’s Utility Network, its capabilities, and how it can be utilized in a mobile solution, and I would like to address some factors in this topic.

Many of our Esri-based customers are still in the process of transitioning from geometric network to utility network and still need that tracing experience in the field today. The tracing extract functionality within EpochField Data Preparation Server has connectors for both Geometric Network and Utility Network. We can deploy offline network tracing to the field fed by the geometric network and switch very easily to the utility network. Once the transition happens in the enterprise GIS with no changes to the field, apart from the different schema necessitated by the utility network.
Utility Network is still not available offline, so any solution that utilizes this is severely limited in low or zero cellular coverage areas. Offline tracing through the EpochField Mobile network model continues with zero interruption.
Many of our customers utilize other GIS Platforms such as Smallworld and Hexagon as their system of record. EpochSync, which is now part of the EpochField solution, can handle the synchronization of network connectivity data straight into the EpochField Mobile network model. With the plugin architecture of EpochSync Pro, additional data sources can easily be customized to integrate other network connectivity models. This also adds additional capabilities to the EpochField Mobile solution, such as the ability to view Smallworld Internal Worlds, which has been somewhat of a mystery to other mobile solutions.

All in all, implementing a geospatial enabled mobile solution with tracing is often not just a simple question of “does it do network tracing?” There are many factors in how the solution meets both the business requirements and integrates with the existing enterprise architecture seamlessly and with a future roadmap. Utility network is absolutely part of ours but only when it is part of yours.

Schedule a demo to learn more about EpochField’s network tracing capabilities and how they can work for you.

EpochField as a Service – A New Offering

Posted on June 29, 2021February 28, 2023 by EpochTester

As part of our next major release for EpochField, we are moving to a new offering in the way of SaaS. As part of this article, I’d like to address some of the industry trends that have led us to this decision and an exciting new chapter for EpochField and our existing and new customers.

EpochField integrates with multiple back-office IT systems such as GIS and Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). This integration becomes even more critical now that EpochField 5.0 supports scheduling and dispatch with Work Scheduler. These IT systems invariably are deployed on-premise with customizations to support the utility’s unique business processes. Together with the practice of certain accounting rules, it was a natural decision for us to launch EpochField supporting this on-premise model of implementation. With this model, after implementation, the utilities IT team would take over day-to-day support of EpochField and have complete autonomy of the environment to be successful with the architecture.

However, one of the significant drawbacks to the on-premise model has been the impact on the support team. Software vendors continue to evolve their products which for Epoch is two major releases per year, and taking into account some of the other major back-office system upgrades taking 1-3 years and migrations in virtual hardware infrastructure, the utilities IT staff is completely consumed upgrading and replacing all these systems.

So, how do we free up these IT resources to focus on non-support items and internal innovation and increase their bandwidth? There are lots of reasons for a software vendor choosing SaaS as a deployment strategy for its products. Still, it is why it is valuable for our customers, which is the primary driving factor here at Epoch.

A SaaS architecture allows the utility to evolve with the latest new features in quick iterative releases and, through the automation factor, relatively cheap to test and deploy.
SaaS vendors provide automated patch releases and upgrades across all the products. This needs to be done seamlessly to the business and efficiently, especially when dealing with geographically and intermittently connected field personnel. This in itself is a huge time saver for internal IT personnel.
A large part of the business we support with utilities is dependent on seasonal processes and events. For example, subcontracting a large pole inspection project for the spring/summer in a climate that has major ground freezing or mutual aid crews being enabled in the event of a major hurricane. Through a SaaS architecture, the licensing and scaling on the solution are automatic and metered, so you only pay for what you need and, therefore, no need to overprovision. Imagine the scaling of internal architecture for that once-in 2-year event that may hit your service territory. This factor is probably one of the most significant selling points of cloud solutions.
For a utility trying to attract new talent, legacy/aging infrastructure is probably the most significant factor in losing good internal IT talent. With SaaS, it leverages modern software tools and practices but also allows the internal talent to work on new and innovative internal projects.

In summary, SaaS takes away the cost and mundane tasks that running on-premise software has. It also forces good software practices and helps enforce configuration over customization, which is the path of destruction for many utilities. We often say that utilities all do the same thing but differently. SaaS helps enforce best practices.

As a final point, while SasS will become an offering that we feel will benefit customers, we will continue to offer on-premise implementations to support customers whose internal policies need it. The improvements we are planning in EpochField architecture will benefit even these implementations.

How to Use an External GPS Device in EpochField

Posted on April 8, 2021October 6, 2023 by EpochTester

EpochField is configurable to use GPS external to the device on which you are running the app. You may want to do this if your device does not have an internal GPS or if its native GPS is not precise enough, or for some other reason. On Windows, this can be done by configuring the app to get its GPS data from a serial port; on iOS or Android, and you will need to configure your device’s location manager to use the external GPS device. This article covers how to configure external GPS devices to work in these scenarios with EpochField Mobile.

GPS Data from Serial Port (Windows)

A common type of external GPS device is one that connects via Bluetooth. Once paired, your Windows machine will assign virtual COM ports to this device which EpochField may be configured to connect to.

Getting the COM Port

On Windows 10, open “Bluetooth & other devices,” go to “More Bluetooth options,” and select the “COM ports” tab. From here, you can see which port to use for GPS in EpochField.

Configuring EpochField to use Serial GPS Data

Once you have found the port, you need to configure EpochField to use serial data for GPS. In your ApplicationConfig.xml file, go to GPS settings and set the following parameters.

<UseGPSDevice>0</UseGPSDevice>
<GPSComPort>COM3</GPSComPort>

GPS device 0 tells EpochField to get its GPS data from a serial port. COM3 is the port from which to read the data. This will be whatever COM port your GPS device is using. If you get the port wrong, EpochField will attempt to find the correct port. If it fails to find the port, the app will notify you.

Once connected to the GPS device, if the device is functioning correctly, you will see EpochField using the data it gets from the device. If it is not working correctly, see “Using the Correct GPS Data” below.

“Using the Correct GPS Data” below. GPS Data Via Your Device’s Location Manager (Android or iOS)

On Android or iOS, you can have the external GPS take over your device’s location manager. Once you have accomplished this, there is no need to configure EpochField, as it will already be using your device’s location manager by default.

Using the above example of a Bluetooth GPS device, once you have paired the external GPS with the device running EpochField, you will need to download an app that allows you to “mock” GPS with an external device. On Android, the “Bluetooth GNSS” app is an option, but there are many others available.

Assuming we are using Bluetooth GNSS, open Settings on your device and enable Developer Options; from there, change ‘Set Mock Location App’ to “Bluetooth GNSS”. Open the Bluetooth GNSS app, select your external device as the target, and hit Connect. You should soon see data coming in from the device. If you do not, see “Using the Correct GPS Data” below.

How to Use an External GPS Device in EpochField

Using the Correct GPS Data (All devices)

If you are not getting any data from the device after doing the above, it is possible the device is not configured to send you the correct data. Many devices have free apps from the manufacturer that allow you to configure the device. Using a Trimble device as an example, we downloaded the GNSS Status app which was available on all platforms (Windows, iOS, Android). In this app, we opened the Source tab and selected all NMEA data. Once we did this, the data we needed from the device began streaming in.

Written by:
Jon Ruland – Software Engineer

How to Associate Map Markups with Work Orders

Posted on March 12, 2021February 28, 2023 by EpochTester

Fieldwork often involves adding sketches, text blocks, and other various redlining elements to a digital map in the field while completing assigned work orders. These sketches, also referred to in the EpochField product ecosystem as “map markups,” bring valuable sources of ground truth from the field to the back-office, maintaining currency and accuracy in an organization’s work management system.

One of the significant challenges in collecting and storing map markup drawings is knowing the answer to this question:

Do these map markups have a spatial and/or business relationship to a particular work order, and if so, which one?

EpochField Mobile addresses this challenge. When a user in the field selects a work order to fulfill, a map markup, new or existing, can be linked to that current work order. The relationship then persists throughout the lifecycle of the work order. This becomes extremely useful in analytics and reporting, both visually and geographically.

This article covers a use case where a field worker completes a work order and finds the need to add information to it using the Map Markup tool. The map markup tool in EpochField Mobile is used for capturing map markup elements drawn on the map while either offline or connected to a network that can be synchronized to the back-office database

Configuring EpochField Mobile to honor the Map Markup and Work Order relationship

A specific element needs to be added to the application configuration for this linking functionality to work. The app configuration needs the tag set to true in the MapMarkupToolSettings parent element.

How it works

The user works in a selected work order and decides that a map markup diagram is needed to complete the work order.

Written by:
Eric Bader – Product Manager
David Adams – Software Engineer