Mobile phones, laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) have set high standards for mobile devices, and offer a myriad of options for improving communication across your organisation and with your customers and trading partners.

Because of such "go- anywhere" gadgets which enable your employees to access the company network from anywhere and at any time, we're accustomed to getting more done wherever we are and having the latest information available at our fingertips all the time.

Handheld devices provide business-system access points for the field workforce in the same way that PCs provide access for the office workforce. Productivity and timeliness have become the benchmarks by which we rate the value of any new mobile technologies.

By these standards, mobile GIS has been a tremendous success. Now everyone's attention - users and developers alike - is focused on creating and deploying full-featured "m-GIS" applications.

Improved Technology

These recent technological advancements in Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, wireless communications and ruggedised handheld devices have made mobile GIS a reality. Field crews in growing numbers are taking GIS functionality and data with them wherever they go to do their jobs. And, as the technology becomes more transparent, we can see the benefits more clearly - mobile GIS enables us to accomplish more in a day while keeping our data current.

Mobile GIS is a natural expansion of the business system environment that GIS currently operates in. It provides an entire workforce, from office-based analysts to field-based managers, with immediate access to information. This immediate access to relevant and complete data results in faster solutions and better decisions for the entire organisation because it gives field workers the independence to make "on-the-spot" decisions anywhere at any time. Field technicians can edit and update feature and attribute data onsite. As real-time access becomes more of a reality, mobile GIS will use existing data for more sophisticated query and analysis operations.