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Vermont Gas Systems Arrow Gold Adoption Success
"For us, high accuracy GPS and mobile GIS is an essential tool. It will become as prevalent as fire extinguishers and leak soap; another tool in an employee’s toolbox to help them do their jobs to the best of their ability," Cunningham explains.
Vermont Gas Systems (VGS), located in South Burlington, VT, serves natural gas to 50,000 customers in three counties in the Northwest corner of the state from the Canadian Border South to Salsbury, VT. Like many small natural gas utilities, VGS had an outdated system of record and an archaic way of updating it that relied on paper workflows and institutional knowledge. Historically, data collection at VGS was an entirely paper process that took many months to complete. Field Inspectors would create detailed field notes during the ‘construction season’ and update the hand and CAD drawings in the winter months. This took a team of five to eight employees an entire year to complete before the cycle began again in the spring as construction season kicked off again. “We would spend eight- or nine-months installing services and mains with only a vague idea of what happened and when. Then we’d spend the winter figuring out what we did and making record of it.” -James Cunningham GIS Administrator.