EMSS Consulting – the parent company of Field Office – has developed an app that has improved efficiency by 50% for the critical job of inspecting base station sites to monitor electromagnetic emissions in order to ensure that cellular operators comply with international safety standards.
Regular inspections need to be carried out by specialised cellular tower inspectors nationally when a complex set of information has to be recorded and sent back to the office. This information is then interpreted by engineers in order to assess the compliance status of the site before certificates may be issued.
Most operators outsource the inspection and compliance assessment of the base station sites to external companies like EMSS Consulting, which specialises in electromagnetic simulation software and services. Historically, the problem with this type of data capture meant that the process was extremely time consuming and expensive – because field workers had to capture the information manually on forms and courier this paperwork to the office. While some information was collected digitally, such as photos and field strength measurements, field workers needed laptops with internet connection to transfer the data. The large data volumes meant that inspectors had to do the transfers while they were stationary and this slowed them down even more.
EMSS Consulting realised that a sophisticated but simple software system was needed – one that could gather all the new information accurately and send the data to the office workers timeously. EMSS commissioned its own technology through its subsidiary, The Field Office, and named it SiteInspector, a tablet and web interface software programme.
“We wanted a system that could allow for background transfer of information between the field and office workers,” says EMSS’s MD, Marnus van Wyk. “One system had to work for the heterogeneous data involved. Inspections require photos, field measurements, GPS coordinates, access procedures and information about the cellular equipment at the site. We set about expanding our software development competency to include the required skills through our subsidiary Field Office, which has since gone on to adapt this competency for different business and sales applications.
SiteInspector is simple to use. The office workers flag a site for inspection and all the data relating to that site is then transferred onto the tablet of the assigned inspector. The tablet then captures the photos, GPS coordinates and text data. When the inspection is complete, the data is made available to the office for assessment without requiring the inspector to find connectivity and wait for the transfer to be completed.
This technology has reduced data capturing errors and increased the turnaround time for inspections, which allows for shorter planning cycles. It has also removed printing, courier, data capture and filing costs and eliminated the use of two devices with all the attendant cables and brackets.
“EMSS Consulting has not only saved time and money by creating SiteInspector, but it has also made our inspections 50% more efficient,” says Christie Le Roux, the project manager for the project for a leading South African operator. “We would recommend this software technology for any business that requires site inspections.”
The Field Office has also developed a sales management software product called HoneyBee.