imgsblog

Customer Success

The Power of Putting Customers First: Why a Stellar Customer Support Philosophy is Crucial for Every Company 

IMGS

The Power of Putting Customers First: Why a Stellar Customer Support Philosophy is Crucial for Every Company

By Kian Griffin

In today’s fast-paced business world, companies are in a constant race to stay ahead of the competition. While factors like product quality and pricing strategies play a significant role, there’s one often overlooked aspect that can truly set a company apart: its commitment to customer support. By adopting a customer-centric approach and nurturing a solid customer support philosophy, businesses can forge enduring relationships, skyrocket customer satisfaction, and pave the way for long-term success. In this article, let’s explore why a customer support philosophy is absolutely indispensable for any thriving company. 

Customer Success

Building Trust and Loyalty: The Foundation of Success

In the vast realm of business, trust and loyalty reign supreme. A customer support philosophy serves as the bedrock for cultivating trust and fostering unwavering loyalty among customers. When faced with a problem or inquiry, customers rely on a company’s support system to come to their aid. By showing responsiveness, empathy, and consistent commitment to resolving issues, companies instil unwavering confidence in their customers. This trust is the key ingredient that transforms satisfied customers into repeat customers and passionate advocates for the brand. 

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction: The Heartbeat of Success

Exceptional customer support and heightened customer satisfaction go hand in hand. When customers encounter a seamless, personalised, and effective support experience, they feel truly valued and appreciated. A customer support philosophy that emphasises proactive problem-solving, active listening, and swift issue resolution can elevate the overall customer experience to new heights. Happy customers are more inclined to share glowing feedback, refer others to the company, and remain steadfastly loyal, even in the face of fierce competition. 

Standing Out from the Crowd: the Competitive Advantage

In today’s always-on marketplace, where products and services can seem interchangeable, a well-defined customer support philosophy becomes a potent differentiator. When a company places paramount importance on customer support, it immediately distinguishes itself from competitors who might overlook this vital aspect. By consistently delivering exceptional support throughout the customer journey — from pre-purchase inquiries to post-purchase assistance — a company can create a unique competitive advantage that magnetises and retains customers. 

Gaining Priceless Customer Insights: The Fuel for Growth

Customer support interactions are treasure troves of invaluable feedback and insights for any company. By actively engaging with customers, attentively listening to their concerns, and diligently addressing their needs, businesses gain a profound understanding of their target audience. This firsthand knowledge fuels product improvements, informs astute marketing strategies, and shapes future business decisions. A customer support philosophy that genuinely values customer feedback and actively strives for improvement paves the way for perpetual growth and unyielding success. 

Mitigating Reputational Risks: Safeguarding Your Brand 

In the interconnected world in which we live, a company’s reputation can either propel it to soaring heights or sink it beneath the waves. Customer support plays an undeniable role in managing and mitigating reputational risks. When customers face challenges or undergo negative experiences, they often turn to social media platforms and online review websites to voice their opinions. A robust customer support philosophy empowers companies to swiftly address and resolve issues, thereby averting potential damage to their hard-earned reputation. By consistently and genuinely demonstrating a genuine commitment to customer satisfaction, businesses shield their brand image and cultivate an indomitably positive reputation. 

 In an era where customer expectations, rightly, have never been higher, a well-defined customer support philosophy is the lifeblood of any successful company. By placing trust, loyalty, customer satisfaction, differentiation, customer insights, and reputation management at the core of their operations, businesses can nurture a customer-centric culture that fuels unprecedented success. Investing in customer support doesn’t just ensure the immediate resolution of issues; it fosters enduring customer relationships, paving the way for sustainable growth. 

At IMGS, we wholeheartedly embrace the significance of a customer support philosophy. We understand that our clients rely on us for exceptional support throughout their journey with us. By prioritising responsiveness, technical expertise, and a genuine commitment to problem-solving, we ensure that our customers receive unparalleled assistance and care. We take pride in going above and beyond to build trust, foster loyalty, and enhance customer satisfaction. 

In conclusion, a customer support philosophy is not just a business strategy; it is a mindset that drives success. By taking these principles to heart at IMGS, we strive to deliver an unparalleled customer experience, build lasting relationships, and lead the way in GIS and Data Intelligence solutions. 

Monitise your data

By Conor McIntyre, Business Development Executive, DataBuilders

Monetising Your Data with Sisense
Unlocking The Power of Analytics

In today’s data-driven world, organisations are continuously collecting vast amounts of data. However, merely accumulating data is not enough to drive business growth. To stay competitive, businesses need to extract actionable insights from their data and transform it into a valuable asset. This is where our partner technology, Sisense, a business intelligence and analytics platform, comes into play. I want to explore how you can monetise your data with Sisense and unlock its potential for revenue generation.

Monetising Your Data with Sisense Top Image
Sisense Hospital Performance Image

First off, we must understand the Value of Data:

How many times have you heard data being referred to as the “new oil” because of its immense value? Too many I’m sure as it seems an old phrase at this stage, but it has become increasingly more and more poignant. By harnessing the power of data analytics, businesses can gain valuable insights, identify trends, make informed decisions, and discover new revenue streams. In a way data is not like the ‘new oil’ in that unlike oil the same data can be consumed more than once and enriched with other data repeatedly leading to exponential value creation and continuous innovation – and doesn’t destroy the planet!

DataBuilders in conjunction with Sisense empowers organisations to explore their data, uncover hidden patterns, and transform it into actionable intelligence.

Leveraging Sisense's Analytical Capabilities

Sisense provides a user-friendly, end-to-end analytics platform that enables businesses to unlock the full potential of their data. Below are some of the key features that can help facilitate and accelerate data monetisation:

Data Integration: Sisense makes integrating data from multiple sources simple. Be it structured or unstructured data and allows for a unified view in your Sisense Elasticube. This enables businesses to gain a holistic understanding of their data and make more informed decisions.

Powerful Data Visualisation: As any BI tool should, Sisense offers interactive dashboards and visualisations that make complex data easily understandable. These visually appealing representations help stakeholders gain insights quickly and act upon them. Where Sisense stands out, is with the no/low-code, drag-and-drop configuration making adoption and usability easier for anyone to pick it up.

Advanced Analytics: Sisense goes beyond basic reporting and offers advanced analytics capabilities, such as predictive modelling, machine learning, and natural language processing (ChatGPT coming soon here). These features allow businesses to uncover deeper insights and make data-driven predictions.

Embedded Analytics: Sisense allows businesses to embed analytics directly into their products, applications, or services. This empowers organisations to create data-driven, self-service offerings for their customers, opening new revenue streams.

Add Your Tooltip Text Here

Not to forget the new report manager feature where you can schedule reports to be sent how and when you want it, to whomever you want it in PDF, email, CSV format or even as a link directly to the dashboard. And pulse alerts, alerting you (as you could probably tell by the name) to let you know when a particular metric of yours is under/overperforming based on thresholds that you set or even when a particular trigger event happens.

Monitising Data With Sisense

We have several customers monetising their data and what we’ve learned through their experience is that there are several ways in which you can look to maximise your monetisation strategy. Although some have very unique offerings, I was able to pull them all together in the most applicable ways to any data set as follows;

Data-as-a-Service (DaaS): With Sisense, you can create and offer data products to customers. By packaging and selling your data, you can provide valuable insights to other businesses, researchers, or even the general public should you be geared that way. This approach allows you to generate revenue from your data assets.

Subscription-Based Analytics: Sisense enables you to build subscription-based analytics services. By offering customers access to your analytics platform, you can monetise your expertise and data insights. This model can be particularly beneficial for consultancy firms or businesses with specialised knowledge.

Data-Driven Applications: Sisense’s embedded analytics capabilities empower you to create data-driven applications. By integrating analytics directly into your software or services, you can offer enhanced functionality to your customers so they have the analytics right where they are already working. This not only adds value but also creates new monetisation opportunities.

Partnerships and Collaborations: Sisense provides integration options that allow you to collaborate with other organisations or industry partners. By combining your data with complementary datasets, you can create unique value propositions and explore joint monetisation strategies.

Data Monitisation Blog Pic 4

DataBuilders and Sisense are keen to work with you in finding the right approach that makes the most commercial sense to your business model and along with our team of experts will help you become the biggest data-driven organisation around and maximise the potential value your data and data operations hold.

Ensuring Data Privacy and Security

This is often one of the biggest concerns for any company engaging with us when they are trying to monetise their data and with multi-tenancy, role-level access & MFA concerns quickly dissipate. Monetising your data comes with the responsibility of ensuring privacy and security. Sisense offers robust data protection measures, including user access controls, encryption, and compliance with industry regulations. By safeguarding your data assets, you build trust with customers and maintain a competitive edge.

Data is a valuable asset that, when leveraged effectively, can drive business growth and revenue generation. Sisense offers a powerful analytics platform that enables organisations to unlock the potential of their data.

Data monetisation starts here. Databuilders and Sisense equip you with the insights and strategies to monetise your data effectively. Act now and unlock the revenue potential of your data. Please reach out and talk to me should you have any questions or queries or feel as though you’re ready to maximise the potential value hidden within your data. And if you think you already have, I can assure you we’ll find more. Contact me on my details below to set up a DEMO today!

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!

Conor

E-mail: conormcintyre@databuilders.ie

Ph: +353 86 136 4291

Databuilders – Sisense Accelerator

By Conor McIntyre

DataBuilders Logo
Sisense Logo

DataBuilders Sisense Accelerator

The one workshop that you need to attend to maximise and unlock the full and limitless potential of your data in 90 minutes.

What is it?

A Sisense accelerator is a live, virtual training module.  It is an ideal start to learning Sisense and a great way to refresh on all that the Sisense Platform can do. At Databuilders, we like to talk about it as the perfect intersection between a theoretical introduction to Sisense and a hands-on training experience. 

Unlike a traditional webinar, the content structure of the course engages the participants through its public chat pane.  The participants also can call for private training assistance at any time. 

Hosted on the Strigo training platform, our Sisense Accelerator demands nothing more of its audience than a computer with an internet connection and a willingness to learn.

This workshop takes place on Tuesday 30th May from 10am – 11.30am.

Why Sisense?

Sisense is a powerful business intelligence platform that helps organisations turn complex data into valuable insights. With Sisense, you can connect to multiple data sources, visualise and analyse data in real-time, and share insights with stakeholders across your organisation. Sisense is easy to use and requires minimal IT involvement, so you can focus on what matters most – making data-driven decisions. Sisense is trusted by thousands of companies worldwide, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, to help them achieve their data analytics goals.

A business intelligence tool like Sisense is essential for any organisation that wants to make data-driven decisions and gain a competitive advantage. With Sisense, you can uncover hidden patterns and trends in your data, identify opportunities for growth and improvement, and make informed decisions that drive success. It helps you to optimise your operations, improve customer satisfaction, and increase revenue. A business intelligence tool provides a comprehensive view of your organisation’s data, making it easier to identify opportunities and stay ahead of the competition.

Who is this Accelerator for?

Whether you are a beginner or an experienced data analyst, the Sisense Accelerator is an opportunity to learn from industry experts, network with like-minded professionals, and gain hands-on experience with the best data analytics tool and techniques. If you are looking to take your data analytics skills to the next level, the Sisense Accelerator is the perfect event for you. It’s for beginners and experienced analysts to learn from experts and network with peers, while gaining hands-on experience with the latest tools.

What Will You Learn?

The DataBuilders Building Dashboards accelerator workshop provide an introduction to Data modelling and building an integrated analytic dashboard. Within in the 90-minute session you will go from data in a data warehouse to a fully built Sisense dashboard

Sisense Dashboard 2

What Will You Need?

A computer with an Internet connection, and a desire to learn. This workshop will take place on Strigo, a virtual training platform. You do not need Sisense or Strigo installed. We will provide A Sisense environment and a link to use Strigo in your browser for you during the workshop.

Data is a critical business asset, and with the help of Sisense, data-driven decision-making provides organisations with the capabilities to generate real-time insights that support sustainable growth.

Sisense Accelerator is the perfect tool to enable data professionals to acquire a foundational understanding of the Sisense platform.

TL/DR

  • Free 90-minute Sisense interactive, virtual training module
  • Learn from DataBuilders Sisense experts!
  • Sisense is essential for any organisation that wants to make data-driven decisions and gain a competitive advantage,
  • Any business analysts, data analysts, data scientists, BI developers, IT professionals, and decision-makers from various industries will benefit from attending.
  • The Databuilders Sisense accelerator workshop introduces Data modelling and building an integrated analytic dashboard from scratch.
  • All you need is a computer with an Internet connection, and a desire to learn!

We look forward to seeing you then!

DataBuilders Conference Team Picture

IMGS Year in review 2022

IMGS Year In Review 2022

2022 was another busy, exciting, and prosperous year at IMGS and we would like to share some of the key highlights with you in our “IMGS Year in Review Blog”.

January: Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director,
IMGS 20th Work Anniversary

Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director at IMGS celebrated his 20-year anniversary with IMGS in January 2022.  We marked this fantastic milestone with a presentation to Ciaran and enjoyed some bubbly and sweet treats in the boardroom.  Ciaran also marked the occasion by penning a blog about his IMGS career to date and plans for the future.

Ciaran Kirk, 20th Anniversary Picture

February: Streamlining Property Portfolio Management

Ireland Arial Landscape

In February 2022 IMGS published a case study titled Streamlining Property Portfolio Management with Monaghan County Council.  This case study illustrates how IMGS enabled Monaghan County Council to develop and leverage highly productive, map-based asset management workflows.

March: FME Advanced Training Course
And Staff FME Certification

Hrvoje FME Professional Certification

IMGS hosted an FME Desktop Advanced virtual training course over 3 half day sessions on the 28th, 29th and 30th of March 2022.  This training course builds upon the basic framework of workspace creation in FME Desktop. The course covered topics that are commonly used by all workspace authors, who wish to take their FME skills to the next level.

Also, congratulations to Hrvoje Vukasinovic, Technical Lead IMGS, who successfully achieved his FME Desktop Professional Certification from Safe Software at the end of March.

 

April: IMGS Industry Award
And Sisense Notebooks Integration Webinar

April kicked off with IMGS being awarded the “FME Industry Expert Award for Local Government” by Safe Software.  This compliments our “Expert designation in Transportation, which was awarded last year.

On the 27thApril, Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director, IMGS hosted a webinar “Sisense Notebooks Integration”.  This webinar provides an overview of Sisense Notebooks and demonstrates how this feature gives Data Analysts the tools they need to conduct advanced analysis, which ultimately increases efficiency and productivity.

IMGS FME Local Government Industry Expert

May: New Business Development Executive Staff Profile,
FME Industry Accreditation, & Analytics Institute Award Finalists!

Conor McIntyre Profile Picture

In early May, Conor McIntyre, Business Development Executive at IMGS and a recent addition to the Commercial team, sat in the hot seat as part of our Staff Profile Blog

On May 11th our Commercial Manager Garrett Cronin, was is one of the first partners globally to be awarded an “FME Business Professional” accreditation from Safe Software, so a huge congratulations to him!

FME Business Professional Certificate

At the end of May, IMGS were thrilled to be announced as finalists in the “Emerging Tech Products: IOT, Machine Learning and RPA Category” for the Analytics & AI Awards 2022 hosted by the Analytics Institute of Ireland.

June: Analytics & AI Awards Event At the Shelbourne,
Platinum Sponsors of the AGI-NI Annual Conference

On the 16th of June we attended the Analytics & AI awards event at the Shelbourne Hotel.  What a fantastic night it was with great hospitality and company plus it was lovely to have an excuse to dress up! We were honoured to be nominated in the Emerging Tech Category and look forward to the 2023 awards event already!

IMGS Group at Analytics Ireland Awards 2022 resized
IMGS Sponsorship of AGI NI Annual Event

IMGS were one of the Platinum Sponsors at the AGNI Annual Conference which was held virtually on June 23rd.  The event had an impressive speaker line-up including 2 presentations from the IMGS Team: Garrett Cronin, Commercial Manager presented “Geospatial Data Integration” during the morning session and Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director closed the event with his presentation “EU Fisheries Protection by the Irish Naval Service”.

July: Staff Profile & IMGS Summer BBQ

In early July,  Hrvoje Vukasinovic, a technical lead at IMGS and a recent addition to the development team was the latest staff member to take the hot seat in our Staff Profile Blog series.

Hrvoje Profile Picture for Staff Profile Blog

Later in the month we had a lovely evening in Dublin City Centre for the IMGS Summer BBQ.  Balmy weather, fab food and good company – the perfect recipe for a great night out!

August: EM360 Podcast, FME UC Vancouver

Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director IMGS, kicked off August with a EM360 Podcast where he was joined by Analyst John Santaferraro to discuss Location Intelligence aspects such as:
– Newest trends in data integration
– Streaming data challenges
– Modern data pipelines and what they give enterprises.

EM360 Podcast
Garrett Cronin, Solutions Review Interview

While attending the FME UC Conference in Vancouver, Garrett Cronin, Commercial Manager IMGS sat down with Solutions Review President & host Douglas Atkinson to discuss the use of FME across the island of Ireland & its evolution over the past 20 years.

September: IMGS Launch A New Sub Brand DataBuilders

IMGS started business in 2002 as a GIS or Geographic (location based) solutions provider, but in the last three years expanded our customer offerings to include data analytics and integration. This expansion prompted the recent development of the new “DataBuilders” brand, which is a sub brand of IMGS, and is primarily focused on delivering our Data Intelligence platform solutions.  The DataBuilders brand has its own unique identity and clientele.

You can read the full press release here.

October: IMGS 20th Birthday Celebration, FME Certification
& FME Intelligence Event 2022

Ryan Bannon FME Certified Professional

Ryan Bannon, IT Solutions Lead at IMGS, achieved his FME Professional Certification from Safe Software.   

In early October, Zubair Mulla, Lead GIS Developer at IMGS, was also awarded both the FME Professional and FME Server Professional Certification from Safe Software. We’d like to take this opportunity to congratulate both Ryan and Zubair for their fantastic achievements!

Zubair Mulla FME Certified Professional

On October 13th IMGS celebrated 20 years in business with a Gala birthday dinner for staff and customers at the beautiful Iveagh Garden Hotel, Dublin. What an amazing evening it was from the fantastic food, wonderful company and not forgetting the brilliant music from Connemara trad band – Sin e Deir Si. Looking forward to the next 20 years in business!                                         

IMGS and Hexagon at 20th Birthday Celebration
FME Intelligence Event 2022

On Tuesday 18th October, we hosted our FME Intelligence 2022 event virtually. It was a hugely popular event with a great line-up of speakers on the day including:

  • Don Murray, Co-CEO and President, Safe Software
  • Philip Jacob, HEO Enterprise Information Management, Valuation Office
  • Michael O’Donnell, Geospatial and Data Analyst, Dublin Fire Brigade
  • Ciara Beddy, Geospatial Products Development Manager, OSI
  • Robyn Dennehy, GIS Analyst, National Broadband Ireland

Both sessions from the event can be viewed here:  Session 1  Session 2

November: FME Certification & Analytics Summit

Congratulations to Hrvoje Vukasinovic, Technical Lead at IMGS, who was awarded the FME Server Professional Certification on November 18th from Safe Software.

FME Server Professoinal Certificate
DataBuilders and Diaceutics Presentation

On November 17th DataBuilders attended the Analytics Summit 2022, hosted by the Analytics Institute, at the Convention Centre Dublin.  It was a superb event with over 1,300 attendees on the day!  We were delighted to welcome Scott Gamester from Diaceutics, a DataBuilders customer, who travelled from the U.S. to join Ciaran Kirk, on stage to discuss “ Next Generation Analytics & the Monetisation of data

We had a stand at the event and enjoyed meeting people face to face again after such a long break from in-person conferences.  We were joined on the stand by our partner Sisense, who were a great asset on the day and were available to answer any questions that attendees had about their solution. 

Visitors to our stand during the day, had the opportunity to enter our competition offering a “Lego Luke Skywalkers Landspeeder Collectors Edition” as a prize, which proved very popular with visitors as you can imagine!

DataBuilders Conference Team Picture

December: Actionable Analytics with Sisense Webinar & Christmas Celebrations

A great night was had by all at our Company Christmas Party night out in the fab Iveagh Garden Hotel on Friday December 9th.  

IMGS Christmas Party 2022
Actionable Analytics with Sisense

On December 14th DataBuilders hosted a webinar “Actionable Analytics with Sisense”, presented by Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director and Conor McIntyre, Business Development Executive. 

In this webinar you see how with Sisense you can get actionable insights where you most need them. The first part of the webinar provides an overview of Sisense BloX. Sisense BloX makes it easier than ever to create custom actionable analytic applications from complex data, by leveraging powerful prebuilt templates to integrate application-like functionality into dashboards.

The second part of the webinar covers Sisense Infusion Apps. Sisense Infusion Apps are for users who spend most of their time outside of their BI.

You can view the full recording of this webinar HERE.

FME 2022.1

FME 2022.1 New Features

The eagerly awaited FME 2022.1 release is now available for download from Safe Software.  FME 2022.1 makes new things possible with more speed and simplicity to help your organisation make effective data-driven decisions. So dive in and see what’s new!

Enhance Collaboration And Communication

Visually Compare And Merge Workspaces

This exciting new feature allows users to collaborate with team members and maintain workspace updates in a simple and intuitive interface. Now, you can compare two workspaces side-by-side to see the changes that were made and instantly merge changes together. Easily manage and review your work in a secure and reliable environment, without leaving Workbench. And the best part?  No coding required.

Identify Runtime User

Safe Software have made it easy for admins and authors to see who accessed and ran an authenticated Workspace App in the Jobs history page. Gain visibility into user data to troubleshoot or send timely communications to the right people.

Improve Data Quality

Achieve high data quality and reduce storage cost with dynamic control of large datasets in your enterprise systems. Take the guesswork out of the process and produce best-fit data outputs at runtime with SchemaScanner, helping you manage active metadata and detect schema drift.

The enhanced EsriReprojector transformer now supports vertical and time-dependent coordinate systems. Make time-dependent transformations and position your data within an epoch.

FME 2022.1 Improve Data Quality

Ultimate Time Savings

FME 2022.1 Ultimate Time Savings

FME 2022 continues to drive speed to insight to help you advance your spatial analysis and unlock new opportunities. We’ve fine-tuned the inner workings of FME to help you tackle datasets of any size, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and achieve business results faster and easier than ever before.

You can now update records in one call with UPSERT* when writing to a database, helping reduce workflow complexity, increase efficiency, and improve data integrity.

Flexible Automation At Scale

Allocate resources where you need them the most. With the addition of Server Analytics, you’ll gain increased control over engine assignments to help you optimize future workloads. See historical data of running jobs at various time intervals and uncover trends that allow you to know when and where to add additional data processing resources.

FME 2022.1 Flexible Automation at Scale

Increased Organisational Security

With FME 2022.1, Safe Software have introduced the ability to centralise user authentication with SAML 2.0. Integrate FME Server with your existing identity providers and manage credentials through one centralised system.

Hrvoje Technical Lead Staff Profile

Hrvoje Vukasinovic Staff Profile

Hrvoje Vukasinovic Staff Profile


Hrvoje can you describe your role at IMGS?

I’m a technical Lead in IMGS, and work with our customers to solve their GIS/IT issues.

Before working at IMGS, what was the most unusual or interesting job you've ever had?

My most interesting job, has to be my previous role as Information Manager at Dublin Airport.  The airport is such a vibrant place to work, with lots of variety and opportunity for continuous learning.  

While working at the airport, I was lucky to get the chance to visit the runway and then go up to the air traffic control tower to observe flights as they take off and land.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I have tons of different interests: Travelling would be at the top of that list (which I really missed during the pandemic), tennis, swimming, going to the sauna, hiking, and collecting soccer jerseys!, 

What would you do for a career if you weren't doing this?

When I was a kid, I dreamt of becoming an Architect, as I was obsessed with building stadiums out of small wooden bricks.  However, now I could very much see myself as a tourist guide based in some sunny Mediterranean country.

What's the best place that you've travelled to and why?

If I had to choose just one place, it would be Velebit mountain in Croatia.  It’s such a calm, peaceful place with spectacular views of the Adriatic Sea and surrounding mountain ranges.

What's the last app that you downloaded?

Revolut.  I put off signing up for some time, but finally succumbed and now can’t live without it!

What do you enjoy most about working at IMGS?

I enjoy being part of such a supportive team here in IMGS.  I love the variety of my role and the challenge of finding solutions to issues as they arise.

AGI Northern Ireland Annual Conference

IMGS Platinum Sponsor AGI-NI Conference 2022

IMGS
Platinum Sponsor
AGI-NI
Conference 2022

AGI Northern Ireland Annual Conference

IMGS are delighted to announce that we will be attending this years AGI-NI Conference as Platinum Sponsors.  The AGI-NI Conference is an annual event, and a key focus for GIS professionals across Northern Ireland.   The theme of this year’s conference is “Geographic Information in Support of a Better World”.

Taking place on Thursday 23 June 2022 conference speakers will touch on topics including the use of GI to support sustainable spatial infrastructures, public health, the environment, and technological innovation.

To register for this event click the button below.

IMGS Presentations at AGI-NI 2022

Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director IMGS

Ciaran Profile Headshot cropped

Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director at IMGS will present “EU Fisheries Protection by the Irish Naval Service”.

This Presentation will outline how the Irish Naval Service are using Hexagon M.App Enterprise to analyse live fishing vessel information both on-shore and on Naval vessels to enforce these policies.

Garrett Cronin, Commercial Manager IMGS

Garrett Cronin, Commercial Manager, IMGS

Garrett Cronin, Commercial Manager IMGS will present a short 5 min overview on “Geospatial Data Integration”.

This presentation will highlight how data is a business critical asset in every organisation, but working with data can be challenging.  You need the right integration solution to turn data into insights to better serve modern customers.  The FME Platform powers business decisions with enterprise integration and no-code automation.  Spend more time using data, and less time fighting it.

AGI NI Conference Agenda

AGI NI 2022 Programme of Events

Conor McIntyre Staff Profile

Conor McIntyre Staff Profile

Conor can you describe your role at IMGS?

My role in IMGS is as Business Development Executive. I work with both new and existing customers to help them understand their data challenges. Together, using our IMGS Data Intelligence Platform, we create solutions to improve information sharing to curb the inefficiencies, visualise data and empower organisations to do more with their data.

Before working at IMGS what was the most unusual or interesting job you’ve ever had?

I worked 12-hour shifts in a bacon-only sandwich shop during my time in Toronto when I was 21. I’m instantly teleported back to those days when I smell bacon still.

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

I try to keep as active as possible, hitting the gym and playing sports. I am captain and founder of a basketball club in Ballinteer.

If you could meet anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

Aside from my nan just one more time, I would say Michael Jordan, I’m sure I could find a challenge that would pique his betting interest and that I may stand a chance in winning too!

What is your favourite holiday destination?

Sun holiday: I love Greece. If I could go anywhere; New York wins every time. I’m hoping to go again early next year. I’m sure I’ll come back….maybe.

What’s the last book that you read?

The 100-year-old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared. Title is a mouthful, but (let me put my leaving cert English to use here) serves a foreboding measure for the story as a whole! Brilliant book and while the title gives the essence of the story, it follows into his life very much like Forrest Gump (favourite film by the way) and coincides with significant world events. 10/10 would reccommend (movie not so good, watch Forrest Gump 😊)

What do you enjoy most about working at IMGS?

It has to be the team; everyone is so close which makes for a great atmosphere to work in.

FME Platform 2022.0

FME 2022.0 New Release

FME 2022.0 New Release

Enhance Collaboration & Communication

FME 2022.0 is packed with new features that are designed for performance, collaboration and flexible automation that will help organisations make data-driven decisions faster and more effectively!

Visually Compare and Merge Workspaces

This exciting new feature allows users to collaborate with team members and maintain workspace updates in a simple and intuitive interface. Now, you can compare two workspaces side-by-side to see the changes that were made and instantly merge changes together. Easily manage and review your work in a secure and reliable environment, without leaving Workbench. And the best part? No coding required.

FME 2022.0 New Feature

Identify Runtime User

Safe Software have made it easy for admins and authors to see who accessed and ran an authenticated Workspace App in the Jobs history page. Gain visibility into user data to troubleshoot or send timely communications to the right people.

Improve Data Quality

Achieve high data quality and reduce storage cost with dynamic control of large datasets in your enterprise systems. Take the guesswork out of the process and produce best-fit data outputs at runtime with SchemaScanner, helping you manage active metadata and detect schema drift.

The enhanced EsriReprojector transformer now supports vertical and time-dependent coordinate systems. Make time-dependent transformations and position your data within an epoch.

Improve Data Quality

Ultimate Time Savings

FME 2022 continues to drive speed to insight to help you advance your spatial analysis and unlock new opportunities. Safe Software have fine-tuned the inner workings of FME to help you tackle datasets of any size, enabling you to make data-driven decisions and achieve business results faster and easier than ever before.

Additionally, you can now save time with UPSERT*. Synchronise and manage data in near real-time and simplify your workspace, all with no code! 

*Support in 2022.0 includes PostgreSQL, PostGIS, PostGIS Raster, SpatiaLite, SQLite, with more to come in the Summer Release.

Flexible Automation at Scale

Allocate resources where you need them most.  With the addition of Server Analytics, you’ll gain increased control over engine assignments to help you optimise future workloads. See historical data of running jobs at various time intervals and uncover trends that allow you to know when and where to add additional data processing resources

Flexible Automation at Scale

Increased Organisation Security

With FME 2022, Safe Software are introducing the ability to centralise user authentication with SAML 2.0. Integrate FME Server with your existing identity providers and manage credentials through one centralised system. 

New Formats & Systems

Unfolded Studio

Read or write to and from Unfolded Studio using FME. Visualise data in your browser. Also available for download on FME Hub

Unfolded Logo

Precisely Maps

Use FME to overlay your data points over a Precisely background map.

Truvision TGA

Read TARGA raster images and apply textures to older 3d animation models.

Targa

Flexible Image Transport System (FITS)

Read and write to this versatile image and data table container format recognised by NASA and IAU.

FITS

SpatiaLite

SpatiaLite (GDAL) and SpatiaLite (FDO) is now one centralized format in FME: SpatiaLite

Spatialite

OGC Catalogue Service for the Web

Read XML catalogues of geospatial records for the web.

OGC
Ciaran Kirk, Operations Director IMGS Headshot

Ciaran Kirk

Ciaran Kirk Staff Profile

Ciaran can you tell us about the origins of IMGS?

In 2002 IMGS was founded by Bob Stuart, our current managing director, as the Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial reseller for Ireland. At the time, the LGCSB (now LGMA) had selected GeoMedia WebMap as the preferred web GIS for the Local Authorities in the Republic.

I was hired as the first engineer in, to install and support the roll out of the solution. At the time I had no GIS experience and was a programmer, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire, but I tried to hit the ground running and the rest as they say is history!

In that first year we were also selected by the Irish Naval Service to provide their Fisheries Protection GIS System (in partnership with Hewlett Packard), which was our first major project and required us to expand our engineering team.

By the end of the year Intergraph had then asked IMGS to support their Utility & Telecommunications (U&C) division in Ireland with existing customers such as Eir (then Eircom), ESB Networks, BT Ireland, and the Dublin Regional Water GIS.

The U&C business was again another steep learning curve for us but we invested time in learning & upskilling and really understanding our customers business so that we could deliver an excellent support service.

Then in 2003 we were delighted to become the Safe Software FME distributor for Ireland (on the advice of a customer who recommended the solution – thank you Claire) which has been at the core of our business and projects ever since and is used by over 100 organisations across the island.

How has your role evolved with IMGS over the past 20 years?

Aoibhinn Stuart and Ciaran Kirk Business Feature

I have had several roles in IMGS – Engineer, Technical Manager, Technical Director, General Manager and now Operations Director.

Over the years as our team has grown, I have moved more to managing and mentoring our engineers and doing less & less of the hands-on work (but I still like to get my hands dirty when the team let me)!

On our major projects I also support our customers by serving on project boards to advise the project team on ensuring project success. We have really improved our project delivery since our Delivery Director, Aoibhinn joined IMGS.

Aoibhinn has added some much-needed process to our projects but even with this improvement, projects will always have their challenges so usually my hard-earned experience can provide guidance where needed!

I have also moved towards the commercial side of the business over the past decade which I have really enjoyed – I love working with customers to solve their problems using our solutions. I am a great believer in science & technology and that technology can solve most problems (I think the last year has proven that more than ever)!

You recently launched the IMGS Data Intelligence Platform. Can you describe this offering to us and explain the change in company strategy this past 2 years?

Zero to Dashboard

As a company we have always understood the power of data analytics and visualisation through our GIS platforms from Hexagon and Safe Software.

But with the explosion of big data, we could see the enormous potential for organisations that want to become data driven across the enterprise, and we are really excited by the potential.

Aoibhinn who had come from the financial sector could also see how our FME ETL skills were of great demand and how we would easily transfer these skills to this area.

Our Data Intelligence Platform provides a complete data management and analytics platform that works across any industry who wants to become data driven.

We are delighted to be working with our partners Snowflake, Talend & Sisense who are disturbing the industry with game changing innovation in Big Data and AI.

It has again been a learning curve for us to embrace this new area, but I personally love it and I am so excited by the change (to the fact that I constantly bombarding the team with the latest cool changes, and they are amused with my excitement even at my age).

What do you see as the greatest opportunities for the business over the next 5 years?

The IT industry is changing. I feel the days of large multi-year projects with big capital software expenditure are over.

Customers are now looking towards more flexible SAAS solutions that require minimal development. The 2 – 3 year projects are being replaced with 3-month implementations where customers expect results next quarter not next year.

The move to the cloud has been critical in this SAAS approach, which has decreased the infrastructure costs and implementation times and provides huge scale and accessibility.

In the past years we have had several new BI customers who were able to onboard Sisense cloud as a full BI platform within a quarter. They were able to do this because the Sisense solution met their requirements off the shelf, could be provisioned next day and was easy to integrate with their existing systems and data flows.

This flexibility is what customers will demand going forward.

In IMGS with our partners platforms we have the cloud-based solutions and the agile approach to support our customer demands. So far in the 20s IMGS have already seen considerable growth through supporting our customers digital transformation and I expect this to continue as we all succeed together.

Cloud

What do you enjoy about working at IMGS?

It’s a bit of cliché to say in a blog but we have great customers who, even though we have had our ups and downs, I have made some great friends with over the years.

I am truly proud of what we have done with our customers. For example, in a 6-month project we had supported Siro in rolling out their FTTH GIS system from green field to fully integrated solution – that was an extremely challenging project, but we did it by working closely with a wonderful team in Siro.

I have worked with customers across the country from ESB to NIE Networks, OSI to LPS, Dublin City Council to Shannon Airport Authority and I feel confident that I have made relationships that will outlast any software system and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

The other big thing in IMGS that I love – is the constant change. I usually get to be the first to get my hands on our new technology. This constant evolution means it’s never boring and as a tech geek I love the challenge of new systems (and I am loving our move to Sisense, as I said already).

Finally, the staff in IMGS make it a fun place to work and as the team gets younger and I get older I can safely say I laugh more today than I ever did (no coincidence this coincided with Garrett’s arrival a few years ago)!

If you could do another job just for a day what would it be?

I have always loved sport (never been much good at it) but as an avid Everton Football and Ireland & Leinster Rugby fan, being involved with one of these would be a dream come true for me.

Now that the world is opening up again, where would be the first place overseas that you would like to visit on holiday?

HXGN Live 2022

Before Covid I always enjoyed travelling to see our partners and attend the conferences and sales meetings and I really looking forward to that starting again (Las Vegas is calling for HXGN Live this summer).

Just before Covid I visited Tel Aviv to meet our friends in Sisense but didn’t get time to see the country and would love to spend more time there.

On the bigger scale I would love to go back to Cancun and have always wanted to see New Zealand (especially as I am a big Lord of the Rings Fan).

Find Out More

At IMGS, Data Intelligence and information are at the core of what we do.  We provide solutions to automate data flows, visualise information and power data insights for a wide variety of customers included Local Authorities, Government Agencies, Utilities and Communications Organisations.

Our data solutions are built on our partner’s technology platforms and serve the citizens of Ireland every day, from managing water and electric networks to publishing key e-Government information through Government Portals.  Through our market leading partners, we provide organisations with end to end solutions that drive operational and capital efficiencies.

To learn and to arrange an initial data session with us, please CLICK HERE to fill in our contact form.