Office Move 2019 is complete!

Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? Do you expand your office space and then hire, or wait until you are too crowded and then seek more space? With being located in a small, rural town in central Illinois, office space can be hard to find. So we decided to expand our facilities prior to increasing the size of our team. On September 9, 2019 we moved into what used to be Hagie Equipment, and prior to that was the Amish furniture store in the main portion of a building originally built by H&D Quality Builders. The new space gives us more room, updated facilities, more parking, better access, and improved visibility as we fill out the middle section of 1407 W. Front St in Roanoke. Here are some photos of the recent move process highlighting our team members hard at work. Thankful for God’s blessings in helping us find new space and looking forward to serving our clients in greater capacity.

Congratulations to Matt Junker, our latest GISP!

Congratulations to Cloudpoint's, Matt Junker, for becoming the team's latest certified GIS Professional (GISP).  Matt recently sat for the GISP examination through the GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) back in June.   Obtaining a GISP certificate involves an extensive application process which now includes the exam requirement.   A certified GISP is someone who has proven to be dedicated to the GIS profession and has a clear grasp on geospatial concepts and how to apply them.

“Matt is clearly one of the most dedicated GIS professionals in the industry", says Hodel. “He has a tremendous impact on our team’s ability to solve critical problems with geospatial solutions”. One of Matt’s main responsibilities at Cloudpoint is to provide on-going solutions to their managed GIS services clients. Matt also serves as the team leader for the company’s parcel fabric team.

Certified Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Professional endorsed by a 3rd party (GISCI) though a peer-reviewed evaluation.The GIS Certification Institute (GISCI) is a non-profit organization that provides the GIS community with a complete certification program, leading to GISP® (Certified GIS Professional) recognition. GISCI offers participants around the world, from the first early years on the job until retirement, a method of showing competence as professionals to employers in the GIS profession. We offer the only industry-wide, internationally-recognized, software-agnostic certification available to geospatial professionals. The following are some notes highlighting what makes a certified GISP:

• Has met the minimum standards for educational achievement, professional experience, and manner in which he or she contributes back to the profession, and practices in an ethical manner.

• Must abide by higher guidelines for ethical behavior.

• Continues to educate and reeducate him or herself while preparing for recertification.

• Has had their professional background scrutinized and reviewed by an independent third party organization. An Institute comprised of leading non-profit associations (AAG, NSGIC, UCGIS, GITA, URISA, and GLIS) focused on the application of GIS and geospatial technology.

• Can come from anywhere in the world, and current, active GISPs reside in all 50 States and 25 foreign countries.

• Is more than a practitioner of GIS technology.

• Is a Professional.

Well done Matt!

City of Pekin ready for GIS Excellence

The Cloudpoint is excited to have the opportunity to take the City of Pekin’s GIS to the next level. The city has used Cloudpoint’s professional GIS services off and on for the past five years but after losing their full-time GIS coordinator last fall, they realized the critical importance of maintaining their GIS system and decided to take their relationship with Cloudpoint from one of courting, to a more serious partnership. With that, Cloudpoint and the City of Pekin have engaged in a two-year contract for professional GIS services to support the various departments throughout the city. The team has begun intensive meetings with city staff to further dive into their needs and how they can better utilize the GIS system for their daily workflows. With the new contract, Cloudpoint staff will be onsite for up to 30 hours per month, with additional technical support services coming in the forms of enterprise GIS management and GIS application deployment. One of the main objectives is to enable city staff to take more ownership of GIS data and make edits and updates for their department with user-friendly web-based applications. The Client has a wealth of GIS data which has been well managed and distributed in the past but with greater editing capabilities, the use of real-time GIS updates should further enhance the value of their data. In addition, the city hopes to easily share this authoritative data both internally as well as externally to contractors, consultants, and developers. For more information on Cloudpoint’s Managed Professional Services (MPS) please contact us or call 877-377-8124.

SignOps Celebrates 5 Years!

It was 5 years ago this month, in 2014, that Cloudpoint introduced its first and only asset management application, SignOps, for traffic sign inventories. SignOps was introduced as an innovative, web-based sign inventory management system that will make your team more efficient and your inventory tracking a snap. Since then, public works and transportation crews have been enjoying the SignOps mobile app, which allows users to easily collect GPS location, photos, and even scan barcodes to track maintenance history, retroreflectivity, and sign inspection information. This is just one example of how Cloudpoint Geographics is helping its many clients use location based technology to make informed, data-driven decisions. For more information about SIgnOps sign inventory management system visit cloudpointgeo.com/signopsinfo or call 877-377-8124.

Facts about SignOps

• Over 120 users

• Over 30,000 maintenance activities

• Over 750 pre-loaded sign types

• Scalable, Secured, Performance cloud-based storage

• Unmatched technical support

• Developed and tested with End Users

Here you can find printer friendly versions of our SignOps Brochure or the Signs of Success Case Study

Meet the Cloudpoint Team at the WLIA 2019 Annual Conference

Cloudpoint Geographics will be exhibiting at the WLIA Annual Conference Feb 20-22, 2019 at Red Lion Hotel Paper Valley in Appleton, WI.

Look for Cloudpoint’s Micah Williamson and Matt Junker at the upcoming conference. Stop by with any questions regarding our services including:

• Managed GIS Services

• Kickstart service packages

• NG9-1-1 GIS data cleanup

• Esri’s parcel fabric

Wisconsin Land Information Association has been an excellent organization to be a part of. Every conference is filled with learning opportunities as well as great social activities. Don’t miss out on your chance to be part of the latest GIS news in Wisconsin during this upcoming event.

Contact us for more information or to setup a time to meet at WLIA.

YouTube Channel Recognized in top 10 GIS

Not to sound braggadocios, but we are great at GIS. It is just a fact, it’s what we do. Jon likes to say “GIS is our first thought, not an afterthought”. Helping organizations is a part of our vision and our vision is etched in stone.

We also create helpful content for our clients, or even people we will never meet. Making YouTube content has been a part of Cloudpoint’s DNA since the beginning when we bought our first GPS receiver. Our faithful follower-ship is completely organic and grassroots.

This dedication to good content has been recognized by a third-party and We are proud to let you know we are ranked SECOND! These Youtube Channels are ranked based on following criteria

• Total youtube channels subscribers, video views, and video uploads

• Quality and consistency of videos

• Youtube search ranking

• Feedspot editorial team’ objective and subjective review

New Team Member: Mike Genard

We are very pleased to introduce to you Mike Genard, Cloudpoint’s newest team member and latest GIS technician.

Mike discovered his passion for geography while in school and recognizes the power and potential of geospatial technology. Mike received his Bachelors of Science degree in Geography along with a minor in Environmental Studies this past spring from Illinois State University where he was able to demonstrate his geographic capabilities by being named the recipient of the Margaret Means Award and Scholarship, awarded annually to the student who displays academic excellence in the classroom. While he attended ISU, Mike was able to build a firm foundation in GIS cartography and remote sensing.

Over the course of the summer, Mike interned with the Peoria Park District, where he gained practical experience in mapping, environmental practices, and interacting with the public. He was hired on by the Park District as a research technician and utilized GIS to assess pollinator habitat across Central Illinois. As an aspiring GIS professional, Mike looks to expand his geographic knowledge and skillset and become certified in GIS. Outside of work, Mike enjoys outdoor recreation, spending time with friends and family and cheering on the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks.

You can see his official bio

along with the rest of our team over on our staff page

Scott County receives GIS Data cleanup for NG9-1-1

When Scott County, Iowa had a recent opportunity to secure grant funding to provide GIS data cleanup for NG9-1-1 they took full advantage and contract with Cloudpoint to compete this work.  The project had a very tight time frame being completed in less than 60 days.  This work involved cleanup of Emergency Service boundaries in the GIS, as well as repairing road centerline geometry, correcting road centerline address ranges, directional errors in digitize roadway directions, and reviewing site address data points that fell out of range with the centerlines.  Cloudpoint was able to complete this cleanup work using tools including curves-to-lines in ArcGIS Pro, creating topologies, and using the 'Align To Shape' tool for aligning emergency services boundaries with road centerlines and administrative or political boundaries where applicable.  Overall the project involved a over of 88,000 address points and more than 2,300 centerline miles.  Cloudpoint continues to provide high quality GIS data services for state and local governments throughout the Midwest.  For more information contact our office at 877-377-8124.

A screenshot of address points, road centerlines, and emergency services boundaries requiring review and data cleanup for improving emergency response and dispatch for NG9-1-1 services in Scott County, IA.

Another trip to The Esri User Conference in San Diego

Cloudpoint's Erin Strickler was able to attend the Esri User Conference, the world's largest GIS conference, in San Diego for the first time this year.  This is the fifth time that the Cloudpoint team has been represented at the conference where over 17,000 people gather to hear the latest GIS news and enjoy thousands of hours of one-on-one networking, collaboration, and fun with fellow attendees.  Erin shares some of her highlights of attending this year's conference in this blog.