Cloudpoint Now Offering Services Living up to its namesake

It’s rather interesting, some of the comments we get about the name of our company when people are first introduced to us. They say “Cloudpoint, hmm, is that some kind of cloud-based service, do you work with point clouds, etc.?” As company founder Jonathan Hodel notes, “when we started up in 2011, my wife, Megan and I were discussing several options for names and wanted something that spoke to the technology we are using. As a geospatial company, I knew point clouds were a key part of the services we were offering but at the same time ‘the cloud’ was becoming a popular way to store, manage, and process data.” Proof of this can be found in the fact that company adopted use of the cloud as a way of doing business right from the start.

Using file storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive, then in 2012 becoming an Esri Business Partner and launching its first ArcGIS Server environment in a completely cloud-hosted environment on Amazon’s AWS platform, Cloudpoint is putting its money where its name is. Hodel states, “I like to be able to tell people we’ve never actually ‘owned’ a server and have never had a box in the back room”. At first hearing this, you might think they’ve saved tons of money on hardware and networking costs over the years, however that’s not necessarily the case as the company has invested almost $50,000 in AWS services alone between Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2’s), S3 storage, and Workspaces. Now the company uses multiple AWS EC2 servers for tasks such as testing and deployment of new ArcGIS Enterprise software packages, project work needing multi-editor environments, and even staging environments for new applications such as Esri’s ArcGIS Indoors.

Now the company is excited to announce its latest service offering of cloud-hosted GIS architecture for organizations looking to migrate their GIS network into a secured cloud environment. Customers can even pair this offering with Cloudpoint’s managed services to have a complete, turn-key Enterprise GIS solution allowing them to focus on their end-user applications and workflows. With this approach, Cloudpoint will launch, deploy, and maintain your complete GIS server architecture in Amazon’s AWS cloud environment giving you as much or as little involvement as you prefer. Yes, that’s right, no need to worry about future server upgrades, monitoring logs, or up-time statistics. Isn’t it time to be done with ‘boxes in the back room’? Contact their professional services or call 877-377-8124 for a brief consultation to see if migrating to the cloud is right for you.

Staying Aligned with Esri at its Partner Conference in Palm Springs

Despite the recent COVID-19 setbacks, the Cloudpiont team was represented at the recent Esri Partner Conference in sunny Palm Springs, CA on March 7-9. Jon Hodel and Micah Williamson were able to attend the conference to stay abreast with the latest technology and solutions offered by Esri through all facets of the ArcGIS platform. It was a bit of an unusual conference given the circumstances surrounding the coronavirus concerns as we were surprised by things like the last-minute cancellation of the exhibits, solutions expo, and developer conference, as well as bumping elbows with people we greeted instead of the normal hand shake. Another unique sight was people scrubbing down their airplane seats with cleaning wipes before sitting down. And given the outlook of things it may be the last conference we are able to attend for several weeks.

All of that aside it was still a very productive and fruitful endeavor as we were able to connect with key personnel from Esri to discuss business strategies and meet new Esri partners that could prove to be valuable relationships in the future. Lots of chatter about ArcGIS Indoors, Machine Learning, Services Opportunities, Upgraded Partner Directory, and discussion about benefits of being a Release Ready partner. Jon was even asked to be on a Release Readiness panel with two other founder, CEO’s of GIS companies. We learned that we are 1 of only 77 Release Ready specialty partners. Our team has found tremendous benefit from attending the EPC and looks forward to continued ongoing alignment with the Esri team.

Cloudpoint’s Jon Hodel participates on a discussion panel sharing insights about what it means to be a Release Ready partner. Other participants were Skye Perry from SSP Innovations and Josh Northcott from Hounder.

Cloudpoint Showcasing its best at the 2020 Esri's Midwest User Conference

Its clear to see that after attending the 2020 Esri Midwest User Conference in Chicago, Esri knows how to put on a good show. Cloudpoint was pleased to be a part of this year’s program by being one of just seven sponsors. As expected, the event attracted GIS users, analysts, IT professionals, department managers, local and state officials from across the Midwest. The technical sessions were loaded with new content from Esri including talks about Enterprise Implementation Best Practices, Mobile & Field Collection tools like ArcGIS QuickCapture, Parcel Fabric in ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS, Public Works Solutions for Local Governments, and a slew of others.

If you were not one of the hundreds of attendees at this year’s event, you should definitely mark your calendar for next year. It appears that this one will continue to grow in attendance and continue to attract folks from many different states. As one of our booth visitors put it, “The food here is fantastic. Much better than my last conference where all I got was 2 free drink tickets”. Of course it helps that the historic Hilton hotel in Chicago has such a knack for delivering an amazing conference atmosphere. Here are some photos from Jon, Micah, Erin, and Bill, our four team members who attended the event…

If you missed out this year, contact us or call 877-377-8124 and we’ll make sure you receive a personal invite for next year.

A Warm Cloudpoint Welcome to New Team Member, Bill Steele!

Next Monday marks two weeks since Bill has joined the Cloudpoint team as our Business Development Specialist. The main focus of this position is building relationships with existing and potential customers to help them make data-driven decisions based on spatial location. To do this job effectively, you must be confident, independent, and adventurous. We have been able to see all of these qualities in Bill in the past two weeks and are glad to welcome him to our winning team.

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Bill comes from a background of cemetery management and legacy planning. His background also includes healthcare and insurance. The spark for a love of business development in these areas may have been from working with his dad in a small business out of their home. His knowledge of cemeteries has helped him catch on so quickly regarding the services we provide for cemeteries. On just his fourth day, he was able to go out and talk to potential clients about Cloudpoint’s professional services. He is begun reaching out to potential cemetery customers helping them learn more about managing burials and lot sales using a highly-accurate interactive mapping interface.

We are thankful to have Bill as a part of our team and appreciate the effort he has put in thus far.

Now enough about work.

In his leisure, Bill enjoys spending time with his family (Wife and two daughters) and also reading and listening to music. Home renovation and landscaping projects are a popular activity for Bill along with cooking. He has a goal to visit every MLB stadium and is also a St. Louis Cardinals fan so that is a plus for the Cloudpoint team.

Want to contact Bill? Here’s his card.

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Cloudpoint Geographics' Year Portfolio 2019

Our team is thankful for yet another successful year as we continue to grow together as a team and build friendships among ourselves and those we serve. Below are our most memorable highlights of this past year.

January:

Cloudpoint kicked off the year by attending the 2019 NENA conference in Orlanda. Erin Strickler, the NG911 team lead was able to gather more information on standards and expand on the team’s GIS data audit and cleanup capabilities with her additional expertise she brought back.

February:

Cloudpoint team members, Micah and Matt, exhibited at WLIA (Wisconsin Land Information Association) this year. While they were there, they discussed Managed GIS Services, Kickstart Services, NG9-1-1 Data Audits, and Esri’s Parcel Fabrics. Also in February, Jon and his family moved to a different home in Roanoke which his family continues to enjoy the neighbors and the park nearby.

March:

Jon attended the Esri Partner conference for the first time. After Micah encouraged him from his past visits, the opportunity presented itself to enjoy a business vacation, to the West Coast where he and his wife, Megan, represented Cloudpoint at the Esri Partner Conference. They enjoyed seeing popular tourist attractions and going for hikes in their spare time.

April:

April of 2019 marked the 5th birthday of SignOps! This is the application we use to for sign inventory asset management which helps the user to track inventory, maintenance history, collect GPS location, and more for their traffic sign inventories. With its cloud-based features, SignOps comes in a variety of flavors for use on desktop browsers and mobile devices.

May/June:

May brought exciting new technology as Cloudpoint was able to participate in Esri’s ArcGIS Indoors Specialty training in Redlands, CA. The team is currently working on a pilot project and partnering with Esri to build on its Indoors capabilities throughout the Midwest.

Cloudpoint welcomed two summer interns in June; Titus Williamson and Drew Martin. They helped immensely with projects such as Springdale Cemetery, various Parcel Fabric conversions, and ArcGIS Enterprise intalls.

In June, we started working with a new client; The City of Rockwall was our first client of our Parcel Fabric in the Lone Star state and it has been a joy to work with their staff.

Icecream You-scream were all part of our debt free scream!

July:

July brought more than one independence celebration. We were able to celebrate the payoff of all debt and become a debt free company.

In addition, Matt Junker was able to attend the Esri User Conference. He had a busy week learning and discussing the latest in Parcel Fabric and he even heard about something new called Excalibur.

August:

Jon Hodel was able to attend the CFTA(Campus FM Technology Association) Conference in Austin, TX for the first time this year. Not only was the conference an exciting and memorable experience but the city itself was an amazing experience!

Team member, Matt Junker, became a certified GISP (Geographical Information Systems Professional). Becoming certified is not an easy task. It takes many long hours of preparing and then taking the strenuous GISP Exam. However, Matt survived without a scratch. We are so glad to have a co-worker with a great passion for his work.

Jon provides an interactive tour of the new office from his daughter's hover board. Be careful it might make you sick. #donttrythisathome

September:

After several weeks of renovation and a few days of moving our belongings across town, Cloudpoint is now able to call Suite B of 1407 W Front St. home. It is spacious and inviting and most importantly a great place for put-put. The stone fireplace adds a great touch and some added warmth in the winter months.

October:

In September, we sought after someone to fulfill the Marketing Intern position. That person ended up being Destyne King, a Junior at Roanoke-Benson High School. She sends out email campaigns, organizes contacts, and writes our blogs (much like this one). After high school, she plans to work as well as attend ICC (Illinois Central College) to earn an Associate’s degree in Marketing/Business then to earn a Bachelor’s at undecided university.

Another project highlighted in Octorber was Westlawn Cemetery, which strives to provide the up-most convenience for their visitors. This is why they called upon Cloudpoint to help them create a visitor’s kiosk. This would enable visitors to search for loved ones when the office was closed. This kiosk is a routing service that leads people to a grave they search for.

November:

Micah, our Geospatial Services Director and leader of our Enterprise and Ongoing Services team, earned the Hilton Distinguished Collaboration Award at the ILGISA Conference this fall. In an interview, Micah said, “ I’ve always kind of bent towards talking about what someone is doing or encouraging people to go out and present what their doing. Tell your story rather than, you know, keep it quiet.” We are grateful to have a team member like Micah.

December:

Cloudpoint was honored to work with Norcomm, a 9-1-1 consolidated dispatch center in the Chicago land area. We preformed a data audit for Norcomm. By doing this, we check their data to make sure it is able to meet the State’s requirements and play a vital role in the life-saving services that Norcomm provides each day.

Cloudpoint’s, Micah Williamson preparing some last minute technical components of the 2019 winter showcase held in Morton, IL.

As many know, Cloudpoint hosts a winter showcase in Morton annually. Each year’s showcase however is unique. We enjoyed wonderful, engaging talks by Esri and special guest, Glen Wetterow from the City of East Peoria. We are already excited for next year’s winter showcase.

…And that’s a wrap. Are you interested in joining our team, or learning more about how Cloudpoint can help you make data-driven decisions? Contact us or call us at (877)-377-8124

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Cloudpoint Event Recap: Morton Showcase 2019

Last Friday we had the opportunity to once again gather with local government professionals throughout the Central Illinois area for the ArcGIS Solutions Showcase. Attendees traveled from as far as Galesburg , Watseka, Ottawa, and Decatur to learn about the latest solutions from Esri and pickup on some training tips for ArcGIS Online, Indoors, Hub, Dashboards, and Pro. Below are a few photos of the event. Videos of the showcase are coming soon on our Youtube Channel! This was the first time this event was captured in video recordings so please be sure to check those out in case you missed the live event. Special thanks to Mitchell Winiecki from Esri for getting the creative thinking juices flowing, and guest speaker, Glen Wetterow, GIS Coordinator for the City of East Peoria for presenting on new ways their organization is using GIS technology. To find out more about past or future showcase events visit: https://www.cloudpointgeo.com/showcaseevents