ProDevel’s Chain-e: An information management revolution from a systems-oriented company
ProDevel Pty Ltd is an Australian software company, established in 2004 to serve the surveying community. Our work is based upon the concept that best practice in surveying should involve the simplest, most efficient and most automated work systems possible, as cutting down the number of manual steps in any given process assists in the management of risk, and frees up valuable time and human resources.
Most recently, we tackled the issues involved with the process of searching, and the management of search-related files, such as registered Survey Plans, within the office computer system. We saw that in terms of electronic file management, surveyors were confined to the limits of the folder-based system, in which they were forced to choose between having all files in the one folder (and thus large file lists and search times) or setting up a complicated per-job folder system, the likes of which tend to become very quickly disorganised, and the robustness of which has been found to rely upon the individual methods of those staff that store and access information within the system. To address this issue we developed our software product ‘Chain-e’.
Chain-e provides its users with a portal into the file system to which it is linked, such that they can add, remove, view and manipulate files within that system, without ever having to worry about tedious file searches and manual folder management. Furthermore, Chain-e provides a link from web-based searching sources straight into the associated file system – users can save files, web pages and information snapshots straight from the internet into any given job, without ever having to worry about the underlying structure and location of their server data. As we move into the future of surveying, the role of the surveyor moves evermore toward the field of spatial information management. Programs like Chain-e are the first steps in this revolutionary transition.