Why would I use the Forward Works Viewer when I have a GIS system?

November 2024

Some of our strongest supporters are GIS professionals – they love what the FWV aims to do and how it enables their organisation to collaborate both internally and with external organisations when it comes to infrastructure planning. However, you might be surprised that sometimes, it’s also the GIS team that need the most convincing of the benefits of FWV – they see a map and assume that their own GIS tool can do what the FWV does.

We’re here to tell you that if you’re considering using the Forward Works Viewer, it’s the best decision to boost the superpowers of your digital and spatial teams. The FWV is designed to work with your existing systems, processes and people. At first glance, the FWV may look like a map, but it’s really a collaboration super-tool (that masquerades as a map).

We get it.

Forward work planning is critical in an organisation’s strategic development, particularly in the realm of infrastructure project management. Historically, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have been the default choice for visualising forward works due to their impressive mapping capabilities and the ease of deploying online maps to users across an organisation.

The Forward Works Viewer might appear to be just another GIS tool—a collection of projects overlaid on an online map. You might ask, “Why invest in something we can handle in-house with our existing out-of-the-box software and proficient GIS team?” We hear you, and yes, we’re biased, but the Forward Works Viewer offers distinct advantages that make it a better choice for forward work planning and collaboration, just as your out-the-box software will offer capabilities that the Forward Works Viewer won’t – such as being able to create your own maps and share them to external platforms.

So – let us convince you why the Forward Works Viewer outperforms a traditional GIS system for visualising, coordinating and collaborating planned works.

Specialised focus

While GIS systems are versatile and multi-functional (the Swiss army multitool for online maps) the Forward Works Viewer maintains a singular focus: to visualise planned works in the context of other projects, assets and relevant sites to enable collaboration. It has been designed and crafted to focus exclusively on visualisation and coordination of projects. It alerts project managers to potential clashes or collaboration opportunities, allows users to access data relevant to their projects, and enables lots of different use cases – such as providing a simple workflow platform for contractors to let RCAs know when and where they’re working in the road corridor and what potential traffic impacts will be. It eliminates the clutter of unnecessary GIS functionalities – making it easier for users to quickly find what they want – which leads us nicely onto the next point:

User-friendly interface

The FWV’s intuitive design ensures it’s accessible to users of all technical levels, from tech-savvy experts to those less familiar with GIS systems. Its straightforward interface reduces the learning curve, allowing users to adapt quickly, ultimately saving both time and effort. We reckon it’s so intuitive it only takes 10 minutes to understand how to use the FWV – you’ll be novice to expert in no time.

Layers vs. data integration

GIS systems are designed to layer and visualise spatial data – but the data isn’t connected between layers – it’s just points and lines and random attributes all jumbled together on the map. Maybe this is manageable when there’s only a few layers and you just want to visually interrogate it, but the map quickly becomes confusing as more data is added and displayed. The point of difference with the Forward Works Viewer is we federate data into a single layer and provide intuitive interfaces to allow you to query, search and view. All the data, from hundreds of organisations, is combined in a standardised way – enabling you to build rich search criteria and query all the data at once. Want to run a report on all Three Waters projects happening in the next two years in the North Island? Easy! Want to see all the telecoms projects which intersect with electricity projects which intersect with bus routes and train stations in the Auckland region? Hold my beer. It’s such a simple idea, but one that offers incredible value to users.

Integration with other organisations, systems and databases to provide a holistic view and economies of scale

While a GIS system is excellent for viewing your own projects (and we encourage this! If you set up a feature service, it’s super simple for you to publish your data into the FWV), the challenge lies in integrating external data from various sources and systems. This usually involves dealing with APIs, additional licenses, data mapping, and the administrative burden of coordinating data updates.

Dealing with other organisations can mean complex decisions around accessing each other’s data and creating digital infrastructure to allow each other to securely share forward works information.

The FWV simplifies this process. It seamlessly integrates data from various sources (including RAMM, GIS systems, even Excel!), mapping it to a consistent schema and making it viewable, accessible, and easy to query. This aids in identifying clashes and opportunities for collaborating with external parties, and allows us to generate reports such as heat maps and Gantt charts to aid in project or transport planning.

There are economies of scale here – having a large amount of forward works data in one place makes cooperation much more valuable and can help bring external parties on board with sharing their projects.

Set up alerts to be kept updated of the things that interest you

The FWV offers functionality that a traditional GIS won’t, including the ability to be alerted to new project activity in areas that you’re interested in. Do you want to know of any new project activity that might impact yours? Easy – bookmark your project and be alerted any time a project intersects with yours. Do you want to know when projects are being planned for your road corridor ahead of time rather than when the last-minute corridor access request comes across your desk? Sweet – draw a boundary around your road corridor, and be alerted any time a project is published in that region.

The FWV also allows organisations to upload sensitive projects to the system, so they’re only visible by those in that organisation. This means you can still deconflict your projects, but you’re not alerting anyone else to the project. You can also share the project with organisations of your choice, so that those who need to know about it can find the project details easily.

Simple licensing structure

We don’t like to make things complicated, so we offer a straightforward licensing structure.

Our licensing model is focused on eliminating the siloed approach to data and access – we want as many organisations as possible to have free access to the FWV and all service support. This isn’t a commercial model but rather a transformative cost recovery model that is focused on achieving the best outcomes for all NZ. We have simple, easy-to-understand agreements in place and the platform is easy to spin up in an emergency situation. It’s the perfect tool to use both as a BAU tool but also during disaster recovery.

A single monthly fee, paid by a regional anchor subscriber, provides access to users from different organisations in the entire region. Single sign-on options further reduce administrative burdens, and increased peace of mind.

Full service offering

As a New Zealand based solution hosted onshore, we’re committed to providing excellent user support. We provide free and unlimited assistance to all subscribers and their regional users – and when you’re emailing support@forwardworks.co.nz, you’re sending your email to a real person who’s motivated to make a difference – in fact you can read about who we are here!

We help you from the very beginning – we carry out an extensive onboarding process which helps identify your primary data sources for forward work planning and the most effective way to publish them to the Forward Works Viewer. It also streamlines data collection from external organisations and ensures consistent mapping to a common schema for a unified view of all projects.

We’ll say that again, just in case you missed it… we take on the burden of collecting data from all agencies and organisations in the region and using smart automation, we load this into the FWV on a continual basis. We haven’t yet found a dataset or organisation whose data we can’t load.

Data sharing for the public good

The FWV is owned by a software foundation dedicated to collating information about the built environment, contributing to the nation’s infrastructure strategies and resilience in the face of natural disasters. By using the Forward Works Viewer, you play a part in building a national data set that drives continuous improvement and development and which is immediately available to support any future planned event or disaster. Good on you!! We fully respect the sovereignty of data and we don’t on-sell, and we are a neutral entity with no ambition other than making Aotearoa New Zealand more efficient, collaborative and resilient.

Continuous development of features and functionality

The FWV’s mission is to continually enhance its functionality and feature set, becoming New Zealand’s go-to tool for infrastructure planning. By participating in its use, whether through a subscription or by sharing project data, you actively shape the future of New Zealand’s infrastructure planning, with your feedback helping to prioritise and build new features.

Access to all data within the Forward Works Viewer

The FWV offers an API, allowing you to extract data from the platform into your own internal GIS system for analysis. All the data is mapped to a common schema for easy querying and analysis. By using FWV you get the best of both worlds – a simple, easy-to-use tool for general users, as well as the ability to take data into your own GIS if you don’t want to run two map systems.

The business case (cost and benefit)

A common reason for using a GIS rather than FWV, is cost. After all, you’ve already paid for your GIS system and you have a team to drive it. But we guarantee that FWV is much, much more cost effective than using your GIS system for cross-organisation forward work planning. You simply can’t build equivalent functionality to the FWV from an out-of-the-box GIS system without customisation (which costs heaps). And, we take care of all the service desk queries – for your organisation and all those from your region. If we could have built a more cost-effective solution using off-the-shelf technology, we honestly would have chosen that route. Once you try the FWV you’ll see why a standard GIS simply does not compare.

The bottom line

While GIS tools undoubtedly have their place in your toolkit, the Forward Works Viewer stands out when you need a holistic view of projects within your region and on your road corridor. Region-wide visibility of planned works brings numerous benefits, from mitigating disruption to the transport network to effective project sequencing that reduces community impacts and facilitates efficient communication.

If you’re looking for a solution that delivers a comprehensive view of planned works, alerts you to potential issues, and simplifies data integration, the Forward Works Viewer is your choice. For more information, reach out to us at info@forwardworks.co.nz, and we’ll be delighted to assist you.

In summary – here’s why you would use the Forward Works Viewer and not a GIS to view and coordinate planned works:

FWV is focused on doing one thing really well – identifying, viewing and coordinating projects
FWV is simple to learn and easy to use
FWV provides powerful ways to search project data and identify clashes and opportunities
FWV takes care of the hard task of transforming and loading data for any organisation
FWV will cost you less than configuring your own GIS
FWV provides simple licensing which, for nearly all users, is free
FWV provides a NZ based service desk – for general queries and all data questions.
FWV is owned by a charitable trust for the good of all NZ.
FWV is continually developed and improved.
FWV is a business-as-usual tool that offers immediate benefits if a disaster or unplanned event occurs
And lastly, FWV is Kiwi-as. No one collaborates like we do in NZ!

Sign up for a free account and take a look around: www.forwardworks.co.nz

Why would I use the Forward Works Viewer ​when I have a GIS system?

Why would I use the Forward Works Viewer when I have a GIS system?