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.