System Surveyor Changes How Systems Projects Are Being Planned And Managed

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Below is our recent interview with Christopher Hugman, Founder and CEO of System Surveyor:

Q: Briefly give us some background on System Surveyor?

A: It is actually a classic story of innovation: I was a business owner with a problem to solve. My company installed and serviced electronic physical security systems to commercial and government clients throughout Texas. We had been growing but we were facing some challenging operational issues that were holding us back. First, we needed a better methodology to engage with prospective customers and gather project requirements. Second, as the organization grew it was more difficult to communicate client expectations across the organization. Third, after completing a project, we did not have an effective way to keep system details updated, making service calls difficult. The single solution for all of these challenges eventually came together as System Surveyor.

Q: Describe for our readers how the problem evolved into the solution of System Surveyor?

A: Before System Surveyor, information was being captured on paper floor plans and photos on a smart phone. Back at the office we would spend a lot of time reviewing our notes, uploading photos, and creating our initial system concept for the project using a complex drawing software. Then, we would make another trip back to the meet the customer to confirm the design. With System Surveyor, the process became digitized. The easy to use mobile tablet application allowed our sales people to design a system layout and capture photos all-in-one place. Then, we could immediately show our system concept to the customer for feedback – and we didn’t need to use a complicated drawing program. Not only did this save a huge amount of time, but customers felt it was more professional and responsive, which led to improved sales. Today, security and facility managers within large organizations are also adopting System Surveyor for quick access to a living digital floor plan and they have the latest information and details at their fingertips.

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Q: You’ve recently announced a new release of your software as a service platform; could you tell us more about this?

A: One of the great things about a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform is that we can provide feature updates frequently – and all users automatically benefit. Our users are designing security, audio-visual and other types of systems in our platform comprised of many different types of components – we call them “elements”. In our most recent update, we introduced “Shareable Element Profiles”. This allows users to quickly import a product list for a certain type of device. When a user is on a customer site, these products appear on a drop-down menu for that element. If they drag and drop a camera onto the floor plan, they can then select the specific camera model from the list. It’s a big time saver. Now we have manufacturers that are willing to provide these lists to our users for certain types of devices. The users import the list to their System Surveyor account and they are good to go. This release also included the introduction of a Healthcare System Type with more than 20 new healthcare and nurse call elements, as well as a new Multi-lens Camera that allows for visualizing the area of coverage and field of view. We are routinely adding new types of elements.

Q: Can you tell us more about how companies are using System Surveyor?

A: Absolutely. When system integrators and security dealers first see System Surveyor, they immediately grasp the benefit of using a digital floor plan to create a system layout for a proposed project. So, we naturally see a lot of sales teams adopting it. The overwhelming feedback is that System Surveyor helps them win more business. It also makes it very easy for the sales person to share all of the information with their installation team, vendor partner or subcontractor, eliminating countless email iterations. Finally, the field technicians now have all the information that they need such as serial numbers, installation date and device passwords right at their fingertips.

Also, System Surveyor works well for security directors in large organizations in the corporate, industrial, government and education sectors who have a need to manage large and complex systems. At the University of Nevada Las Vegas, the campus technology group uses System Surveyor to do system design and management of the physical assets in their buildings. Because it is intuitive and easy to use, they can engage students in the process.

Q: On your website, you mention System Surveyor can be used for collaboration on a project, tell us more about that?

A: Virtually every project to install a system requires at least two people to agree on the plan. Most often, especially in large organizations like schools, there may be a dozen or more involved. The most common approach is to create a plan, circulate it by email, and schedule a series of meetings to finalize the plan. Then the project lead will return to his office and revise the plan. Then he starts the review process all over. This requires an immense amount of time and coordination. With System Surveyor, multiple users can review the plan on-line and know that they are seeing the latest updates. One scenario might be a meeting where a group of stakeholders provides feedback and the project lead could make the changes on System Surveyor right there in the meeting. By the end of the meeting, everyone had agreed on the plan. Without System Surveyor this process of collaboration would typically require at least three meetings – and usually two months – to get to a final plan.

We also offer other collaboration features as well. For instance, a system integrator that utilizes subcontractors can add a subcontractor as a guest user to a particular customer account. The subcontractor has access to the plans and can update information and attach photos as the project progresses. This greatly simplifies the constant need for updates and information transfer because the system integrator and end customer can monitor the progress by viewing the most recent updates on-line.

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Q: It certainly sounds like System Surveyor is changing how systems projects are being planned and managed. Would you consider this a “disruptive” technology?

A: We are definitely changing how systems are being designed, implemented and managed by system integrators as well as enterprise technology managers. So, while I prefer the term “innovative”, many people have described System Surveyor as a disruptive technology. Many of our clients feel that System Surveyor is a competitive advantage for their business. And, we have only just gotten started. We actively solicit feedback from our customers about how we can help these companies improve their processes, customer service and general business success.