Two New Videos for Remote Workers

Since we are all working at home these days. It makes sense to think that some GIS workers will be trying to connect to their enterprise GIS. If you do not have a VPN or the connection is spotty, you may want to try and connecting to the data through ArcGIS Portal. Micah created two short videos to help with this task. You will need to know your ArcGIS Portal home URL, a username and licensed copy of ArcGIS Pro.

https://youtu.be/QHD5BrZx7Oc

During the Stay Home mandate from the COVID-19 coronavirus, it is essential to continue connecting to our enterprise GIS systems. This video will help show h...

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This next video shows you how to connect ArcGIS Pro to open and public REST endpoints. This will enable you to add published data to your map regardless of the source.

If you need to know where to find REST endpoints check out this BLOG post from a few months back.

https://youtu.be/vRqo7Yzxbmo

During the Stay Home mandate from the COVID-19 coronavirus, it is essential to continue connecting to our enterprise GIS systems. This video will help show h...

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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.

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

Cloudpoint Team Member, Micah Williamson, Earns Distinguished Award!

Have you heard? Our very own, Micah Williamson, earned the Hilton Distinguished Collaboration Award at the ILGISA Conference. Micah has been a member of the Cloudpoint team for 7 years, but has been working in the GIS industry for 18 years. At Cloudpoint, he works as our Geospatial Services Director and a certified GISP (Geographic Information Systems Professional). If he doesn’t already sound busy enough, you’ll be surprised to hear that Micah is currently continuing his education (Master’s Degree) at Eastern Illinois University. Micah has a great passion for the work he does.

On October 22nd during the ILGISA Conference, Micah received the Hilton Distinguished Collaboration Award. One award is given out annually at each conference. According to ILGISA, “the Hilton Distinguished Collaboration Award is presented to an individual who has provided extraordinary service to the GIS community in the advancement of coordination between GIS professionals. This award is presented to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the promotion of cooperation within our community and with the people we serve.”

In an interview with Micah, he mentioned that he always strives to do things that would focus on people sharing with each other: ideas, concepts, and even data. Micah emphasized that collaboration is a vital aspect of communication. Later in the interview, Micah spoke out about about his long-lived inclination for collaboration. “I’ve always kind of bent towards talking about what someone is doing or encouraging people to go out and present what they’re doing. Tell your story rather than, you know, keep it quiet.”

We are proud of Micah and his achievement and we will continue to focus on collaboration to better our services to you.

[1.] https://www.ilgisa.org/awards.html

A Tale of Two Interns

It’s been a very busy spring (and summer) at Cloudpoint Geographics. We are neck deep in cemetery mapping, parcel fabric conversions, ArcGIS Enterprise installs, managed services contracts and indoor mapping. So much is happening we are slacking on keeping up with keeping you up to date.

We would like to introduce you to our summer interns:

Titus Williamson

Titus started with us in early May and jumped in without hesitation. He has helped with a culvert inventory (forgot to mention that one) and is actively working on the Springdale Cemetery project. Titus attends Northern Illinois University, is majoring in Environmental Studies and also works as a barista at the Spot in Peoria. And yes, he is related to Micah.

Drew Martin

Drew is a 2018 graduate of Roanoke-Benson High School and just started this week with Cloudpoint. He is just beginning to understand what we are about and is excited to learn GIS. Drew is also currently working through our quality control project of Springdale Cemetery and looks forward to getting into some field work with the data collection portion of the culvert inventory. He currently attends Illinois Central College and will major in Computer Science with the intention to continue his education at Illinois State University. Drew enjoys spending time outdoors doing activities like fishing or golfing or just hanging out with my friends and family.

Welcome Guys!

Titus on the Left, Drew on the Right. (don’t mind the reflection of Micah & Jon in the middle)