British developer of geographic information systems (GIS) software, Cadcorp, has announced Site Auditor – an application designed for organisations that own or manage geographically dispersed assets that have to be periodically inspected. The product streamlines and automates the auditing process by eliminating unnecessary paperwork and data transcriptions, it is claimed.
“There are many reasons why organisations in both the public and private sector have to carry out periodic inspections,” said Mike O’Neil, CEO Cadcorp. “They include monitoring safety and compliance, reducing liability, and assessing the state of repair of an asset. What the organisations have in common is that they need to keep an auditable record of these site visits and they want to achieve this using automated means as far as possible. Cadcorp Site Auditor addresses this need by providing a streamlined process for generating a visual and auditable record of the location, time, and duration of site visits.”
Site Auditor works with a GPS recording device carried by inspectors,in-vehicle or on-foot. The device is set to record lat-long positions at given time intervals from the start to the end of a site inspection workflow. Site Auditor reads and processes the resultant data file, and provides the analysis and reporting functionality that is required to structure the GPS trace, or ‘bread-crumb’ trail, into an auditable record of inspections.
The application works on the basis that a visual inspection can be deemed to have occurred when an inspector has been within a given distance of a target location for a sufficiently long period of time. By comparing the known location of target sites with the recorded location of the GPS device, Site Auditor identifies target sites which meet the conditions of falling within the range of the inferred location of the inspector and for a sufficient duration. Conversely, it identifies target sites which are deemed not to have been inspected and perhaps warrant a subsequent visit. Site Auditor allows the two key parameters – proximity and duration – to be user-defined.
“We are getting lot of interest in Site Auditor from police and security forces. They are finding Site Auditor a useful tool in their inspection and management of critical infrastructure, often in conjunction with vulnerability and risk assessments. However we are also getting interest from utilities, highways authorities, and housing associations: in fact any organization that needs a verifiable record of field inspections. “
