About Jacops
Jacops has been developing infrastructure in Belgium for over 50 years. The Design and Engineering teams are focused on bringing large projects to fruition, mostly in the telecom business. They engineer telecom networks, coax infrastructure and oversee the rollout of fiber networks. The design and engineering department oversees the entire project lifecycle, from the first surveys until the construction and delivery phase.
More control over survey projects
Jacops was starting a new project for the fiber rollout and needed the tools to organise a national survey. Previously they had used tools provided by a partner and needed to find a solution that allowed them to manage the full scope of the project.
Address management for utilities is not very good in Belgium, so the survey would be very complex. Surveyors would need to survey house-to-house to make sure that addresses and physical buildings were accurately recorded so they could determine where fiber connections are needed.
The database they used previously was managed by an external partner and many of the surveyors found it technically challenging to work with. They didn’t have control over the survey data and needed something that would give them version control in case they need to investigate the root cause of an issue.
Designing a complex survey made easier
One of Jacops’ designers had heard of Mergin Maps at a QGIS event and recommended it for this fiber project. They tried some simple projects on Mergin Maps to gain familiarity with the software and then started designing more complex projects.
Now they are using Mergin Maps to survey data about buildings. In QGIS, they need to have a layer with every building which they use to add more information about that same building, including a photo of the building and information about the number of units and location of the building. There is another layer for address data to show which street address is aligned to a particular building. They have added relations between the layers to show all the address points connected to a building. With this, they can complete the survey with a single form in Mergin Maps which has improved their productivity by a lot.
Surveyors now validate postal data by cross-checking government mailbox addresses with the map, rectifying inaccuracies in the outdated database and updating correct locations.
Managing the project with Mergin Maps
Using Mergin Maps has increased the productivity of the surveyors and made it easier for them to ensure the data is accurate. At any time, they have an average of 20 surveyors working in the field. Being able to see the progress of the surveyors in real time and fix any issues when they come up has improved project management. They also have version control which makes it easier to fix errors or other problems that arise.
Using Mergin Maps also gives them the ability to use QGIS and all of the features available with that software. This flexibility allows them to adapt to changing needs of their clients, which happens fairly frequently in their industry. For example, if they need a new field of information to be collected they can just add it themselves without having to wait for a third party to develop it. Saving time and money in the progress.
According to Dries Metten, who is the coordinator of the survey data team, “If I need to request a change with a third party I would need to set up a meeting and ask them to make changes. More often then not they’ll ask for money and time to make those changes. With Mergin Maps, I can do it all myself and change it however I want pretty quickly and free of charge.”
The design team also likes the flexibility of being able to manage the project in QGIS. The design team can make sure the data is collected that they need for the project. Mergin Maps lets them utilize the data in a structured way that helps them with designing. They use the validation rules to make sure the collected data is formatted correctly to use in their projects.
The coordinator of the design team, Philip Roffiaen says: “If Mergin Maps didn’t exist, I could imagine us using spreadsheets to capture data in the field but that could really mess up the data structure. Having the structure that Mergin provides and having this level of flexibility is really great.”
Overall, Mergin Maps has revolutionized Jacops' surveying processes for their fiber rollout, enhancing efficiency, control, and adaptability throughout the project lifecycle.
