Esri UK has announced a new partnership with Tetra Tech to offer customers an end-to-end solution for indoor mapping, designed to capitalise on an increasing demand for indoor mapping for facilities management and indoor navigation, at large offices, campuses, or hospitals.
Offering the complete workflow, global consulting and engineering services company Tetra Tech will provide the necessary 3D terrestrial laser scanning, data analytics and CAD to GIS expertise, while Esri UK will offer its GIS system with numerous indoor mapping capabilities, including interactive floorplans, indoor positioning for wayfinding plus real-time people and asset tracking.
Indoor mapping provides users with digital twin floorplans, helping to improve operational efficiency by giving staff a clear picture of where things are and how to reach them, for improved building performance and asset management. Esri UK’s current indoor mapping customers include The University of Oxford and large energy providers, while Tetra Tech works with major energy, government and defence customers.
The firms will work on joint projects within AEC, facilities management, transport, defence and healthcare industries. One area of focus will be helping organisations return to work as Covid-19 restrictions lift.
“As the demand for indoor mapping starts to become more widespread, the new partnership is designed to make the process of creating indoor maps more efficient and streamlined for customers,” explained Craig Evenden, head of AEC & BIM at Esri UK. “Esri UK and Tetra Tech offer very complementary skillsets, ideal for helping organisations progress their digital transformation and achieve a better understanding of their buildings and assets. We are experiencing demand from the higher education, energy, defence and healthcare sectors, as organisations look to make their buildings smarter and improve how they manage them.”
Services offered by Tetra Tech include all types of fixed and handheld lidar scanning, from millimetre precision to larger-scale centimetre resolution, depending on the application. For customers who have existing CAD or BIM data, Tetra Tech offers data preparation and cleansing services. Esri UK will be delivering its various software applications for indoor mapping, including ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Indoors to accommodate any type or size of project. Indoor mapping can integrate and complement existing facilities management software by giving users a geographical visualisation of their estates.
“Our Leading with Science approach is valued by our clients and augmented by a suite of proprietary technologies and analytical tools we call the Tetra Tech Delta. We are using Tetra Tech Delta solutions to transform static CAD or BIM data into an accessible, interactive and analytical environment. We make sure the correct data, at the optimum resolution, is ready for processing by indoor mapping software,” explained Jeff Van Etten, head of GIS in the UK at Tetra Tech. “We are already seeing an increased demand for indoor mapping this year as organisations return to work and can benefit from the digitalisation of their floorplans, which leads to better facilities management going forward.”
Esri UK and Tetra Tech are holding a joint webinar on Tuesday 30 March 2021 at 3.00-4.00pm, to explore how indoor mapping can help understand site layouts, assets and navigation. The University of Oxford will be discussing how recent innovations in indoor mapping will be helping it improve the efficiency of asset management, budgeting and building planning, across its complex estate of more than 300 buildings.
