La Crosse, WI – February 9, 2011 – NMT Corporation, The Toronto Locate Alliance Consortium (LAC), a group of Ontario-based utilities, has selected NMT Corporation’s MapAgile™-based MultiViewer as its GIS viewer of choice for their Locate Service Providers (LSP).

Standardization on NMT’s MultiViewer is one more step in achieving the LAC group’s goal of increasing efficiency, improving service, lowering costs and reducing damages to utility infrastructure in southern Ontario.

It is expected that, by standardizing on a common, platform-independent viewing tool like the MultiViewer, LSP companies will be able to more quickly and accurately perform individual locates. This will reduce damages caused by errors, increase efficiency and locate quality and allow field crews to perform more locates daily.

The LAC member utilities use different GIS platforms and data structures, however, they use many of the same locate companies for call-before-you-dig locates. In the past, the LSPs would require a different GIS viewer for each utility company’s GIS data for whom they performed pre-construction locates. Managing multiple viewing tools on a single field workstation to view different GIS platforms proved to be a cumbersome, tedious, and unreliable solution.

Using NMT’s MultiViewer, LSP field crews and office personnel are able to locate and quickly zoom to locations of interest. Using customized selectors, the user can find items via addresses, street intersections, cities, and specific lat-long coordinates. Additional selectors can easily be added as required. Once at the item or location of interest, the user can toggle between different commodity databases by simply clicking a button on the user interface.

All LAC data is tied to a common landbase that has been provided, in this implementation, by Bell Canada. Multiple tabs can be added and viewed by the user to compare different infrastructure at the same location. Database information tied to the graphics is easily viewed, and in some cases, connectivity logic is maintained, allowing the network to be traced upstream, downstream or by cable pair. The user can perform redline markups, which can be saved and e-mailed back to the offices of the LSP or the LAC utility members as needed. Common navigational controls allow the user to window, zoom, and pan to different areas of the maps, or to a specific scale. The MultiViewer is GPS-enabled allowing users to center their location on a map or to locate their position relative to another point on the map.

The data from each utility member has been customized to include that which is most pertinent to the field crews. GIS systems collect and maintain a vast array of information; for LSPs, their tasks may only require a small portion of the total data. Non-relevant data has been removed to minimize clutter and maximize ease of use and performance.

NMT Corporation has been providing mobile and network GIS viewing software and engineering data distribution services to electric, telecommunication, natural gas, water/sewer, and CATV utilities since 1987. For more information visit the NMT Website www.nmt.com, e-mail to Email Contact or call (800) 236-0851, ext. 118.

The Locate Alliance Consortium is a group of facility owners working towards a cost efficient locate process, with standardized terms and conditions fostering consistent quality and outcomes. Current members of the LAC include Union Gas, Bell Canada, Enbridge Gas Distribution, Milton Hydro, Toronto Hydro, Westario, Whitby Hydro, and the City of Brampton. For more information about the Locate Alliance Consortium, visit their web site at www.locatealliance.com.

Contact:

Tom Ringdahl
608/781-0850, x 118
Email Contact