by Brianna Crandall — October 31, 2018 — BetterGIS, formerly known as UndergroundGIS, recently announced the nationwide availability of a newly enhanced platform that offers greater capabilities to manage out-of-sight, out-of-mind utilities and facilities infrastructure.
The expanded features in UVARA, the new name of the company’s cloud-based solution, provide owners, operators and third parties with a streamlined, simplified geographic information system (GIS) that provides digital mapping of a wide range of underground, surface and above-ground assets, including pipes, lines, conduits, and structures. Previously available only in California, UVARA is now available nationwide.
UVARA is particularly useful for owners, operators, and managers of multi-acre, multi-structure facilities, including physical plant managers, facilities and operations managers (FMs), property managers, building and grounds staff, and emergency preparedness and public safety staff. The solution offers decision-support tools that help reduce cost overruns, accelerate construction and design, improve risk management, and facilitate smarter maintenance decisions.
BetterGIS CEO Michael London explained:
Our new company name better reflects the expanded value proposition to all those assigned the complex task of managing utility and facilities infrastructure. UVARA’s powerful visualization, analytics and archival technology addresses the $1 trillion challenge of managing aging infrastructure and the costly, unforeseen problems that arise when there is no visual understanding of where assets are located.
With implementations at 20 facilities in California, UVARA has mapped more than 25,000 structures, $200 million in replacement cost value, and almost 3 million linear feet of assets — more than the distance between San Francisco and San Diego.
Chief Operating Officer Charlie Rudkin stated:
UVARA is the simplest and easiest to use GIS on the market today. UVARA promotes collaboration throughout the lifecycle of the asset with your entire team, including capital and master planners, architects, engineers, construction teams, facilities operations and maintenance teams, and public safety and disaster preparedness professionals. UVARA is also an opportunity to preserve and centralize your knowledge as the current generation of infrastructure professionals begins to retire.
UVARA supports teams managing educational facilities, such as colleges and high schools; healthcare facilities, such as hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and assisted living centers; commercial real estate, including retail centers, office complexes, and industrial buildings; utilities, such as water and sewer, power and electric systems, and communications assets; and municipalities managing public works, storm sewer systems, convention centers and parks.
Expanded value proposition
UVARA delivers the following benefits:
- Better forecasting and budgeting: Seeing the big picture below and above ground enables owners, operators and third parties to make smarter decisions throughout the lifecycle of the asset.
- Better design and construction: With spatially accurate data about important infrastructure in hand, planners, designers and construction managers can properly locate new assets in the right place the first time.
- Better coordination among construction teams: When all sub-contractors work from a common set of plans — a single source of truth — construction outcomes are better.
- Fewer trips to the plan room: With maps, data and other information accessible by multiple users from a centralized, secure platform, there’s no more wasted time with trips to the plan room and less worry about losing documents.
- Identify high-risk information gaps: BetterGIS field checks information uploaded into UVARA and fills the holes in your data. Confidence grows when design, construction and maintenance teams can easily identify missing information.
- Continuously refreshed maps and data: When new information from the field becomes known, maps, data and archives can be instantly updated.
- Preserve institutional knowledge: As a generation of professionals begins to retire, UVARA helps preserve institutional knowledge and enables the next generation of managers to benefit from the insight and experience of your current team.
- Better risk management: UVARA improves risk management throughout the lifecycle of the asset by reducing costly mistakes upfront and by empowering master and capital planners to better allocate resources and control costs.
- Better maintenance and operations: An accurate and current visual picture of all assets helps you prioritize and allocate resources wisely.
- Reduce liability: When you don’t see the big picture, costly mistakes can happen. UVARA helps reduce mishaps by delivering the most current information about what’s above, on and below the ground.
- Better emergency preparedness and disaster planning: When a crisis happens, UVARA can bring order to chaos. The platform can quickly share information about your facilities or asset with public safety and disaster recovery professionals.
In conjunction with the nationwide launch of UVARA and its corporate rebranding, BetterGIS also announced a special partner program for architects, engineers and contractors.
For more information about the UVARA GIS solution, visit the BetterGIS website.
