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| Ken Zirkel / flickr |
Representatives of geoAMPS have been invited by the International Right of Way Association (IRWA) to speak during the 2014 Young Professionals Symposium planned in conjunction with the 60th annual IRWA International Education Conference in Hartford, Conn.
Brock Hicks, Business Development Manager, and Jenelle Cooper, Senior Product Specialist, will speak Saturday, June 21, during a session on Technology Applications in Right of Way.
“I am pleased that Brock and Jenelle will address the Young Professional Symposium,” Yogesh Khandelwal, President and Chief Executive Officer of geoAMPS, said. “Technological advancements are greatly improving efficiencies and thus making a huge difference in the right of way industry. Being on the front lines of training our geoAMPS clients and providing product support, Brock and Jenelle are eminently qualified to discuss this topic.”
As Business Development Manager at geoAMPS,Brock is responsible for researching and developing business within the right of way industry. He works with new and existing clients to determine their business requirements, creating and maintaining a CRM database, and organizing demonstrations of geoAMPS’ suite of products to potential clients, which includes web, GIS, and mobile application technologies.
Brock Hicks
Brock started with geoAMPS as a Product Support Analyst in May 2013. He was responsible for managing a portfolio of clients on a day-to-day basis, troubleshooting technological issues, building client-specific reports and templates, writing technical help documentation, and training existing/new clients on the geoAMPS software. After being promoted to Senior Product Analyst in early 2014, Brock transitioned to Business Development where he became Business Development Manager in June 2014.
Brock received his B.A. from Wittenberg University in May 2013, studying Business and Geography with an environmental and GIS focus. He was a four-year letter winner on the Wittenberg University Men’s Soccer team and served as team captain for one year.
Jenelle Cooper
As Senior Product Specialist at geoAMPS, Jenelle is responsible for managing a portfolio of clients as the primary point of contact for product knowledge and all technical support issues including, but not limited to troubleshooting, case management, and problem resolution. Jenelle is also responsible for advisingcustomers of solutions by recommending products and services that will enhance the customer's progressive use of the software, creating templates and reports, and writing product documentation.
Jenelle started with geoAMPS as a Product Support Analyst in June 2013. She was promoted to her current position in February 2014. She also serves as lead trainer for geoAMPS interface users and a senior member of the geoAMPS reports team.
Jenelle received a B.A. from The Ohio State University in May 2013, studying Political Science and Journalism.
Until only recently, the right of way industry was dependent upon paper. From parcel maps, photocopied deeds and title documents, to notes on negotiations with landowners, paper has ruled an industry that is so essential to public and private infrastructure and project development.
Reliance on paper is giving way to advancements in technology. Through web-based software and easy-to-navigate dashboards, organizations can manage right of way projects and land assets in a real-time, paperless environment that enables collaboration and error reduction. This technology produces efficiencies that help individual right of way agents work smarter and boost the bottom line of land service companies.
geoAMPS leads advancements
geoAMPS, a technology company in the Columbus, Ohio, area, has been leading these advancements. The company introduced mobile technology to the right of way industry. Leading land service companies in the United States and Canada have turned to geoAMPS to enhance their technological capabilities.
Through geoAMPS, these organizations are also utilizing geographic information system (GIS) mapping which can prove critical to right of way project staff in the office and in the field.
rowAMPS, one of the suite of software products offered by geoAMPS, supports this critical need by creating new opportunities to make the process of acquiring and tracking right of way go as smooth as possible. Right of way agents quickly gain the most up-to-date information on individual tracts within the project area. They can retrieve this information on mobile devices in the field. They can upload new information, notes and photographs into the project file.
“This the most valuable tool to me in the field,” said a Senior Right of Way agent working for a geoAMPS customer. “I can retrieve a landowner’s contact information in seconds without carrying my entire assigned tracts file box. I can take pictures of structures, land improvements and infrastructure items that may be of concern and sync them to their assigned tracts at the end of the day in minutes, without having to wait until returning to the office. I used to have to download from a camera, save it to my hard drive and upload them to the server.
“I can also add notes to a landowner’s file in seconds. If I am on the road for several hours and have talked to five to eight landowners, I don’t have to remember hours later what we talked about when I have to do my update. I have already made a note on my phone after the conversation is over and the notes can be synced to the landowner’s file by a press of a button.”
Prior to utilizing mobile technology, this agent faced the same hurdles as others in the right of way profession. Special landowner requests and ingress-egress permissions were hand-written in a notebook or stored in a bulky tract file box. Title searches were done at the county courthouse. There were weekly meetings with other agents and the need for multiple spreadsheets prone to error. An agent received a new assignment on a paper record transferred in a folder, and the agent called or emailed his supervisor to report if the parcel was acquired or the progress of negotiations.
rowAMPS provides access to all project information through a central database. It features timesaving tools, such as lease management, bulk document generation, bulk update, auto reminders, scheduled reports and managing workflow.
geoAMPS representatives will be on hand during the Young Professionals Symposium and the IRWA International Education Conference to discuss technological advancements in the industry. geoAMPS is a Platinum Sponsor of the conference and has developed the conference mobile app for the past three years.
Dan Liggett is Communications and Public Relations Manager at geoAMPS, a technology company in the Columbus, OH, area that specializes in software solutions to manage land rights and infrastructure assets. For more information, call 614-389-4871 or visit www.geoamps.com.
This article also appears in:
Renewable Energy World
geoAMPS leads advancements
Efficiency in negotiating and acquiring right of way and tracking property and infrastructure information is critical to keeping projects – such as a new wind farm, road, pipeline or solar panel field – on schedule and within cost parameters.
Renewable Energy World