June 2021

Issue 61

waterRIDE CLOUD - A Next Generation Platform

It's hard to believe that that waterRIDE CLOUD was officially released 12 months ago. Since that time we have helped organisations across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom transition their flooding information onto our next generation cloud platform.

What do we mean by "Next Generation" cloud platform? Well, historically, flooding information on the Cloud has been a simplified version of the data that resides on our corporate LAN's. It may have been some processed products such as GIS flood extent polygons, GIS grids or flood reports. These products serve a purpose in providing information, but they are not particularly flexible (nor usable) when it comes to analysis.

In more recent times, the cloud has been used as a repository for our flooding data (ie an online copy). Various online databases across Federal, State and Local Government are available but in all cases the data must be downloaded to be accessed, used and interrogated.

The Next Generation label we've attached to waterRIDE CLOUD sets out where it stands in the Cloud world. It is a unique combination of cloud infrastructure and interface-rich software, to provide a fully interactive cloud experience. The result is desktop-grade capability, with the convenience, speed, and shareability of the Cloud.

What does this offer you, as a user of flooding information:
   - Very fast, browser-based visualisation, processing and interrogation of your datasets
   - Instant sharing both internally and externally (without having to send any data)
   - Accessibility from anywhere
   - Scope for provision/receipt of remote professional services
   - Centralised data management

Cameron Druery presented a paper at the Floodplain Management Australia conference highlighting how these next-gen platforms are shifting the way the industry works with flooding information. He used three case studies of Australian Councils to demonstrate how the cloud has enhanced both end product usability and consultant-client collaboration.

A copy of the extended abstract is available here (2-pages) and, if you're really keen, a recording of the presentation can be viewed here (17 minutes).

waterRIDE CLOUD... it's waterRIDE, on the cloud.

Remote Professional Services - What Are They?

Remote professional services have boomed as a result of the COVID19 pandemic. From the medical to fitness fields, practitioners have been forced to offer their services remotely, with many able transition very quickly.

In the flooding world, clients and consultants have been working remotely from each other for some time. However, the fact that our datasets are incredibly large has always been a "pinch point" in the process, with flooding professionals needing to collect/download/receive a copy of a clients datasets prior to carrying out their services. This takes considerable time and effort (from both sides), and may not be practical for clients with extremely large datasets (measured in terrabytes).

Next-gen cloud platforms (such as waterRIDE CLOUD) solve this issue by providing the ability to remotely access, process and interrogate datasets from anywhere (ie to work with the datasets on the Cloud just as if you were on a computer in the office). What this facilitates is not only an impovement in the services currently being provided remotely, but the ability to provide a whole new range of remote professional services.

Imagine... a draft flood study delivered instantly and ready for review.

From a consultants perspective, we have been able to deliver services to clients across the globe and have found it, simply, brilliant! The elimination of double handling of datasets and the ability to instantly access a clients datasets and commence work has led to some previously impossible deadlines being met. We have also found the ability to collaborate easily with clients has resulted in far more efficient project delivery, with the deliverables of the project being instantly usable by the client.

From a client perspective, there is much to gain from remote professional services including:
- Access to professionals beyond normal borders (city, state, country)
- Ability to receive services that previously required on-premise access
- More efficient receipt of services and deliverables
- Enhanced QA and review phases
- Enhanced collaboration with service providers
- Easier multi-project concurrency (eg development assessment and emergency management planning projects running from the same datasets, at the same time)
- Zero-hassle data sharing (no data to send)
- Access to "shared services" subscriptions for ad-hoc tasks

COVID19 accelerated the use of remote professional services via necessity. Now, however, they may present as the better option in many cases.

Automating Flood Certificates

We have been busy helping clients automate their flood certificates creation processes, using both waterRIDE Classic and increasingly on waterRIDE CLOUD.

The common response from clients has been a certain level of surprise that the systems were able to be built so quickly. The beauty is that once you have your flooding information available in waterRIDE, your automated certificates system is probably only a week away.

waterRIDE provides a flexible framework for building your system and, using multiple Word templates, allows you to use it for more than just flood certificates. We have heard that customers are using their certificates systems for:
   - formal flood insurance enquires
   - rates and property information reports
   - community edcuation "mailouts"
   - formal communications/announcements at a per-property level

If you'd like to find out a little more about setting up a system on waterRIDE, head to the certificates section of our website, drop us an email, or come along to our next Flood Certificates Masterclass.

Also, if you missed Cameron Druery's webinar on what to consider when building an automated flood certificates system, you can watch a replay here.

waterRIDE Training - June 2021

Our final group training session for this Financial Year is on at the end of June (22nd to 24th).

We will be running the following sessions:
     - Essentials (22nd)
     - Advanced (23rd)
     - Flood Certificates Masterclass (24th)

For more information or to book your place please visit the training page.

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