All Customer Stories
.
Georgia Power Gives Businesses the Location Intelligence They Need to Make Site Selection Easy
Georgia Power, the largest electric subsidiary of Southern Company, serves 2.7 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties. Focused on clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy, it uses a diverse mix of nuclear, coal, natural gas, and renewables like solar and wind. Recognized by J.D. Power for customer satisfaction, Georgia Power delivers world-class service daily.
The Challenge:
Georgia Power, one of the largest electric utilities in the southeastern United States, has a long history of promoting economic growth in Georgia. It supports those goals by partnering with communities and organizations like the Georgia Department of Economic Development. A primary way the company’s Economic Development Department contributes is by helping companies find the best location based on their specific needs.
Despite having nearly a century of experience in helping businesses relocate and grow, plus a solid reputation in economic development, the team realized that they needed a cutting-edge geospatial platform that offered wide-ranging potential to help improve customer outcomes. Although they already had an existing site selection web application, the team was aware that modern geospatial platforms and user-friendly web interfaces could streamline and enhance the site selection process for their users going forward.
The Solution:
To tackle these challenges, Georgia Power chose geospatial asset management technology from VertiGIS. Other departments in the company, particularly in the operations part of the business, were already using VertiGIS software for tasks like transmission mapping, in conjunction with the Esri ArcGIS® platform, but for their unique needs, the economic development team wanted a proven application building framework that could be easily refined and configured to create specific solutions targeted directly at their unique requirements.
Filters for map templates enables users to generate custom outputs
Map pop-ups provide essential property details at a glance.
Detailed reports highlight comprehensive property data, incentives, nearby transportation, workforce, and demographics.
That’s where VertiGIS Studio comes in: it’s a powerful GIS platform designed to simplify geographic data visualization, analysis, and sharing. It fit perfectly in the “sweet spot” between the functionality and adaptability that the economic development team was looking for. It enabled them to use an off-the-shelf product that is continually evolving, customize it extensively and leverage its intuitive tool set to create tailored applications targeted toward users looking to locate or expand their businesses in Georgia
The Result:
The latest, most powerful version of the economic development platform and primary viewer for their geospatial application is the Site Selector. The main interface, supported by workflows, reporting tools, and map templates enables users to generate custom outputs.
Key features include a versatile reporting tool with up to twelve report options and comprehensive map templates. Their GIS data is built on the Esri platform and an Oracle database to integrate data sources into VertiGIS applications, supported by ArcGIS Server, for seamless publishing across multiple platforms.
Here’s how the solution was implemented:
- Custom GIS Applications
VertiGIS Studio enabled Georgia Power to develop user-friendly GIS applications that allowed businesses and stakeholders to interact with geographic data more dynamically. These applications provided detailed reports and maps with data highlighting comprehensive property data, incentives, nearby transportation, workforce, and demographics. - Data Integration
The software integrated seamlessly with existing data sources, presenting a unified platform for visualizing and analyzing critical real estate information. This eliminated the inefficiencies of manual data compilation. - Interactive Tools for Businesses
VertiGIS Studio delivered web-based, interactive tools specifically designed for businesses to evaluate potential property locations. Prospective companies could now conduct in-depth location analysis, compare properties, and make data-driven decisions. - Improved Collaboration
With a centralized GIS solution, internal teams and external partners were empowered to collaborate through real-time access to accurate and up-to-date information. This fostered faster and more informed decision-making.
The project successfully achieved its goal of a more intuitive and accessible site selection web application for their end users. While offering similar capabilities as the previous version, the focus shifted to usability and empowerment, ensuring users can easily access and interact with the information they need. This release aimed to simplify the client experience without compromising the quality of tools or data. The deployment was both strategic and collaborative, with VertiGIS providing comprehensive support and training to equip the Georgia Power team to maximize the platform’s potential
Jeff DeWitt, Georgia Power Community and Economic Development’s GIS Administrator, noted:
“What’s really appealed to us is the idea of an “easy button”—essentially partnering with VertiGIS to quickly improve our existing GIS platform. Rather than a one-size-fits-all solution that didn’t allow us to fully leverage internal knowledge and expertise, we wanted to develop our own tools, and create additional features, functions, and reports that better meet the unique needs of our partners and end users”.
All Customer Stories