Last year, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure released Intergraph NetWorks: a flexible software suite that provides security, real-time access to location-based engineering and operational data and capabilities across the enterprise. Hexagon’s Laura Beth Ezzell sat down with Intergraph NetWorks Product Manager Jennifer Garmon to discuss how Intergraph NetWorks can unlock the value of your existing geospatial investments.
Welcome to HxGN Radio. This is your host Laura Beth Ezzell. Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure just released their new Intergraph NetWorks software suite. Intergraph NetWorks provides utilities and communications companies real-time access to location-based and operational data. Now it’s a mobile cloud solution that will transform the value network models can deliver to U&C operations. In today’s episode, we are talking to Jennifer Garmon who is the Intergraph NetWorks product manager at Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure.
LE: Thank you for joining us today Jennifer.
JG: Thank you for having me.
LE: So, let’s start by telling our listeners about your role at Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure.
JG: As you mentioned, I’m the product manager for our new product offering, Intergraph NetWorks. As part of my job, I get to work with customers, internal stakeholders, and developers – everybody in the organization basically – to set the road map and the vision for our utility and communications product offerings.
LE: Can you briefly describe what Intergraph NetWorks is?
JG: Intergraph NetWorks is a software suite that we’ve just introduced that extends spatial information across your enterprise, making it available and usable by as many people possible. It’s usable by your planners, your call center staff, operations center personnel, field crews and even customers of our customers. As part of Intergraph’s NetWorks, we have a set of standard-based web services to enable the widest range of users and software to allow people to access, visualize and update, and add their network data. We also have Intergraph NetWorks portal. This web portal combines reliable and up-to-date network engineering and operational information using the services we provide with Intergraph NetWorks, and any other compliant web services. The Intergraph NetWorks Portal gives our customers a complete information picture across the enterprise. We also have our mobile offering, Intergraph NetWorks Mobile, which allows you to deploy task-oriented applications on your consumer mobile devices, so that the field can be securely connected also to the network data.
LE: What makes this software suite different from anything Hexagon has released before, for the utilities and communications markets?
JG: Well, with this software, we are really providing our most robust, cloud-ready and flexible software suite for our utilities and communication market. We’re allowing our utilities and communication customers to better meet the needs of their business by improving the reach and usability of their network data and operations. With NetWorks, we can deliver richer information and improve organization awareness, which increases the value of their network data and reduces their costs.
LE: How will this change the dynamics of how utility or communications businesses operate?
JG: With Intergraph NetWorks, our customers can improve their business agility by providing the network information in real-time, and this allows our end-users to improve the quality of the data by directly updating it to match field conditions. I think they’ll also be able to respond to situations faster from a better and more informed position. Also, I think that our customers will be able to coordinate and streamline their processes by extending all of their information across the enterprise rather than developing point-to-point solutions.
LE: What is the future of this software suite? Where do you see it going?
JG: Well we just put our first release out. And we’re just going to continue expanding and building more services to expose more data, such as trace services, network analytic services, redlining, anything that you can possibly imagine that you need to make available out in the field or through mobile or portal applications. I see Intergraph NetWorks really as the future of our product offerings for U&C.
LE: Is Intergraph NetWorks a global solution? Can it meet the demands of any U&C business globally?
JG: Intergraph NetWorks is absolutely a global solution. We have Intergraph G/Technology and Fiber Optic Works deployed globally. And all of our network services and portal and mobile solutions are compatible with those versions of G/Technology today as they upgrade to our latest version. So, anywhere we can deploy G/Technology we can deploy Intergraph NetWorks, and that is globally.
LE: How has customer feedback been incorporated into the development of Intergraph NetWorks?
JG: We’ve heard for sometime from our customers that they always want faster, more accurate access to their network data, and they want to see that we, as a company, are invested in all of the latest technologies and architecture out there. With Intergraph NetWorks, I believe we’re responding directly to this feedback.
LE: Is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would like to share with our audience?
JG: I don’t think so.
LE: Okay. Well it sounds like from what you’ve shared with us… we’ve talked about getting connected to better information, you talked about faster decision making and lower costs. So, that’s something everybody likes to hear. We appreciate your information that you could share with us today and for being our guest.
JG: Thank you.
To our listeners you can learn more about Intergraph NetWorks at hexagonsafetyinfrastructure.com. Tune into more episodes from HxGN Radio on ITunes, SoundCloud, or Sticher Radio. Thanks for listening.
