Issue link: https://resources.esri.ca/i/1361311
10 Indoor wayfinding improves county services Los Angeles (LA) County operates about 4,000 facilities that provide services to the area's 10,000,000 residents. For years, the County used GIS to map the locations of those facilities to help citizens and employees get to them. Now they're mapping inside their buildings to help citizens and employees arriving on-site access government resources and provide maintenance or other building services. Use web apps to locate and navigate to government services within buildings while staff uses apps to manage and maintain building operations. Citizens typically rely on mobile navigation to find county buildings and sites but lack indoor maps that help them get to their final destinations. They struggle locating where to apply for permits, pay bills, or get flu shots. LA County staff that need to fulfill work orders have difficulty finding rooms and assets. Some buildings are labyrinths in which the public, and even county personnel, get lost. Efficiency researchers estimate that employees spend up to two minutes a day going in the wrong direction. LA County employs more than 100,000 people. The time that staff and maintenance workers waste because they get lost adds up to a significant loss over a year. County staff have difficulty finding rooms and assets to fulfill work orders. Citizens struggle to find where to apply for permits, pay bills, get flu shots. Some buildings are labryinths citizens, and even county personnel, get lost in. Furthermore, inadequate data interoperability—required for efficient management and maintenance—has been costly. LA County's Internal Services Department has been an ideal testing ground for piloting Esri's new indoor mapping system, ArcGIS Indoors. It has been exploring opportunities to deliver a comprehensive workplace map to everyone who uses its spaces via functional, off-the-shelf apps. The ArcGIS Indoors wayfinding app, for instance, connects users to the facility map via an IPS that includes GPS sensors, the building's Wi-Fi, and beacons that stream information. Building visitors use a phone app or a facility's interactive kiosks to get directions. Once visitors search for a location—an office, a service, or a person— the app shows them how to get there. They have a choice of routing options for finding their way, including wheelchair accessible options. A list of step-by-step directions, photo navigation, or an arrow indicating direction. It also shows wheelchair accessibility options. The indoor solution also grows LA County's operational efficiency. It imports pre-existing CAD drawings, runs building information models (BIM), and adds facility data as layers to indoor basemaps. Database updates keep floorplans synced with facility changes when they happen thereby giving managers accurate information for making better decisions. The bottom line • Way finding navigation apps build better citizen and services interaction. • Available on every smartphone operating system, indoor apps help visitors and staff intuitively navigate LA county facilities. • Contract technicians navigate directly to a work site, which reduces hourly charges. • Management plans and decisions are based on data driven intelligence.