Working in association with the Health and Safety Laboratory, Sigma Seven have developed a GeoField incident reporting tool

‘Our work with GeoField is helping us unlock the potential of our geospatial data. With Sigma Seven, we are building mobile applications which will allow us to better understand workplace environments, reduce risk, increase the accuracy and speed of our field reporting and allow our experts to work more efficiently away from the lab.’ - William Holmes of HSL

The Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) is an agency of the Health and Safety Executive and Britain’s leading industrial health and safety research facility. They provide an independent, expert source of science and technology solutions to industry, public and private sector customers globally.

Working with HSL’s Geographical Information Systems Team, Sigma Seven have developed a version of GeoField to improve site incident reporting. Previously, reports were based on written transcripts from field exercise books coupled with photography and measurements from other instruments. These disparate data were difficult to correlate, manage and analyse, especially the positioning and location information.

The solution is the HSL Incident Reporting Tool. Utilising Sigma Seven’s flexible feature palette, HSL have been able to create a set of data recording tools based upon their own in-house symbology. This is combined with forms, data fields and terminology commonly used in field reporting.

The Incident Reporting Tool has also unlocked the power of HSL’s geospatial datasets, with OS MasterMap®, address, and population data providing even more detailed context to a field incident reporter.

By deploying on sophisticated ultra-mobile PCs, HSL have been able to seamlessly geocode and record photographs against their reports. Coupled with powerful external GPS receivers, the positional accuracy of the collected data will be improved even further.

Sigma Seven’s selection as the solution provider was based on our track record of project and solution delivery and our experience in handling secure data connections. Data security is a key factor for HSL and their experts were satisfied that Sigma Seven could deliver a secure solution.

HSL are now working with Sigma Seven to perfect the solution and widen its use. The coming twelve months look to be an exciting and expansive time for field working at HSL.