Headquartered in Chicago, USA, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is a financial and professional services firm
specializing in real estate services and investment management. JLL works with corporate occupiers
with space requirements for better space utilization, managing costs, efficiency and performance of the real estate they own and occupy. JLL has more than 30,000 people in 750 locations in 60 that allows us to be flexible and countries.  

Challenges
JLL had been an Autodesk MapGuide 6.5 customer for several years, and wanted to upgrade to MapGuide Open Source. JLL unsuccessfully pursued a customized solution before deciding to upgrade to iVAULT. System flexibility, stability and performance and user support were key business needs.

Solution
JLL chose Pacific Alliance Technologies given our MapGuide expertise, and our strength at rapid, configurable implementation. Combining this with iVAULT put them in control of their data for quick access and flexibility.

iVAULT was chosen as it is a commercial off the shelf software package that offers numerous benefits including an architecture that is tuned for easier data integration and that is configured rather than programmed. iVAULT enables JLL’s clients to query attributes of the CAD data used to manage millions of square feet of tenant space.

Results
JLL migrated to the MapGuide Open Source platform along with iVAULT, keeping MapGuide’s functionality with added flexibility. This gave JLL the ability to configure queries the way JLL want—meeting their business needs. iVAULT’s intuitive front-end made a smooth transition for users.                             

Steven Bogart, Jones Lang LaSalle Vice President, Manager Occupancy Planning - Corporate Solutions, said, “iVAULT has given us the flexibility and functionality we need to service multiple clients with varying requirements without the constant need for customization. The result is lower costs to us and to our clients and greater adaptability to meet our client’s unique and changing needs.”

Pacific Alliance Technologies (www.pat.ca)
Pacific Alliance Technologies, a member of StarDyne Technologies, provides proven CAD and GIS solutions and services for local and regional governments. Easy, flexible and affordable, Pacific Alliance’s solutions enable government staff to manage, query and analyze spatial, attribute and financial information. Delivered via a web browser, data is integrated from multiple sources to deliver a solution that streamlines Asset Management and facilitates self-service for the public. With a combined 120+ years of technical experience, Pacific Alliance is lauded in the industry as a GIS technology and service provider.

PAT is continuing to build our team of experts delivering innovative solutions with the opening of new offices and hiring of knowledgeable staff.  Scott Stafford-Veale joins us in Victoria as a Practice Lead, Tom Liang joins us in Ontario as our Asset Management Lead and Jeff Lamb is joining our Vancouver head office as a Senior Technical Consultant.   PAT’s rapid growth reflects the success of the iVAULT™ solution, which is rapidly becoming the benchmark in web-GIS Solutions, and our success in Asset Management implementation.

Scott brings with him eleven years of solution matching expertise from his work establishing the ESRI Canada Victoria office. In that role he established ESRI software as the defacto standard for the BC Government while growing the Victoria office to eight staff.  Scott is well respected in the ESRI community from his time working at ESRI building a successful network of Business Partner and OEM clients.

Tom, Asset Management Lead, is a seasoned project manager and consultant with diverse experience in many aspects of the asset management field. Throughout his career, Tom has worked extensively, both in the leadership and implementer roles, with numerous government agencies at the local, provincial/state and federal levels throughout North America, performing business/operational gap analysis and process developments, implementing best practices, deploying software/hardware systems, performing asset data collections and analysis, and participating/leading clients in strategic & tactical planning as part of directives to develop new asset management programs, optimizing or revamping/overhauling existing non-performing programs.

·         Development Process Optimization
·         CarteGraph integration and implementation
·         WorkTech integration and implementation
·         GIS implementations in asset management
·         Project Management / Product Development
·         Business/Operational Process design and deployment
·         Gap Analysis

Jeff has a wealth of experience in our domain, having worked with some of the leaders such as Telus and DMTI. He is well respected in the industry and was a former student of a well known professor “Anthony Bonnici”! Jeff has demonstrated experience at varying levels of the business workflow. This experience has been gained at both a technical and business level. Jeff has managed large budget implementations, but also been hands on in development of automated data processes. Jeff’s adaptability and diverse resume should complement our existing team skills very well.

More specifically, some highlights that capture his diverse experience include :

 -      Project Manager responsible for successful delivery of Internal AVL projects
 -      Managed short and long term projects with budgets up to $1.5 million dollars
 -      Scope and justify new GIS Asset Management  tools and system enhancements
 -      Perform high level GIS analysis, maintain processes and project standards
 -      Responsible for day to day operations of GIS and GPS departments
 -     Automated GPS process significantly by creating standard data dictionaries and writing scripts to process GPS data
 -    AML scripting to automate workflow
 -    Performed GIS analysis using ArcGIS
 -    Cartographic output - created presentation maps

“We are pleased to have Scott, Tom and Jeff Join Pacific Alliance Technologies team. Our focus continues to be to better serve our clients and partners with leading edge solutions. Gaining the right people to achieve this goal is a mission we take seriously and we are quite pleased to have the talent and expertise of this team on the PAT team. Please join me in welcoming them to our team and yours” commented Chris Webber, Founder and President of Pacific Alliance Technologies.

“With the recent additions to the professional services team, we now have increased depth and knowledge to serve our existing client base. We can guide our clients from inception of their ideas through to implementation. I’m very proud services and solutions that we provide and believe that we have further distinguished ourselves as leaders in our domain” commented Ronnie Wahi, Vice President of Pacific Alliance Technologies.

Calgary - Today PAT provided the following presentation to a packed house at the GITA Oil & Gas Conference.  Many of Canada's Engineering, drilling and geomatics firms are turning to PAT to publish their geomatics data to the web.

Jumpstart Your Next Project: Don't Start From Scratch, Start with Your Historical Data
John Galambos, Pacific Alliance Technologies

Jumpstart Your Next Project: Don't start from scratch, start with your historical data.  Ever want to have your entire firm's historical data at your finger tips the moment you start a project? Do you want others to access and/or edit CAD drawings and data over the web? Do you have databases that you want to connect to your drawings for viewing and searching over the web? Do you want to price your projects more quickly? Do you want a closer relationship with your customers and project stakeholders?

Using a web mapping implementation at an Alberta based geomatics company as a case study, this presentation will illustrate how Millennium Geomatics was able to automate publishing to the web information from thousands of AutoCAD drawings. The presentation will also cover how the drawing data were linked to a pre-existing project database allowing users to quickly search for and locate projects, identify other nearby projects, and view related project documents. The underlying technologies used during the implementation will be discussed, including an overview of MapGuide Open Source, FME, and iVAULT.

Pacific Alliance Technologies is pleased to announce a new release to iVAULT to support ESRI’s ArcGIS Server 9.3 software. This release complements ArcGIS Server capabilities to publish data and geo-spatial information quickly and easily via the Web.

Chris Webber, President of Pacific Alliance Technologies, said, “Our goal is to meet customer needs for fast and efficient Web publishing of data and GIS information, from novice users to experts. iVAULT’s latest release enhances functionality and security for ESRI’s ArcGIS server platform. Adding iVAULT to this platform improves overall workflow efficiency with unparalleled data and application integration capabilities. Our iVAULT customers find it gives them access to data spread across their company, improving service times and saves on costly customization.”

iVAULT structures data to facilitate integration of your spatial systems with other business systems.  Hot on the heels of this release please expect to see announcements of software integrations with financial and asset management systems.

Pacific Alliance Technologies—a member of StarDyne Technologies Inc.—is a leading provider of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), asset management, web-based mapping, architectural, and engineering software, specializing in the customization, implementation, training and support of these solutions. Flexible and affordable, Pacific Alliance Technologies develops and implements solutions to sharpen your edge and increase productivity.

Pacific Alliance Technologies provides a unique perspective gained from being a member of the Autodesk Developer Network, a member of the Bentley Developer Network, a member of the ESRI Developer Network and by being Microsoft Gold Certified. This perspective allow us to be a leading provider of software and service to architecture, engineering, construction, government, utilities, telecommunication, oil & gas, mining, facilities management, and transportation.

tel 604.676.6000  toll-free 877.691.9171  fax 604.682.0962  www.pat.ca

For media enquiries, contact:

Chris Webber, President – Pacific Alliance Technologies, 604-676-6000, X102

-30-

• Client satisfaction,
• Staff satisfaction, and
• Financial satisfaction.

• Diamond Municipal Solutions
• Vadim Financial
• WorkTech
• Tempest Development Group

Accessing emergency response personnel has become a lot simpler for most residents of the Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine (RDKS) with the advent of 9-1-1 emergency telephone service. The easy-to-remember service was officially launched today.

“It’s been a substantial undertaking,” explains Board Chair, Harry Nyce. “The Regional District of Kitimat-Stikine 9-1-1 Emergency Telephone Response System was built with funding through contributions from the Canada/British Columbia Infrastructure Program.”

“I would like to take the opportunity to thank you and your staff for the work done on the Regional District of Kitimat Stikine 911 project. Building the address data and manipulating other data sources to meet the specifications for 911 dispatch has been a challenging task. I would like to acknowledge John Galambos' ideas, abilities and dedication to a very demanding project. Thanks John, the delivery of 911 service in the Regional District of Kitimat Stikine has been very well received and you and Pacific Alliance Technologies were an important part of it,” stated Eva Kerby, Mapping and GIS Technician for the Regional District.

Pacific Alliance Technologies (PAT) provided stakeholders with an innovative web-based tool to move the physical location of street addresses.  iVAULT Address was delivered through a Software as a Service (SaaS) model so that RDKS could quickly provide the business system necessary without need of additional servers or IT support.  PAT took the adjusted data and reformatted it to meet the URISA and TELUS standards for emergency addressing data.

The federal/provincial share of funds came to $729,368.00. With the contributions of the regional district and its local funding partners, the total cost of the project will be approximately $1.5 million.

Once it had all the necessary funding in place, the RDKS began working with various stakeholders to make 9-1-1 service a reality including the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George and TELUS.

In order to reduce the operational cost of the service, the RDKS entered into an agreement with the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George to provide 9-1-1 call answering and fire dispatch and communications services. As the Primary Public Safety Answering Point, all 9-1-1 calls generated within the RDKS are answered at the Prince George RCMP Operational Communications Centre. As part of the agreement with the RDFFG, 17 fire departments in the RDKS, will be dispatched and supported, through the Prince George Fire Operations Communications Centre. All ambulance calls will be forwarded to the BC Ambulance Service central dispatch centre located in Kamloops.

The RDKS and TELUS worked in partnership to ensure technology in the area was upgraded allowing access to emergency services. TELUS invested more than $140,000 during the project to build the required telecommunications infrastructure and create a new addressing system allowing fast routing of emergency calls and information about where the calls are coming from.

"It is gratifying to see this important project finished, giving RDKS residents the same access to 9-1-1 as people living in Prince George or Vancouver," said Bobby Gessner, director of TELUS Network Operations in the region. "TELUS is committed to continually providing access to emergency services to our clients all across B.C., and it was a pleasure to work with the regional district to help make that happen."

The new 9-1-1 system serves RDKS residents living in the areas of Kitimat, Terrace, and the Hazeltons from Kitwanga to Moricetown and in Stewart.

Pacific Alliance Technologies (www.pat.ca) has had a long partnership with Northern communities – and in particular the Kitimat-Stikine RD and the City of Terrace.  This is a legacy from eleven years ago when the firm that evolved into PAT (Pacific Cascade Technologies) had an office in Terrace.  PAT has been a supplier to Northern Communities from the start.

The civil engineering industry has embraced model based design and AutoCAD Civil 3D is the design technology that has gained traction in the North American industry. AutoCAD Civil 3D introduces a new set of tools for civil engineering infrastructure and land development design in a CAD environment. However, AutoCAD Civil 3D is very demanding from a standardization and set-up perspective. This is because drafting and annotation, with proper set-up and configuration, can be a direct by-product of the design process. A standardized approach, tailored to BC municipalities, has the potential to save time and money and perhaps to avoid “dead end” approaches. The MMCDA is concerned with efficiencies in delivering municipal infrastructure projects and wants to embrace Civil 3D.

The BC consulting community is adopting AutoCAD Civil 3D more quickly than the public sector. However, undertaking repetitive and duplicate tasks to develop different AutoCAD Civil 3D standards for individual clients in BC is not cost effective. That is why the BC government and several groups of local governments are developing standard adoption strategies for Civil3D. The economies of scale and the potential for continuous improvement persuaded the MMCDA to undertake the development of a Civil 3D standard suitable for adoption by BC communities. They commissioned PAT partner APW Engineering to carry out user liaison and standards development on behalf of MMCD. The consultation phase is complete and the preparation of the standards is underway.

Link to the complete article.

Oakville, ON, January 7, 2009 – Today, ERMS Corporation, a leading provider of emergency management and emergency notification services, announced a new partnership with Pacific Alliance Technologies. 

Under this agreement, Pacific Alliance is now authorized to offer ERMS Advantage Services to its customers.  ERMS Advantage is a subscription-based offering that helps organizations manage their vital emergency processes.  Using the ERMS Advantage system, Municipal Government agencies can alert citizens to emergency situations via the mass notification engine.   Government agencies can choose to send these alerts to citizens on any device such as phone, PDA, SMS, e-mail or fax.  Companies can use the same mass notification engine to send critical messages to employees, suppliers, customers or any other group that is essential to business operations.  The service removes the complexity involved in getting critical messages out to large numbers of stakeholders.

Beyond mass notification, the ERMS Advantage Service facilitates the interactive process of accounting for employees that have been dispersed as a result of a panic evacuation, and provides on-demand information through its integrated toll-free hotlines and document repository system.

ERMS and Pacific Alliance are Canadian-based organizations dedicated to providing the Canadian marketplace with leading-edge emergency management solutions. “Pacific Alliance is well known for their proficiency in developing, delivering and supporting technology solutions for clients in the Municipal Government and Oil & Gas sectors.  ERMS Advantage Services are a perfect fit for the Pacific Alliance portfolio, and will serve to address the burgeoning requirements Canadian organizations are facing in the notification and crisis management space,” said Dennis Hamilton, CEO of ERMS.  More...