About the author
Fulcrum is a field inspection management platform built to streamline safety and quality processes, field operations, and asset inspections, especially for mobile teams.
At Spatial Networks, we strive to be your go-to source for geospatial data and the industry leader in mobile data collection technology. We continue to improve the Fulcrum platform and help our customers all over the world discover new ways to save time and money and streamline their business processes. With another exciting and productive year in the rear-view, it’s time to take a look back at Fulcrum 2017 highlights while we review the last 12 months here at Spatial Networks!
Metrics
Fulcrum saw a lot of growth last year. Here are some of the more interesting usage statistics from 2017:
- 9.1 million record “syncs” — that’s nearly twice as many as last year!
- Users captured an average of 51,000 photos per day
- 450,798 videos uploaded, totaling 21.5 terabytes — equivalent to a stack of CDs 80 feet tall
- Fulcrum was used by companies in 172 countries this year!
- …And acquired more than 28,000 new users
- Users spent 910,559 hours — that’s almost a million! — editing Fulcrum records. That’s nearly 104 years’ worth of edits, in just one year!
New features
Fulcrum Editor. In April, we introduced the completely rebuilt Editor. It’s faster and more efficient, and offers more sorting and filtering options, horizontal and vertical split view, custom downloads and other features designed to get you closer to your data. We are always working to improve our users’ experience, and will be introducing even more capabilities in future releases.
Mobile widgets. We also announced mobile widgets for Android and iOS that allow you to quickly access your most frequently used Fulcrum apps!
Better Basemaps. In September, we switched our underlying basemap provider to DigitalGlobe Maps API to bring their world-class satellite imagery to Fulcrum customers.
Record-overview popups. We also introduced record-overview popups to the Fulcrum Editor, which make it easier to see the data you’ve collected in context!
Customer stories
We love talking to our customers and seeing how they improve their workflows with Fulcrum. Here are the case studies we published this year.
Collecting thousands of ecological samples for genetic study: A team of researchers from the Department of Molecular Bioscience at Northwestern University used Fulcrum over the course of three weeks in the Hawaiian Islands to conduct the single largest collection of nematodes ever done. In addition to cutting their average collection time from four minutes down to one, Fulcrum helped them reduce sample mix-ups and make their study more reproducible.
Providing advocacy and resources for Rhode Island’s homeless population: Timely sharing of information is crucial when coordinating care for the homeless. Using Fulcrum, House of Hope Community Development Corporation is able to better help their clients, more accurately capture the number of people they serve, and inform future city planning decisions regarding homeless resources.
Delivering fixed-asset management services to the local councils of South Africa. Consulting practice Mubesko Africa conducts fixed-asset management and maintenance-team tracking in support of government councils. Using Fulcrum, the firm is saving time and money with faster, more accurate record-keeping.
Landmine and ordnance clearing. Fulcrum is still used in conflict areas to help locate and neutralize land mines and unexploded ordnance by both The HALO Trust and the Department of Defense. Many leading universities in the United States also use it as a learning tool.
Events
The Spatial Networks team had a busy year, attending numerous events to support our partners and the broader geography community. As a small business partner of the Global SOF Foundation, we supported its annual symposium in Palm Harbor, FL. We also traveled to Bucharest, Romania, to engage with its European partners.
The team attended SaaStr in San Francisco to explore the SaaS community, talk with investors, and meet folks from our fellow SaaS industry companies.
Spatial Networks was an exhibitor at the USGIF Symposium in San Antonio, TX, where we displayed Fulcrum and SNI’s data products to the geospatial intelligence community.
In August, we hosted our first-ever user conference, Fulcrum Live, and it was a resounding success. Nearly 100 developers, colleagues, friends, and customers got a behind-the-scenes look with our team members Bill, Bryan, Cory, Jason, Joe, and Zac. Several Fulcrum customers also gave presentations on how they use the platform.
The event was co-located with the FOSS4G (Free and Open Source for Geospatial) Conference, which made for an exciting, educational, and fun few days in beautiful Boston. Kenn and Patrick also traveled to the FOSS4G conference in Argentina!
We also attended the InterDrone conference in Las Vegas and the SOFIC conference in Tampa.
In November, we sponsored the American Geographical Society’s Fourth Annual Fall Symposium, Geography 2050, at Columbia University in NYC. The event is a multi-year strategic dialogue about what our world will look like in the decades to come. This year’s theme was The Future of Mobility, and innovations presented from the transportation industry were truly mind-blowing. We’re already looking forward to next year’s event, Powering our Future Planet!
Other highlights
After a year as two separate entities, we merged Fulcrum back with Spatial Networks and it was a blast having the whole SNI team back together at our biannual “All Hands” week!
This year we also launched Fulcrum Community, a no-cost, short-term crowdsourced data solution for humanitarian projects, and the timing could not have been better.
Several months later, when Texas, Florida, and parts of the Caribbean were battered by hurricanes, teams created Community accounts to help survivors locate shelters and other resources as well as conduct damage assessments. Our friend Jessica Decker was even recognized as a Community Benefactor by the Churchill Club for her crowdsourcing efforts after Hurricane Harvey!
We dodged a bullet at Spatial Networks headquarters in St. Petersburg, FL, when Hurricane Irma made landfall just south of us in September. The team quickly pulled together to secure and evacuate the office. We stayed in constant communication while working remotely to ensure that none of our customers outside the storm’s path were affected.
This year, we also strengthened our relationships with DroneDeploy, CARTO, and DigitalGlobe to help our customers get the most out of Fulcrum. Read Coleman’s blog post on Integrating Fulcrum & DroneDeploy here.
Here are a few more popular blog posts from 2017:
- Working with Geospatial Data: an Introduction
- Exporting GeoPackage Data from Fulcrum
- Kids and Coding: Investing in the Next Generation
It’s been a busy year here at Spatial Networks, and with all the growth we have planned in months ahead — starting with more than two dozen new spots on the team — 2018 looks like it’s going to be one for the record books!
Here’s wishing everyone a safe and happy new year!
