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Geotechnical News March 2011
GEOTECHNICAL INSTRUMENTATION NEWS
The Web Dissemination of
Monitoring Data
Roger Chandler, Keynetix Ltd.
More monitoring data is being collected
electronically than ever before. As
a result, a wide range of online and
desktop software applications are being
provided by instrument manufacturers
to help you share data with your
clients. Using the manufacturer’s
system can appear the easiest option
but more often than not it’s not the best
option. This is especially true if you are
working for a client who has multiple
monitoring contracts.
Your client will have a learning
curve before he can effectively use the
system you provide. Even if you feel
this time is short you must take into ac-
count that the client will be using it less
than you and will often have long peri-
ods between uses and forget how to use
certain features. If they have multiple
contracts using different systems then
this problem is magnified and can re-
sult in the client not wanting to use the
system simply because they can never
remember how to.
The best option for the clients is
therefore to have every company work-
ing for them to upload their data into
the same system. Selecting a system
from a certain instrumentation manu-
facturer can however restrict com-
petition for the monitoring contracts
themselves. This is too high a price to
pay for a standardisation of web based
data; however selecting an independent
system can give them these advantages
without the restrictions.
This is the reason why Keynetix, a
software company well know for it’s
geotechnical data management system
HoleBASE, developed
in 2002 and why it has
proved popular with clients and moni-
toring contractors. The system uses
open data transfer standards from the
AGS (Association of Geotechnical and
Geoenvironmental specialists) to en-
sure that it is not tied to any proprietary
format. To ensure that data can be cre-
ated in this format Keynetix supplies
software to convert most instrument
manufacturer’s formats into AGS.
Over the last 15 years I have worked
a lot with the specification of UK and
US data transfer formats for geotech-
nical monitoring data, starting with
the UK and Hong Kong based AGS 2
format in 1994 all the way to the most
recent version of AGS 4 and DIGGS.
If you are working in the UK on
a large construction project you will
probably be required to produce your
monitoring data as AGS data as clients
in the UK have had large exposure to
this format and understand the benefits
of not being tied to any one provider.
In other countries this method of data
supply is now also starting to see sig-
nificant take up.
offers
customers the opportunity to have a
portal to the system installed using
their own web address and branded
with the client’s or company’s informa-
tion, thus making it look like a system
developed for a project or a company
at a small fraction of the cost of writing
your own system. It is for this reason
that instrument manufacturers such as
Grant are now offering a rebranded
version of
to their clients (
.
The system is a hosted service that
allows projects to be accessed through
the
address
or via the client specific branded portal.
The system can therefore be operation-
al for a new client or instrument manu-
facturer within a day with a cost of
less than a technician on site for a day.
is quickly
becoming a popular route to market
that not only benefits the manufactur-
ers but also allows the clients to have
all their data hosted on a single system.
Roger Chandler, Managing Diretor,
Keynetix Limited, Systems House,
Burnt Meadow Road, Redditch,
B98 9PA, United Kingdom.
Tel +44 (0)1527 68888,
email:
Figure 1. Branded Monitoringpoint.com for Grants showing results from major
flood in July 2007.
