Capturx Forms for Excel helps cut inspection cycle times, and increases the City's street inspectors' productivity up to 20%
Seattle, WA October 6, 2009 -- Adapx (www.adapx.com) today announced that the City of Corpus Christi, TX has selected Capturx™ Forms for Excel to help automate data collection for road inspections and improve inspector efficiency. Only Capturx Forms for Excel enables teams to automatically digitize, format and integrate handwritten data on paper into Excel using digital pens and ordinary paper. By automating road inspection forms with Capturx, Corpus Christi has increased individual inspector availability by up to 20%.
"With very limited staff resources, our inspectors are faced with the ongoing challenge to inspect nearly 900 miles of pavement in a timely manner," said Frank Palacino, pavement information manager at the City of Corpus Christi, "Instead of having to come into the office to do tedious paperwork, Capturx Forms for Excel enables our inspectors to stay longer in the field doing what they do best."
With very limited staff resources, our inspectors are faced with the ongoing challenge to inspect nearly 900 miles of pavement in a timely mannerInstead of having to come into the office to do tedious paperwork, Capturx Forms for Excel enables our inspectors to stay longer in the field doing what they do best.By using Capturx, we estimate that we'll be able to inspect up to 30% more roadway per month - improving our inspection time by 6-8 months with virtually no change to data capture. This means less deterioration of our roads between inspections, resulting in more current information used for our analysis. Our inspectors like using the Capturx digital pen over a PDA or laptop because it fits naturally into our proven workflow. Unlike PDAs or laptops, the Capturx digital pen is inexpensive, durable, easy to carry, and the data can be easily uploaded by anyone without any support or training. To maximize pavement life, best practices in preventative maintenance suggest inspections every two years. Inspectors use paper forms to measure and document 19 different roadway distress issues ranging from alligator cracking and potholes to swells and rutting. They typically spend 5 to 6 hours per day collecting 30-40 forms worth of data, which the Pavement Management System uses to score, and index pavement condition. The pavement condition index is then used to help prioritize road maintenance and repairs.
Before using Capturx, inspectors typically spent up to 20% of their time in the office manually processing field reports and entering this data into the system. In addition to being an inefficient use of skilled inspector time, it also contributed to the expanding inspection cycle time and an increase in citizen complaints. Responding to complaints further reduces the inspectors' time for scheduled field work.
"By using Capturx, we estimate that we'll be able to inspect up to 30% more roadway per month - improving our inspection time by 6-8 months with virtually no change to data capture. This means less deterioration of our roads between inspections, resulting in more current information used for our analysis. " said Palacino.
Capturx eliminates the need for inspectors to do follow up calculations and results sorting while also letting them continue the simple and reliable method of collecting data on paper. As the inspector fills out forms, they get an ink-on-paper record and an immediate digital record that is stored in the pen. Once the pen is docked into a PC or laptop, the data automatically appears in Excel and can be easily imported into the City's Pavement Management System.
Palacino adds, "Our inspectors like using the Capturx digital pen over a PDA or laptop because it fits naturally into our proven workflow. Unlike PDAs or laptops, the Capturx digital pen is inexpensive, durable, easy to carry, and the data can be easily uploaded by anyone without any support or training."
To view the complete case study on how the City of Corpus Christi, TX is using Capturx Forms for Excel, visit the Adapx Web site at: www.adapx.com/corpuschristi.
About Adapx
Adapx is changing the way mobile teams collect data and collaborate with Capturx™ software for digital pens. A broad range of industries and agencies use Capturx products as natural interfaces into Microsoft Office, GIS, and CAD systems through digital pens and voice. Teams can immediately collect and access data in native file formats and systems without the delay and cost of transcribing paper or deploying mobile computers. Adapx has strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Autodesk, ESRI, Lockheed Martin, In-Q-Tel, and works with standard digital pen technology from Anoto. For more information, please visit www.adapx.com or follow Adapx on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Capturx.
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