Big Stone Country received funding from the Blandin Foundation to provide mobile functionality to their GIS application. Their goal was to create a mobile application that was platform neutral, allowing users to connect to our GIS application, Pictometry and credit card payment integration.

Here is their story of development:

Application development started mid 2013 but due to some development challenges, did not become production ready until February 2014. We started by providing the three county offices mentioned above with iPads to use in the field. Each office initially received one tablet to use and test while in the field. The Assessor’s office found that it was so helpful, they soon requested a second iPad. The Environmental Officer said that he uses the iPad app frequently and considers it an invaluable tool.

Our GIS vendor developed mobile maps compatible with an existing ESRI mobile app. Because the parent mobile app is actually developed by ESRI software, we were not able to track how many time the mobile application was downloaded and used. What I did to best track usage was put a counter on the county web site. Each time a user opened instructions for using the mobile app, our site kept count. Approximately one year after public deployment we have had 372 users view the instructions for using the mobile app. That is the closest I came to easily measuring our success with this app. We do know that our Environmental office has assisted hunters from out of town access and download the app.

You can access the County GIS site to download the app or access a web-friendly version.