The Australian-built technology from iintegrate Systems, a subsidiary of NGIS Australia, has been added to the company’s Community Affairs Information Management System (CAIMS).
The CAIMS database application, based on SQL Server technology, was developed by Oil Search and provides a repository of 100’s database tables representing many aspects of the local community and corporate facilities throughout Papua New Guinea.
“With exceptional growth riding on the back of successful ventures in PNG and other countries, Oil Search needed to look at developing a strategy for spatial information requirements from an enterprise-wide perspective,” NGIS Australia Senior GIS Analyst Geoff Innes said.
“Spatial information is used by Oil Search across several different business areas in a variety of ways with varying levels of access and success – but there was a lack of consistency in how the data was discovered, managed and delivered to users.
“A coordinated and consistent approach to the planning and allocation of resources for the development, management and delivery of a spatial data infrastructure was identified as essential to support this growth, which is where GeoSamba came in.”
As part of the initial configuration, a Facilities Search System (FSS) was developed in GeoSamba which links spatial data with database tables from CAIMS.
“Subsequent development of CAIMS Online, deployed as a web application, provided a tighter integration with the FSS, which has been achieved using GeoSamba as the mapping component,” Mr Innes said.
“This way, spatial queries initiated in GeoSamba can be passed to CAIMS Online for sophisticated and complex reporting needs.”
A 2008 site visit to the Southern Highlands delivered GeoSamba training to six OSL personnel working in Oil Search’s Community Affairs department with further technical assistance provided for the FSS project.
“With the acceptance of GeoSamba as the platform for data-sharing and reporting within this part of the business, it demonstrates how successful it can be for additional projects with spatial data and reporting requirements,” Mr Innes said