At Juniper Systems we love telling you about our products, but even better than that is sharing customer testimonials on how our solutions make their work easier. We interviewed Dylan Chingery, the Director of Operations at EPI Geophysics, in New Jersey, and he shared how he and his team use Uinta and the Geode together to streamline and improve their workflow.
EPI Geophysics’ Work
EPI Geophysics is an environmental drilling and geophysical company that specializes in locating utilities for their clients and collecting coordinates for drilling locations. Since most clients are environmentally focused, they do a lot of tank UST investigations and take samples from around the tanks to ensure they aren’t compromised or leaking. They also have a geologist on their team for geophysical services, such as seismic, resistivity, and microgravity surveys, where they use micrographs to mark points and use GPS coordinates and mapping software to accurately mark the locations of these points. Although environmental surveying is an important part of the company, their “bread and butter” is the private utility locating side of the business for clearing and marking locations for drilling work.
Why Juniper Systems
When Dylan first started at the company, they were using another receiver that worked well, but it was a very cumbersome process for collecting and managing all the data. Realizing that their teams needed more advanced GPS units, Dylan started researching receivers and mapping software when he discovered that the Geode is compatible with a multitude of software that he was interested in. This discovery made him look more into Juniper Systems and he came across our Uinta mapping and data collection software. After having some demos of other companies’ software as well as one on Uinta, he preferred Uinta over the others, especially since it integrated so easily with the Geode. Dylan and his team decided to test out the Geode to see how well it performed and it ended up being “quite the improvement from what we were doing with the [other receiver]”, Dylan said. Once he and his team confirmed that it worked as described, the company bought two more Geodes for their team and “now we solely us the Geode and Uinta.”
Dylan said the following about what made him feel so comfortable about choosing Juniper Systems: “From a small business standpoint, I think that the pricing that Juniper Systems has is very fair for both the [Geode] and [Uinta]. I think that the pricing was much more in line with something that we were able to afford as a small business, and some of the other companies, they have some, quite honestly, some crazy pricing. Apart from the pricing side, I did some calls with the other software, and I didn’t really see much of an advantage with any of them, and I really just like that [Juniper Systems] had the units in house and the software. It just felt more comfortable knowing that you guys were able to understand both sides of it and something that made me feel more comfortable that it was all in-house.”
Adapting to the New Solutions
When asked how the set-up experience was with the Geode and Uinta for Dylan and his team, he said, “It was great! It worked very well.” He went on to say, “The [Geode] and [Uinta] works so well that [team member] was skeptical about it actually working properly. He was just shocked that it could work that well. Once he started using the Geode, he hasn’t used the [other receiver] once.”
In reference to what Dylan had previously mentioned about how cumbersome the other receiver they were using was, he goes on to say, “The one thing I like about using the Geode and Uinta is being able to actually see what you’re collecting and how it looks on the map too, because with some of the other [products], you can’t see what you’re doing. It’s nice to be able to actually see what you’re collecting and know if there’s an issue or not while you’re out there and not when you get back to the office.” Dylan also talked about Uinta enabling the team to efficiently track their progress: “[Uinta] made it easy that we can create and share this project template, so every time we’re doing a project, we can stay consistent and it’s very timesaving doing that.”
Efficiency of the Geode and Uinta
EPI Geophysics was wanting to include a basic report for all their projects, and they could do that with the other products they were using, but the post-work to process it was “just painful.” Mentioning ease of use, Dylan said, “Because Uinta was so easy for us to use and quick, we started including the basic reporting for all of our projects that we do for utility locating.” Uinta made their reporting process easier, enabling them to pull the information from Uinta and upload it into their CRM reporting format. Dylan goes into more detail by saying, “Every single report we do the PDF project maps with the data and then we also send [the client] the Excel file; the big one for us is the KML file. That makes it super easy [to send] to our clients to quickly pull that KML file up, zoom in and out, look around, see what’s going on. And it’s also an easy thing for companies to take that to be able to upload it into their GIS systems.”
Being able to take the data from Uinta and plug it into their own CRM is an obvious convenience for EPI Geophysics, but more importantly, it allows them to send reports directly from the work site to the client: “It’s very helpful to be able to send the client a KML file immediately, so they aren’t waiting for a report. I’ll just go into my Uinta app on my phone and download it as a KML and email it to the client right there, so they have something to reference for the next day when they’re coming back to work. So that is a very super helpful feature.”
Wrapping up the Interview
While coming to an end on the interview with Dylan, we discussed how the Geode and Uinta have helped EPI Geophysics overcome challenges, provided enhancements for the company, and his experience with customer support. While talking about overall improvements, Dylan said, “Clients may have coordinates for where they want the soil borings on site, so they’ll send us that ahead of time, we’ll put that into [Uinta] ahead of time, so when we get there our guy can go and mark out those locations for the client right away; so that aspect of it is super helpful.” Aside from it helping his team directly, he continues, “But yeah, from our business standpoint, being able to really enhance our reporting and to meet what our clients’ needs are with getting them all of this GPS data and project maps, which is what they’re looking for, that really was probably the biggest hurdle that allowed us to take your good step forward with our deliverables that we send out. I would say that might be the biggest advantage for us.”
Lastly, at the end of the conversation Dylan mentions our customer support and how responsive they have been. He says, “I’ve talked with various guys at your company when we’ve had some things and I will say that everyone’s been very helpful and responsive to our questions and for helping us, especially when we first got the units. Everyone was great and so to this day when we have a problem and we reach out, we always get a response and you guys figure it out, so that’s been very nice to deal with. Not all companies will do that. So, it’s a very nice breath of fresh air to have people that actually are there to help when we do have some issues, so that’s been great!”
Finishing Thoughts
Juniper Systems thrives on delivering accurate, reliable, and dependable equipment for all kinds of work. We don’t need to tell you how great the solutions are, the hard-working end-users tell the story for us. From increasing efficiency in workflows, to tackling hurdles and meeting clients’ needs, Juniper Systems allows you to stay Rock Solid and Field Ready!