Improve Data Quality and Reduce Costs with Accurate Field Capture

Lemur Mobile Mapping Offers a Complete Field Solution That’s Accurate, Intuitive and Works in Offline Environments

For utilities worldwide, keeping up with increased energy demand at affordable prices requires more than enterprise technology. It demands high-quality data. The pressures to modernize operations, drive efficiency and ensure compliance have prompted utilities to embrace digital transformation and modernization. Why? Digital tools promise accurate, real-time decisions that improve all aspects of the business. Yet every application, from asset and outage management to AI and IoT, is only as good as the data that feeds it.

That’s where TRC’s Lemur mobile mapping product delivers. Lemur offers a transformative approach to data quality while lowering costs. By unifying GIS, asset management and work order systems into a unified, intuitive mobile experience, Lemur provides a powerful solution that extends from the field to the back office. Lemur empowers field teams to capture, correct and communicate accurate data at the source, ensuring business rules and compliance are enforced in real time.

With Lemur, utilities can finally break free from the constraints of legacy systems, reduce operational costs and unlock new levels of data quality and business agility. Moreover, they can improve data quality from the field in both online and offline environments—regardless of location or circumstance, whether performing routine maintenance or responding to an emergency.

Data Quality and Accuracy Remains Difficult

Utilities operate in an environment where data quality matters more than ever for safety, reliability, compliance and customer satisfaction. Still, they often struggle to achieve high data quality, especially when it comes to assets.

One of the most persistent challenges involves the reliance on non-native point solutions for field operations. These disparate tools often require complex middleware and ETL (extract, transform, load) processes to move data between systems. As a result, data is frequently out of sync and established business rules in the system of record are not enforced at the point of data entry. This creates a cycle where field workers operate on outdated or inaccurate information, leading to guesswork, delays and increased risk.

The sheer complexity of IT architectures makes matters worse. Many utilities have accumulated dozens of specialized apps, each serving a narrow purpose, which leads to confusion, redundancy and information gaps. Field crews must navigate multiple interfaces, often re-entering data or searching for the same information across different platforms. This not only slows down operations but also introduces opportunities for error and data loss.

The shift from paper-based to digital processes has helped, but many organizations still struggle with legacy workflows. Paper-based as-builting and redlining, for example, can delay data updates for months or even years, leaving the back office without the right information to make timely decisions or respond to regulatory inquiries.

And, even if a given workflow can be supported by one of the many available point solutions, the quality of the data captured is undermined from the beginning since the non-native software has no clue about the business rules in the back-office. Organizations risk non-compliance, financial penalties and reputational damage without a unified, reliable view of asset data. As utilities embrace pragmatic approaches to machine learning and artificial intelligence, data quality becomes paramount.

Utilities struggle with data accuracy for many reasons:

• Too many non-native apps in use
• Business rules broken during time of data collection
• Delays from legacy paper-based workflows
• Changing regulatory requirements not reflected in ETLs
• Human error from manual data entry

How Lemur Mobile Mapping Delivers

Lemur mobile mapping, developed by TRC, is engineered to address the core challenges utilities face in achieving data quality and operational efficiency. Lemur offers a unified, configurable mobile platform that combines GIS, asset management and work order systems into a unified, intuitive experience for field teams. This approach eliminates the need for multiple apps and complex ETL processes, streamlining data flows and ensuring that business rules are enforced at the point of data entry.

A critical advantage of Lemur is  its seamless integration with an organization’s system of record. Whether SAP’s ERP, Esri ArcGIS, or another enterprise asset management (EAM) or work management system (WMS), Lemur ensures that field data is updated directly within the authoritative database, using the authoritative data governance rules. This eliminates the risk of data degradation caused by manual data entry, middleware, or disconnected point solutions.

Field workers can access the latest asset and work information, with all relevant business rules and compliance requirements enforced on-device in real time. With Lemur’s offline-first design, utilities don’t have to worry about where they operate in the field. Staff can often operate in areas with limited or no connectivity. Lemur ensures that all necessary maps, asset records and work details are available on the device, regardless of network conditions.

Once connectivity is restored, data updates are synchronized, ensuring the back office receives the most current information, every day. This capability is especially valuable for utilities managing large, geographically dispersed asset networks, where reliable connectivity is not always guaranteed. The platform’s configurability allows organizations to tailor the user experience to specific workflows and use cases. Field workers only see the necessary information and tools, reducing complexity and accelerating adoption.

Lemur supports various field operations, from routine inspections and maintenance to complex construction and emergency response. Features like barcode scanning, redlining and map visualization enhance accuracy and efficiency, enabling field teams to capture and correct data with confidence. By consolidating data flows and eliminating redundant systems, Lemur simplifies IT architecture and reduces the cost and complexity of maintaining multiple apps and data repositories. This lowers operational expenses and minimizes the risk of data errors and compliance gaps. With Lemur, utilities can finally achieve a single source of truth for asset and work data, enabling field and back-office teams to make better decisions more quickly.

Lemur also provides robust support for regulatory compliance. By ensuring that all data updates are captured, validated and recorded within the system of record, utilities can demonstrate to regulators and auditors that their asset and work records are timely, accurate and complete. Lemur’s integration with leading enterprise platforms like SAP, Salesforce and Esri ArcGIS enables utilities to optimize return on their IT investments while modernizing field operations. This future-proof approach positions organizations to take advantage of emerging technologies, such as AI and advanced analytics, by maintaining clean, reliable and compliant data across the enterprise.