New app to guide IPF staff to assets, job sites

At 24.7 million square feet spread across more then 550 MSU buildings, it’s not hard to lose a few minutes finding your way to a room in an unfamiliar part of campus. That's something IPF maintenance staff can experience when they’re called on to service building assets such as pumps, steam traps and other critical equipment that are intentionally placed out of sight.

To help personnel more easily find their next job site and better serve our campus customers, IPF has introduced a new application for their mobile devices that provides staff with turn by turn navigation. Called ArcGIS Indoors, the app on their mobile device guides staff to the university vehicle parking space closest to the right entryway, and then directly to the room or building asset that needs service.

The app also is tied to IPF’s job list so staff can seamlessly find the asset or location need for their assigned job.

“Even if the app saves just a minute or two during a job helping staff navigate a new work space, over time that savings will add up to thousands of work hours,” said Adam Lawver, IPF Campus Services director. “I thank MSU IT staff for helping us launch this app so IPF can more effectively use its resources to fulfill MSU's mission of advancing knowledge and transforming lives.”

Already, IPF Learning and Development staff have trained more than 15 staff to pilot the application and provide feedback on the functionality and usability of the application. The training team will review and implement the lessons learned from the pilot group and scale up across the rest of IPF staff in the comings months.