FIELDWORK AND DESK TOP REVIEW, AN IRREVERENT LOOK AT A
SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATIONANDUSEOFTABLETS INAN
APPRAISALOFFICE
“Budget basedonneed, not greed” and “Weneed to findaway todomorewith less”. Thesearewords
oftenbandiedabout. As the longest sittingelectedofficial inLeeCounty, ourPropertyAppraiserKen
Wilkinsondidn’t get thereby just talking. He says thosewords andhemeans them, just askhim.
That’swhere I come in. Ihavea really cool job, for 17years I’vegotten theopportunity to livewith
them.
Tenyears agoor so (forgive the fuzzymemory)Ken said “Findaway to cut backonourphysical in-
spections and I’mgoing toworkongetting the law changed toaccommodateourprocess”. I laughed,
hedidn’t. I toiled. And toiled. In2006we rolledout our
FieldWorkTracking/DesktopReview
appli-
cationusingdesktops and for the first time, tablets. Today, tablets areeverywhere. You seedemon-
strations at every conferenceandeveryonehas theopportunity to take thepowerpreviously reserved
for theofficeandbring it to the field. We’veworkedhard,mademistakes,made changes, rolledout
newversions (at last countwe’reonour 4
th
major version) andweput updatesout quite frequently - -
sometimesmonthly. Yes,monthly. Theapplicationwaswrittenand ismaintained internallyallowing
us tobequiteagile.
I’ve spent some time talkingwithpeople from theDOR, fromour state, fromother states and from
other countries. Everyoneagrees that tablets are theway togo for fieldwork…vendorshave commer-
cial-off-the-shelf (COTS) applications and tablets for it tobedeployedon. Itmakes youwonder: “Why
isn’t everyonedoing it?”
I’veheard the reasons. “It’s too expensive”. “We’renot quite ready”. “The cost-benefit analysis isn’t
there”. “It’shard.” “I’mnot a
techie
”. Despiteall of theobstacles,we findourselves lookingbackwon-
deringhowweevermanaged fieldworkwithout our current tools.
Getting startedwas easy. Ken said “Do it” after remindingmeabouthowhe’s an ideaguyandhowhe
wants tobeon the leadingedgeand Imumble “bleeding”undermybreath. Hooray, anew leaseonmy
life’swork…noworries, the “devil is in thedetails” run throughmyhead. Inour case, thedetails and
dataarepretty simple…550,000parcels to inspect and20people todo it in3yearswithout leavinga
deskunless youhave to. How simple. Createamobile, tablet-based fieldediting tool to replacepaper
field cards; developanapplication tomanage thedataand theworkloadand change the law.
As anaside, if you takeawayonepieceof advice from thismissive, it’s this: “Learn thedata”. I tell
people to learn thedataall the time. Learning thedata requires you to immerseyourself in theprocess
youare in. Do it right andyoubecomeanexpert andhavea chanceat a successful project. Do it
wronganddo it over. As I’m constantly reminded, “lather, rinse, repeat”…do youknowhowmuch
shampoo companiesprofit off of you?
(Continuedonpage 14)
BESTPRACTICES -FROMLEECOUNTY
Spring2014Newsletterof theFCIAAO
11
“Learn thedata. Learning thedata requiresyou to immerseyourself in
theprocessyouare in.
”
