New service offering combines 40 years of surveying expertise with advanced reality-capture capabilities to provide clients with reliable spatial information that supports infrastructure decisions throughout the asset lifecycle
Fisher Associates today announced the launch of Fisher Geospatial Services, a new service offering within the firm’s Land Survey + Data Solutions Practice Area.
The new service offering reflects how the profession and Fisher’s capabilities have evolved. Building on 40 years of professional surveying experience, Fisher Geospatial Services combines that expertise with reality capture, advanced data processing and visualization technologies to give clients a more complete and useful understanding of the physical world.
Newly hired Jason Tommell, MBA, PSM, PLS, CFM®, PMP®, is leading the development of Fisher Geospatial Services as Director, Land Survey + Data Solutions. Tommell is a licensed professional land surveyor with more than 25 years of surveying and geomatics experience.
“Technology has fundamentally changed what is possible when it comes to understanding the physical world,” said Roseann Schmid, P.E., Chief Executive Officer of Fisher Associates. “We can capture existing conditions at a scale and level of detail that simply wasn’t practical before. But collecting more data isn’t the goal. The real opportunity is turning that information into something clients can trust, understand and use to make better decisions throughout the life of their infrastructure.”
From Surveying a Site to Capturing Reality
For generations, surveying has provided the critical measurements that allow engineers, architects, planners and owners to understand existing conditions and confidently design what comes next.
That fundamental role hasn’t changed. The ways those conditions can be captured, and what can be done with that information, have.
Today’s reality-capture technologies, including terrestrial and mobile laser scanning, LiDAR, drones and photogrammetry, can rapidly document buildings, infrastructure, terrain and other environments in extraordinary detail. That information can be transformed into point clouds, 3D models, imagery, terrain models, mapping and other spatial products.
The result isn’t simply more data. It is the ability to create a trusted digital record of what exists.
“We don’t want technology searching for a problem,” Schmid said. “We want to understand the client’s problem first and then determine how our people, technology and expertise can help solve it. That’s the difference between simply collecting information and creating information that has lasting value.”
“There is tremendous value in establishing a clear and reliable understanding of existing conditions before important decisions are made,” Tommell added. “Our first question isn’t, ‘What technology should we use?’ It’s, ‘What does the client need to accomplish?’ Once we understand that, we can determine what information needs to be captured and how it can create the most value.”
Capture Once. Create Value Many Times.
One of the most significant opportunities presented by reality capture is the ability to extend the usefulness of spatial information beyond its original purpose.
Information collected to support design, for example, may also help document preconstruction conditions, coordinate proposed improvements, verify installed work, develop as-built records or support future maintenance and asset-management decisions. In some applications, teams can return to the captured digital environment for information that wasn’t originally anticipated, potentially reducing the need for additional site visits.
That can mean fewer return trips to the field, better information available to project teams and greater value from a client’s initial investment in data collection.
When connected with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Building Information Modeling (BIM), asset-management platforms and other digital tools, spatial information can become part of an increasingly intelligent understanding of an owner’s infrastructure.
For clients managing facilities, transportation networks, utilities, campuses or other complex assets, the opportunity can extend well beyond a single project.
Technology Doesn’t Replace the Surveyor
Advanced technology can collect enormous amounts of information quickly, but volume does not equal value, and data alone does not establish confidence.
Fisher’s survey professionals determine what information is appropriate for the client’s intended use, establish the necessary control, select the appropriate capture methodology and oversee how the information is processed, validated and delivered.
“Technology allows us to see and document more than ever before, but professional judgment is what makes that information useful,” Tommell said. “Our job is to establish confidence in the information so the people making decisions can rely on it.”
This combination of professional expertise and advanced technology allows Fisher Geospatial Services to support clients throughout the infrastructure lifecycle, from planning and design to construction, as-built documentation, maintenance and asset management.
The underlying principle is simple: better knowledge of what exists creates a stronger foundation for deciding what comes next.
That philosophy also reflects Fisher’s practice of Clientship: listening first, understanding what clients are trying to accomplish and bringing the right expertise, creativity and accountability to solving their challenges. For Fisher Geospatial Services, that means using technology because it creates value for the client, not simply because the technology exists.
Experience Behind the Technology
Tommell brings more than 25 years of experience in land surveying and geomatics to Fisher’s Land Survey + Data Solutions Practice Area and the development of its Geospatial Services offering. His connection to the profession began in high school working alongside his father, a licensed surveyor, and ultimately led him from field surveying and business ownership to multi-state operational and industry leadership.
“What attracted me to Fisher was the depth of its surveying expertise combined with a willingness to challenge what surveying can become,” Tommell said. “We have decades of professional knowledge to build from, combined with technologies that allow us to capture, understand and communicate the physical world in entirely new ways.”
The Expanding Value of Survey
Fisher Geospatial Services reflects the expanding ways Fisher’s surveying expertise and spatial information capabilities can create value for clients.
“We’re not replacing traditional surveying; we’re expanding what it can deliver,” Tommell said. “When you capture the right information, establish confidence in it and make it accessible, a survey can become much more than the starting point for a project. It can become a resource for decisions throughout the life of an asset.”
For more information about Fisher Geospatial Services and how Fisher Associates can support your next project, contact Jason Tommell at jtommell@fisherassoc.com or 585.334.1310
