About Gewalt Hamilton Associates, Inc.
Gewalt Hamilton Associates (GHA) was founded in 1981 as a civil engineering company by two engineers, Dave Gewalt and Bob Hamilton, who were driven to deliver service that exceeded clients’ expectations. Today GHA is a rapidly growing, multi-disciplinary consulting firm that provides comprehensive services in the fields of Geospatial Services, Civil Engineering, Land Surveying, Construction Engineering, Traffic Engineering and Transportation Planning, Traffic Data Collection, and Environmental Consulting. These services cater to a diverse range of clients, including municipalities, private developers, and public agencies, helping them navigate complex engineering and environmental challenges effectively. Much of GHA’s staff have been a part of the team for decades, creating unmatched expertise. GHA believes their people make the difference and provide clients with the results they want and need.
GHA takes pride in offering comprehensive GIS services across the state of Illinois, well beyond their corporate headquarters in Vernon Hills. These GIS services provide valuable insights and efficient solutions tailored to their client needs.
Mr. Greg Newton, the Director of Geospatial Services and the Director of Data Collection for Gewalt Hamilton Associates, Inc. shares, “GIS empowers communities and institutions to leverage geospatial information for improved planning, asset management and decision making.” The geospatial services group under the leadership of Mr. Newton, is responsible for serving three key audience segments with field data collection and GIS application development and hosting – private clients like universities and campuses; public sector organizations; as well as internal GHA departmental GIS support for almost 140 staff members.
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The IT infrastructure tipping point
As with any organization that is undergoing rapid growth, there comes a tipping point where the current status quo no longer works and challenges start to become the norm instead of the exception. GHA’s Geospatial Services Group was facing significant challenges with their on-premise GIS infrastructure.
Overall, their current infrastructure implementation was becoming more and more unreliable due to external factors, leading to frequent outages that disrupted service for their users. “At least once or twice a month, we would experience interruptions with our fiber service,” noted Mr. Newton. Additionally, the Geospatial Services Group (GSG), while skilled in their field of GIS, did not possess the staff resources to maintain and upgrade their systems on their desired schedule. GHA outsourced their company’s IT needs to an external vendor and Mr. Newton quickly recognized the additional value that specialized expertise for their GIS-specific needs – the Esri knowledge, the GIS requirements and the IT software experience could bring.
GHA’s primary challenge was managing an increasingly complex and resource-intensive GIS infrastructure. “Our system was at a tipping point,” Mr. Newton shared, highlighting the struggles with outdated systems and the growing demand for more robust infrastructure. The in-house GIS expertise, while strong, was stretched thin, making it difficult to keep up with the rapid IT advancements and maintain optimal performance. The need for a comprehensive solution was clear: one that could not only stabilize the existing operations but also support future scalability. A solution that could provide a stable, reliable environment while reducing their dependency on local IT resources and infrastructure.
The Geospatial Services Group needed 2 key things – increased reliability compared to their existing on-premise solution provided and subject matter expertise in GIS system management. So in 2021, with the recommendation of Esri, GHA reached out to ROK Technologies to transition to a Managed Cloud Service partnership as the solution to resolve their challenges and set themselves up for future growth.
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Growing faster, together
ROK Technologies’ Managed Cloud Services offering appealed to the Geospatial Services Group because ROK could supplement the GIS IT staff as well as supplement the administrative GIS staff. The transition to ROK Technologies brought immediate relief. The Cloud infrastructure along with ROK’s IT management, provided a stable and reliable foundation, eliminating the previous issues that plagued their on-premises systems. GHA was able to decouple their GIS operations from the previous local IT infrastructure and focus on their core GIS-provided services to their key audience segments.
“ROK has been great at identifying issues and helping us resolve them quickly,” said Mr. Newton. Moreover, the scalability of the Cloud implementation made it easier for GHA to onboard new employees and expand their operations seamlessly.
Furthermore, the financial implications of this partnership were substantial. The managed services from ROK also meant that GHA, effectively reduced costs while gaining access to expert support and maintenance. The savings allowed GHA to invest in other critical areas of their business continuing their overall growth trend.
One of the standout aspects of this collaboration was the expertise that ROK Technologies brought to the table. “It was really refreshing to work with people that knew so much,” noted Mr. Newton, emphasizing the high level of technical proficiency and problem-solving skills of the ROK Technologies team. “Even compared to Esri, ROK is so helpful and knowledgeable. It is really rare to find people that know their product so well.”
GHA shares their key benefits of MCSP:
- Scheduled updates with no disruption (because they are done on the weekends or outside business hours, compared to challenging on-premise upgrades
- Improved GIS performance
- Ability to easily scale on-demand up or down without having to procure and manage additional hardware
- Freedom from having to manage IT infrastructure and deal with maintenance
- Access to expertise
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A partnership to promising future
GHA’s Geospatial Service Group has tripled its revenue since the collaboration began back in 2021, underscoring the significant impact of a stable and efficient IT infrastructure on business growth..
Rudy Ruvalcaba, ROK Technologies Client Success Director shares, “It is a pleasure to work with the GHA GIS team. They have exceptional GIS expertise and are motivated to tackle new initiatives and apply Esri’s latest technology into their projects”
With the latest ARCGIS Enterprise upgrades in place, GHA now deploys ArcIndoor mapping tools as well as leverages ArcGIS Pro and the Cloud to publish for their utility networks, which is no small feat and a challenge for many organizations.
GHA’s future is full of business opportunities and growth.This partnership has opened new avenues for service delivery for GHA, including the opportunity to offer a subscription-based model to their own clients, allowing GHA to create more predictable revenue streams as well as enhance client engagement and client satisfaction. This revenue model opportunity emerged from the collaboration and services provided by and with ROK Technologies; leading GHA to focus on more strategic business initiatives beyond GIS needs.
GHA has also found onboarding new staff easier because of being in the Cloud. “It’s really easy to just expand and bring new people in as we continue to grow,” said Mr. Newton, highlighting the flexibility and scalability of their new infrastructure. This adaptability is crucial as GHA plans to expand their geographical footprint and service offerings, further solidifying their position in the market.
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In Conclusion
The partnership illustrates the transformative impact of managed cloud services on business operations. By addressing critical pain points, delivering substantial benefits, and paving the way for future growth, ROK Technologies has become a key partner for GHA. As GHA continues to expand and innovate, they can do so confidently in part because they have the reliable, scalable infrastructure needed to achieve their strategic goals and deliver exceptional value to their clients. Additionally, GHA has the agility to quickly adapt to new technologies and market demands, ensuring they remain competitive in the evolving GIS landscape.
Having that extra level of service is really nice.
At ROK, we take your GIS to the Cloud.
Contact us today to see how we can help your organization.
This case study was conducted virtually via a 1:1 Zoom interview in 2023 with Greg Newton.
