Amalgam LLC is a company specializing in Internet mapping and Geographic Information Systems (sometimes just called GIS), but technology isn’t where the story stops with this Mount Pleasant-based firm.
In fact, one of the company’s organizational focuses is that data and technology are not enough, and that the firm’s perspective “is a life cycle,” where the people involved are just important as the software and machinery.
"Technology doesn’t means a thing unless the people who understand them are there to support the people who need it," says Ken Curry, who left his position as director of Central Michigan University’s GIS Center to found Amalgam in 2006, along with CMU grad students James Schlafley and David Nichol.
"So many times, data and technology firms come in, install a system and leave clients to their own devices. We understand that you’ve got to see the system through, to make sure your clients have a lifelong understanding that is going to make the system work for them," he says.
To get an understanding of Amalgam, it’s all about GIS and Internet mapping. GIS isn’t just a handy piece of software. It actually integrates hardware, software and data to do everything you might want in terms of geographic data. Capturing, managing, analyzing and displaying geographically referenced information is just the start. Users can then view, question and visualize data in the best way to reveal relationships and patterns in the geographic data, and finally, create products like maps, globes, reports and charts.
A GIS helps clients answer questions and solve problems by looking at data in a way that is quickly understood and easily shared. Thousands of organizations use GIS to solve problems and improve processes. Business, governments, educators and scientists, environmental and conservation organizations, natural resource groups and utilities—all these benefit from GIS and Internet mapping.
Sounds like a mouthful, but it truly is a simplification of what could be a mind-numbing amount of data to wade through. Instead of poring through charts, tabular and linear information, GIS and Internet mapping allow visual information to be brought to life and for data to be made readily understandable in seconds.
"Business can find out demographics of a zip code with a few clicks of a mouse," says Curry. "They can target customers by census blocks; who makes more than $100,000, who has bachelor’s degrees, etc. This used to be a cumbersome process, but now it is so visual. You just click on a zip code, and it tells you about the demographic you are dealing with."
The mapping system also has huge, timesaving benefits for municipalities and utility companies.
“Utilities can find out where they have fiber-optic cable, cities and counties can click a mouse and track when sewer and water pipes were last changed and updated, when their roads were last paved,” Curry says. “They don’t have to have charts, or dig into files. It is all right there for them visually. It is a quick, effective decision-making took used for budgeting, planning and prioritizing.”
More and more businesses, organizations and municipalities are taking advantage of the way the systems have improved accessibility of information.
Dow Chemical and
URS Corp. are two of Amalgam’s business clients, but where Amalgam really has excelled is in the world of government entities. The counties of Midland, Gladwin, Isabella, Gratiot, Otsego, Ogemaw and the City of Portage all have coupled with Amalgam to bring GIS and Internet mapping to their daily lives.
Each of Amalgam’s clients has individual needs for the systems and services, so Curry says his three-man firm “doesn’t push a template solution,” forcing the client to fit to Amalgam’s system. Rather, Curry, Schlafley and Nichol work together to fit their skills to benefit the distinct wishes of each client.
"We go in and learn as much as we can about the organization, and listen to what they want, and we assess what their needs might be," Curry says. "We then can adapt to their needs. This is where some firms fail. You can’t offer a one-size-fits-all approach. It just doesn’t work, because no client is the same."
Just as no two client’s needs are the same, the computer savvy of their employees isn’t always equal. GIS and Internet mapping may be a familiar concept in some organizations, but they may seem like terms from outer space in other offices. This is part of the need-assessment process, Curry says.
More important than the technological, hardware, software, and mechanical needs-assessment, this is where the "people process" comes into play.
"When we go in and work with a client, we let them know that we are going to be there for whatever level of support and for whatever duration of time they feel they need," Curry says. "Sometimes, that is figured into the initial bidding process, and other times, it isn’t. But, either way, it can be flexible.
"The important thing that we impart on our clients is that this isn’t just a data system they are buying into. It is a system that their people will know how to use, and that their people will be taught to use by our people."
People. There’s that word again.
"Well, it might seem like a cliche, but it just doesn’t work without people," Curry says. "That’s why we stress it. That’s what we think sets Amalgam apart. It isn’t just lip service."
Jeff Barr is a freelance writer who has lived in Michigan for 45 years. You can reach Jeff via email.