Althouse and Meade Incorporated, a privately-owned consultation firm that provides environmental services, was facing challenges with their traditional data collection methods. They were using Trimble GeoXT units to collect GPS coordinate data which was then matched with a data sheet to record associated attributes. However, this method was slow and not suitable for larger scale data collection. As the amount of spatially attributed data that needed to be collected continued to grow, A&M needed to find a solution to meet the growing demand. The main issue that sparked the need to search for a new data collection solution, was that the company was now receiving contracts that required higher amounts of spatial data to be assembled. Specifically, in 2015, A&M was tasked with mapping a high number of different rare plant species. With the sheer amount of plant data that needed to be collected, the traditional Trimble unit and datasheet method was no longer a viable solution for this project.

The City of Vallejo, a local government organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA, was in search of a GIS solution to improve inventory management of city sign maintenance. The challenge of inventorying type of sign and location within the city was not a minor task. The project required strong organization, collaboration, and communication between all overseers in the office, and the field. Along with this, Vallejo required a solution that could meet the demands to complete the project, while simultaneously keeping the price tag of the chosen software solution to a minimum.