The Key Issues Many Bridge or Asset Management Systems based on closed licenced proprietary software platforms. Recent data attacks on the NHS and other organisations are the result of reliance on licenced software that has not been maintained and upgraded. All of us are used to the never ending upgrades, the bugs of early versions and of course the risk of virus and hacking if software is not regularly updated.

Within Civil Asset Management, SHM and monitoring systems are often accused of data overload, with little or no real decision enabling information so that Bridge Engineers and Managers are not able see the wood for the trees.

Adopting a risk based approach to asset management is critical in a challenging financial environment that is likely to become increasingly pressured in the next few years in the UK and worldwide. Civil engineers are under pressure to deliver improved asset performance and life span, for less money and with minimal risk. Recent articles in the press suggest that TfL, for example, is facing an unprecedented budget deficit next year.

McKinsey Quarterly: “Big Data: What’s Your Plan”, March 2013

“The payoff from joining the big-data and advanced-analytics management revolution is no longer in doubt”

Transforming SHM from Data into Information

The enabling power of open source big data software for bridge managers

BridgeWatch®: The Future is here

BridgeWatch® is scalable and

affordable: it is ready to

transform the way we think about Bridge Management.

James Fisher Testing Services – the new name for Testconsult and Strainstall Monitoring – has developed a software technology stack that harnesses the power of the open source revolution. Smart Asset Management is here.

Using open source software, BridgeWatch® is ready to challenge the conventional approach to bridge management using powerful real time data processing, intuitive graphical interfaces and big data analytics. It provides both real time access to operational information about structural behaviour and powerful data processing and reporting functionality. These aspects significantly streamline the process of turning monitoring data into management information, routinely providing valuable insights which have previously been difficult to achieve.

This innovation future-proofs bridge asset management for the digital age. A wide range of conventional functionality is combined with the latest cloud based software, data storage, limitless sensor, gauge and data integration capabilities.

Other industries are leading the way… The Opportunity Cloud based software solutions are at the vanguard of the digital transformation of many industries.

Collaborative open source software development is currently transforming the software industry and rapidly increasing the speed of development cycle for enterprise level software.

Free open source tools, supported by industry leaders such as Google and Yahoo, have led the way to these systems rapidly outperforming traditional closed licenced software solutions. Open software standards are evolving and gaining acceptance in the mainstream to the point that even the big players such as Microsoft and IBM are starting to embrace this approach.

Other industries are already using these new digital technologies effectively to enhance their operations, such as Netflix who use real-time big data analytics to enhance personal film recommendations for each user based on viewing habits and real-time trending data.

Big data and real time processing is revealing previously hidden trends, correlations and relationships in data from healthcare and defence to our choice of film, twitter shares and Facebook news feeds.

Whilst BIM is the beginning of a shift in civil engineering thinking, asset management of civil infrastructure lags behind other sectors in the adoption and use of new, innovative digital platforms.