Beta Version of Synergy's GIS Released

The aid community is increasingly keen on capturing geographically referenced information in the form of online, intelligent maps—what, in technical terms, are known as “geographic information systems (GIS).”  The reasons for the growing interest in GIS are clear: they allow users to visualize, analyze, and thus better understand the aid landscape. 

Synergy is at the forefront of the GIS revolution. We have just released a beta version of our GIS, which is a comprehensive, powerful, and easy-to-use tool.  It is designed to be of use in the full spectrum of development contexts and to meet the needs of donor agencies, governments, NGOs and private foundations alike.  Users can plot data (for example, project information) directly on a map and then access that data through the map.  Users can also query, aggregate, disaggregate, filter, and edit data on a map.  They can visually capture data at any desired level, from the most general to the most detailed, down to the village, road or construction site level.  

Moreover, Synergy’s GIS offers an impressive array of state-of-the-art, advanced GIS features, such as the ability to zoom freely; to select a point on a map and ask the system to display any category of data within a given radius (“buffer zone querying”); to enter GPS coordinates from a remote mobile device directly into the GIS (“geocoding”); to plot graphs (chart, bars, etc.) on a map; and to calculate distances.                 

Synergy’s GIS will also offer the company’s sophisticated Web database features and capabilities, including analytical list, chart, and report-builder modules, thus fully combining the benefits of mapping and database views.  

In addition to being a stand-alone application, the GIS can also be integrated into Synergy’s globally used Development Assistance Database (DAD) applications.

The live release is scheduled for Fall 2009.  Synergy’s GIS is an entirely in-house development.