Unicorn Systems: The Key European Player in Esri Technology Field

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Unicorn Systems

Mr. Miroslav Hašek, Managing Director, Unicorn SystemsMr. Miroslav Hašek, Managing Director
Unicorn Systems' evolution and growth spanning over three decades stem from its consistent, longterm focus on delivering competitive advantage for customers by developing a range of cuttingedge solutions. Today, their solutions are widely used and adopted by some of the most important companies across various industries. For example, in the geoinformatics domain, Unicorn Systems has designed and implemented operational and geographic information systems (GIS), asset and facility management systems, as well as software for planning, designing, and building optical networks. As a market leader in state-of-the-art and proven GIS and CAD technologies, the company supports these activities with a range of related IT services, including training and user support, and longstanding partnerships with Esri, Oracle, and Bentley Systems.

Unicorn Systems banks upon its implementation team's abundant experience and technological know-how to meet the clients' requirements and specifications. Following is the conversation that CIO Applications Magazine had with Unicorn Systems’ Managing Director, Mr. Miroslav Hašek.

What are the challenges existing today in the Esri space

Since its early days, Unicorn Systems has been at the forefront of mitigating the challenges that its clients face in an efficient and effective manner. We realize that CIOs are troubled with the Esri space’s transformation from the geometric network to one of its successors—Utility/Trace Network. Esri has effectuated this paradigm shift to significantly improve its platform and provide a new approach to modeling utility and telecom network assets. As a result, Esri remains the best GIS platform for the 21st century.

Unfortunately, the transition of the network model in tune with the new platform version brings some challenges, especially for customers with extensive Esri implementations. We are actively doing R&D, collecting case studies and knowledge from practice, to give our clients a clear idea of what has to be done, the benefits to tap, and risks to be avoided.

We believe that the key to success lies in reacting and adapting quickly. In the past, the company participated in projects trying to customize Esri and "flex" as much as possible to address every customer's requirement. Gradually, it was getting demanding to develop and maintain the solutions. Thus, Unicorn Systems now recommend that clients take this opportunity and adopt as many of the standard Esri features as possible. We also provide clients with guidance and consultancy to reach their goals and meet the requirements using standard platform features.

How has Unicorn Systems kept Esri as the central point of truth for network assets?

Unicorn Systems’ vision and recommendation is to keep Esri as the central point of truth for network assets—the central source of geodata. After all, the platform is adept at keeping all relevant data, and consumers can further process, alter, or enrich them to effectively carry out any business scenarios.

For example, a distribution system operator that stores information about the network in GIS will have the information about assets stored generally stored in platforms like SAP, together with some duplicate information from the GIS. Their SCADA system then contains selected pieces of information from both previously mentioned solutions in a different form. The data in all three systems are entered manually, they are often inconsistent, and it takes a long time to propagate the changes from one system to another. Unicorn Systems’ future-proof GIS solution covers the whole lifecycle of the network, starting from planning and designing the new grid components through its construction with the real project documentation to the handover to operation and maintenance. It serves as a "time machine," which provides a holistic view of the different stages of the network's lifecycle.

Recently, we have garnered great success with clients through two innovative solutions— ForestGuard and ARAM. With the forests in centralwest Europe affected by a disaster of decimating, namely spruce trees, we have developed an affordable method to monitor and assess the extent of the damage through ForestGuard. Based on the Esri cloud platform, the solution can identify the trees that are "infected" already but still look fine. The software processes pictures obtained by UAV and analyses the color spectrum without requiring to send someone physically on-site and spend a significant amount of time inspecting the area.

Unicorn Systems will put effort into expanding its activities throughout Europe and become one of the key European players in the Esri technology field


The second solution, ARAM, is way ahead of time. It gives a chance to clients to see the location of their physical assets in real-time, even if they are hidden in a wall or placed deep under the ground. For instance, using Unicorn Systems’ software, a maintenance squad can precisely locate a damaged pipe spot using augmented reality (on a tablet or with special glasses).

How has Unicorn Systems been able to bridge the gap between technology and business?

Being a large software house with various departments focusing on multiple technologies and industry segments, we believe that our precise way of working, combined with the ability to deliver a turnkey solution and deep understanding of both the platform itself and the business environment, gives us a substantial competitive edge. Unicorn Systems bridges the gap between technology and business by putting enormous effort to make its clients and workforce not only technology experts but also domain experts. And with the growing demand for IT solutions and services across all business segments and all European countries, I am not worried about our future.

Unicorn Systems will put effort into expanding its activities throughout Europe and become one of the key European players in the Esri technology field. We can see how rapidly the world is changing. Digitization is everywhere, and you cannot create a true digital twin without grasping its geographical aspects. This opens new possibilities both for us and the Esri platform. I am convinced that Unicorn will succeed and stay beneficial for its customers, partners, and society both in Czechia and all of Europe.

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