Mumbai startup Spatial Ideas which uses the power of Mobile and GIS for eGovernance plans Singapore expansion

Governance and supervision of various projects undertaken by a particular government department is no easy task. MoEGIS is a product by Mumbai startup Spatial Ideas which uses the power of mobile, enterprise and Geographic information systems to help government and city municipal agencies to monitor and operate their various departments.

I checked out the demo of their application for a solid waste management system. Logging into a dashboard displays the number of garbage collection trucks and their positions , the points they have picked up garbage from on a particular day and the contract workers who have turned up for the day using facial recognition.

The health dashboard enables health department officials to see the number of people treated for a particular ailment at a Primary Health Care centre, their individual information and area wise trends and figures.

The only cost to the government department is the platform itself and basic smartphones/tablets with applications which can be used by the staff with some basic training. But the wealth of data provided by the system more than makes up for the cost of the operations by increasing efficiency and accountability. 

Spatial Ideas currently has 2 products:

LocoBuzz: A social media, analytical, engagement platform which was launched in Jan 2011

Through LocoBuzz, Spatial Ideas is working with clients like the Taj Hotels, Mahindra Automobiles, Meru, Triumph, The Indian Hotels, Interactive Avenues etc. LocoBuzz can be used for Social Media Management, Lead Generation, Social CRM and Market Research. It is an online Reputation Management. Spatial Ideas were an Echelon 2011 Finalist for this product.

MoEGIS: A Mobile Enterprise, GIS (Geographic Information System) platform which was launched in June 2012.

MoEGIS converges technologies like Mobile Applications, Biometrics and Maps to create powerful Enterprise solutions. They have used the technology to create solutions in the space of Solid Waste Management, Health, Project Management.

With MoEGIS, they are working with Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation, Aurangabd District. They have proposals pending with Nagpur Municipal Corporation and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai among others. They are in discussions with a large enterprise for their Remote Asset management solution using MoEGIS. They are partners with Terracon Ecotech, a pioneering Tree Census Organization in India. 

Motivation behind MoEGIS and addressing e-governance 

The team started working on e-Governance solutions almost 13 months back. “The motivation was very simple, we had a request from an amazing IAS officer, citing a genuine problem and seeking a solution. We were very curious to see how it will be to work with government and explore how we can impact and improve how a city operates by the use of technology. As we started interacting more with various people in the Municipal Corporation, we got even more excited about the change we were about to bring and the positive influence it will have in day to day operations. All of us at MoEGIS are on a mission to build an eGovernance platform for India” said Vishal Agarwal, Cofounder and CTO at Spatial Ideas.

Current MoEGIS Offerings

MoEGIS started out with a simple mobile application based solution for Project Management and they have expanded in terms of offerings.

Their current offerings from their product MoEGIS are:

Municipal Solid Waste Management 

The Solution enables the supervisors to better execute and manage their work force, the Sanitation officers to do a better job at tracking issues and handling them and also do a better planning for the waste removal process and this also allows participation from the citizens.

IMPACT: Accountability, attendance, billing and tracking of various cleanliness related activities. Has brought transparency and greatly simplified the management of Solid Waste Management.

Public Works Department – Project Management 

Mapping all projects undertaken by local governments and providing real time photo updates along with on-site remarks via geo-Tagged images using smart phones coupled with real time email alerts and MMS updates. Can also be used by bigger corporations with interest in Real Estate, etc. Corporations can track errant contractors and engineers effectively.

IMPACT: Digital Pictorial records of progress, transparency, management of assets, rating engineers and contractors.

Health Management and Tracking Solution

Solution for visualizing on a map the disease spread and completely digitizing how free medicine is distributed and utilized and public health posts which the government pays for. Also enabling family surveys, child and mother welfare schemes via smart Tabs.

IMPACT: Better health services, medicine tracking, curb female foeticide, disease control, providing better health services to the needy.

Spatial Ideas is currently exploring opportunities in the area of Public Distribution System and how the MoEGIS platform can be leveraged in that area.

Revenue and Funding

“We have clocked revenues close to Rs 40 Lakhs in the last 1 year and have some amazing proposals in the pipeline and if these fall in plus we expect a 500% growth in the next 3-4 months. So far we have been funded partially by LocoBuzz, our Social Media venture and partially bootstrapped. We currently are in partnership with Terracon Ecotech and we provide Technology support for their Tree Census Management Solution called Vruksha Sharad. We have had the chance to work with a couple of Municipal Corporations, Districts and are even exploring leveraging this in Infrastructure and Logistics domain. We were recently awarded the Best Smart City Initiative Award by the Maharashtra Government in the recent eMaharashtra Awards,” adds Vishal.

Future plans 

Spatial Ideas has recently expanded to Singapore in an effort to tap into the South East Asia market. They are looking forward to raise funding to further scale MoEGIS.