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About Us

HISTORY

 

Mannion Geosystems was established in 2003, during a transitional time when both the technology and practice of GIS was evolving from a workgroup level endeavor into an integrated part of the core mission of many organizations.

 

A hallmark of this shift was a migration away from applications and data residing on individual workstations, managed by the end users who needed GIS to do their jobs, and towards shared, server based databases and services administered by centralized IT departments.  After working as a database instructor, course writer, and consultant for Esri in Redlands, California, Michael Mannion started MannionGeo to help organizations move from workgroup to enterprise geospatial technologies - including bridging the operational and cultural gaps between GIS and IT program offices.

 

Since that time, GIS has become a mainstream information technology, and we have expanded our capabilities to include additional technical design and build services, as well as specialized business and process analysis. In addition to our continuing focus on geospatial databases, system integration, and process automation, we offer unique and hard-to-find consulting expertise from system architecture design, to custom software development, to strategic planning.

 

Whether directly or in concert with our industry-specific partners, MannionGeo brings the technical know-how and first hand experience to ensure the success of today's complex, mission critical geospatial applications.

 

APPROACH

 

MannionGeo is not a general purpose GIS firm. Rather, we provide specialized GIS and IT skillsets, typically for large or complex systems. Our focus is on the technology. In each of our projects, our customers and partners bring their domain expertise, and we bring the technical muscle to implement their vision.

 

MannionGeo is a small company, by design. Each of our consutants is a senior-level professional with the education and career experience to design and build practical geospatial solutions in complex and fluid modern IT environments.

 

In addition to their technical skills, our consultants are capable business analysts and project managers, who have both the responsiblity and ability to truly consult with our clients. Beyond configuring and writing software, we work continually with our clients on requirements analysis, budgeting, change management, training, and other semi-technical and nontechnical items that are essential to the success of any technology deployment.

 

In cases where we have only some of the skills or bandwidth necessary to complete a project, we work with our network of trusted partners to build a team that can do the job at the same high level of quality that our customers expect from MannionGeo - and that we demand from ourselves. In fact, we partner with other firms on most of our projects, offering our customers the best staff from across the team in each area of expertise.

 

If you have read the information above, or elsewhere on our site, and are continuing to read here, firstly let me thank you for your interest in MannionGeo. To provide some additional context for those necessarily terse "who we are" and "what we do" descriptions, I'd like to share with you my persepective on why we do what we do at MannionGeo - and what that means for you as a client.

 

I will talk below about the subjects that one often finds in these types of mission statements - our commitment to our customers, the importance of relationships, our work ethic, and the like. I will preface those comments with a topic that often omitted from such discussions, and which provides a necessary framework for understanding what motivates us to work so hard on your behalf.

 

Specifically, like all for-profit companies, our primary objective is to generate revenue in order to provide financial security for ourselves and our families. While this may appear at first glance merely avaricious, it implies something valuable for our customers - that our success is directly and wholly tied to your success. In order for us to earn and keep your business, we need to deliver our services consistently, reliably, and in a tangible way that helps you achieve your own goals.

 

In a practical sense, then, what does this mean for MannionGeo customers? Several things:

 

  • You have our attention
    Our relationships with our clients are the foundation of our business. Especially as a small firm, our company lives and dies by its reputation. Most of our work is repeat business, and most of our new customers are referred by existing ones. During projects, we are in constant communication to make sure that we understand and are responsive to your needs, especially as they evolve. We also regulate our overall workload to ensure that each active client has our personal attention, at the time and in the amount that they desire. Call us when you need us, we'll be here.

 

  • We undertake work that matches our capabilities
    This may seem obvious, but it is not always the case in IT consulting. We want to ensure that each of our projects is an absolute success, so we take a conservative approach to seeking and accepting work. If we don't have the skillset or capacity to do a whole project ourselves, we build a team of qualified partners who can help. If we can't add value by participating directly, we'll refer you to another firm who is a better fit.

 

  • Our focus is long-term
    This is important for our customers for two reasons. Firstly, we design and build solutions that we intend to last. Even in this age of rapid software development and continual incremental deployments, we strive to build stable, extensible architectures that can adapt to the inevitable changes on the horizon. We also provide mentoring, training, and comprehensive documentation to ensure that your staff can operate the systems that we build. Secondly, we have been in business for more than a decade, and see this as just the beginning. We want you to be successful over the long term, so that we can continue to work with you. In fact, we would rather build one solution that meets your needs for years to come and have you return as a satisfied customer when the time is right, than to keep you tethered to us for ongoing maintenance and support in the short term.

 

  • We enjoy the work we do
    Running an IT consultancy requires a lot of effort. There are arguably easier ways to make a living, but we choose to do this work because we enjoy it. We like the challenge of working with complex technologies and environments, especially those that others shy away from. We derive great satisfaction from solving problems that are important to your mission and your user community. We are motivated and invigorated to excel when the stakes are high. We enjoy the work we do, and our passion, enjoyment, and satisfaction shows itself in the quality of our deliverables.

 

  • When we make mistakes, we fix them
    We try our utmost to achieve the goals described above, but sometimes we still fail. We've made little mistakes, as well as some big ones, but we always make them right. This is partly a practical measure, to ensure that our clients are entirely satisfied with the service that they receive. It is also a reflection of who we are as individuals. We take pride in our work, and we want that work to be the best it can be.

 

I'll conclude with a comment on one theme that you may have detected running through the preceding discussion - MannionGeo is focused more on stability than on growth. For the first eight years, the company comprised a single individual. Since then, we've grown to a peak of four outstanding consultants, each of whom shares the philosophy that it is more important to do interesting, rewarding work for fair compensation than it is to grow the company in pursuit of profits at the expense of quality.

 

We are proud of the work that we do, we have fun doing it, and we are grateful for our clients and colleagues who allow us the opportunity to do great things with them. Thank you to our existing friends, and welcome to the ones that we have yet to meet.

PHILOSOPHY

by Michael Mannion,

Database Consultant

and Manager

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