Eaglebe Outdoors in Edegem
We take it for granted that no-parking signs are put up for a container or that streets are blocked off with barriers for the annual fair, but these things don’t just appear out of nowhere. Placing, collecting, adjusting, and checking signage is a full-time job for the Technical Service of the local authority—a job that requires thorough planning, good organization, and, of course, plenty of manpower.
Fortunately, our Eaglebe Outdoors application can help lighten this load for both office staff and field workers. But at Eaglebe, we always ask ourselves: can this be improved? So, we teamed up with the Technical Service of Edegem to explore how we can further optimize the Outdoors application for our users. You can read the full report in this blog.
A warm welcome
On a sunny spring morning, we head to the municipal halls of Edegem to see how our Eaglebe Outdoors application is used in the real world. After a warm welcome and a brief tour of the halls, the roles are reversed for once and we’re given a demonstration of our own software. The staff of the Technical Service show us how they use the Outdoors app to build their daily task list and load in the required traffic signs.
Efficiency and smooth data flow are vital here. The task list is organized by urgency, but also takes into account notes from mobility staff (added as comments to the task) and the experience of the installer to map out the optimal route.
Once the signs with the correct sub-signs are loaded, it’s time to hit the road. A quick look at the first task on our route and the associated signage plan tells us where best to park for a fast and efficient job.
The real world
When we arrive at our first placement task, we see how the Eaglebe Outdoors application contributes to the smooth execution of the work. The signage plan, permit information, and additional notes make it immediately clear where each sign needs to go. Once the signs are placed, the task is completed via the app and photos of the vehicles present and the situation are added. Based on these photos, Eaglebe detects the license plates and adds them to the file. This way, they can be quickly retrieved by enforcement officers later in case of any disputes.
On the way to the next task—this time a pickup—it’s striking how many containers, scaffolds, roadworks, and other occupations can be found on the streets. The staff notice this too: they’re not only responsible for placing and collecting signage, but also for checking whether occupations are properly permitted.
It doesn’t take long before we pass a container with no permit to be found. This can be reported immediately via the Eaglebe Outdoors app, with photos and comments as evidence. In this case, however, it has to wait until we’re back at the municipal halls, because the traffic situation doesn’t allow for a quick stop. It shows how reality sometimes differs from the ideal test scenario. Thanks to Eaglebe’s flexibility, these findings can also be added and followed up later from another location.
The exception proves the rule
With the next tasks, it quickly becomes clear that there’s no such thing as a standard placement or pickup. Occupations that start before the no-parking signs are set out, containers still present when the signs need to be collected, signs that have to be placed at parking spots, on the street, or in a blue zone… These are situations you encounter all the time, but they’re handled smoothly by the staff of the Technical Service.
Fortunately, they can record all these exceptions within Eaglebe’s standard workflows. The Outdoors app takes care of a lot of paperwork and ensures you can focus on what really matters: a safe public space.
We know what to do
At the end of the day, we return to the citizen halls with a fresh perspective on our own application and the people who use it every day. We’re pleased to see how thoughtfully the Outdoors app is used in Edegem, and it’s rewarding to know it brings real efficiency gains.
Still, it’s also clear there are areas for improvement that could truly enhance the user experience: adjusting a filter, adding an extra task, or highlighting a note more clearly. These may seem like small requests, but having seen them up close, we understand their importance.
So now we know what to do to make the Eaglebe Outdoors app even better for operational teams. We’ll get to work on these optimizations soon and hope to present them to the Technical Service of Edegem—and, more broadly, the entire Eaglebe Community—in the near future.