Natural Resources Inventory and Analysis Institute

Technical Resources

Analysis on using the Customer Service Toolkit

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Notes on Using the Customer Service Toolkit

Abstract

Customer Service Toolkit is a collection of software tools for USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), field employees who work with the public, primarily with farmers and ranchers. It can also be useful to partner agencies, such as Conservation Districts and Departments of Natural Resources or others who provide conservation planning and resource assessment information. This is an evaluation of some uses of the Toolkit for USDA/NRCS Field Offices.

Introduction

Tasks of a USDA/NRCS Field Office could be the development, analysis and management of client data, resource data, conservation contracts and conservation programs. Development, analysis and management of client data could include developing and servicing of conservation plans for individuals, groups, areas, watersheds, priority areas and various conservation contracts and programs.

The Toolkit is designed to use commercial software. The toolkit can be installed with or without Geographic Information System (GIS) components or with the soil data viewer as a stand-alone. The GIS capabilities add considerable effectiveness, capabilities and efficiency to many Field Office operations. The software requirements for Toolkit installation with GIS capabilities are ESRI ArcView 3.1 or 3.2, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Office 97 and Microsoft Outlook 98. The Toolkit can be installed without GIS capabilities, which eliminates the need for ESRI ArcView 3.1 or 3.2. Installed as stand-alone soil data viewer it does not require Microsoft Outlook 98.

Process

A copy of the Customer Service Toolkit was loaded on a Common Computing Environment (CCE) machine located at the NRIAI (Natural Resource Inventory & Analysis Institute) machine in Fort Worth, Texas. A dummy database was created and used to evaluate the Toolkit. Most of the tasks of a USDA/NRCS Field Office were tested using the Toolkit to determine if it could improve or enhance these task.

Results and Discussion

The tool kit can be installed based on the needs, available tools and staff in the Field Office. The user needs to have basic computer skills with Microsoft Windows NT, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Excel. However, the more skills the user has with this software the more effective, efficient and creative uses of the Toolkit will be. Additional user skills with Microsoft Access and ArcView are an advantage to the user of the Toolkit.

The Toolkit takes advantage of several choice lists, some that can be modified for specific needs and others that can not in order to guarantee an agency wide consistency. Choice lists include Conservation Practices, Practice Narratives, Cost Share Programs and Land Use. The Toolkit has many tools that make it easy to modify, use and manage all choice lists.

Tasks of a USDA/NRCS Field Office tested with Toolkit included development, analysis and management of client data, resource data, conservation contracts and conservation programs. Development, analysis and management of client data could include developing and servicing of conservation plans for individuals, groups, areas, watersheds, priority areas and various conservation contracts and programs. Management and use of Field Office personnel was evaluated. Scheduling and prioritizing of Field Office activities were reviewed. The development, analysis and management of resource data such as soils, land use, land cover, climatic, topographic, demographic and others were evaluated as compared to current conventional means. Development, analysis and management of Conservation Reserve, Environmental Quality Incentive, Flood Protection, Forest Incentives, Rural Abandoned Mine; Wetlands Reserve and Wildlife Habitat Incentives contracts were tested.

I developed several conservation plans and contracts in numerous different ways. I modified several choice lists with no problem.

I completed work that would have supported programs such as Conservation Farm Option, Conservation Plants Materials Center, Farmland Protection, Grazing Lands Conservation, Outreach for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers, Natural Resource Inventory, and Resource Conservation & Development. Programs such as Snow Survey & Water Supply Forecast, Soil Survey, Stewardship Incentive, Watershed Protection & Flood Prevention, and Watershed Surveys & Planning could be as easily completed with many of the tools used I the tested programs.

I developed a field office template not only with the digital ortho but also the Digital Line Graph (DLG) digital layer. I created a field boundary layer from both templates.

I experimented with the management of a fake field office staff.

I evaluated the analysis and interpretation of numerous GIS resource layers such as soils, land use, land cover, climate, and topography.

Conclusion

The Customer Service Toolkit is an excellent tool for use in providing conservation planning and resource assessment information. It should increase Field Office efficiency and effectiveness. Toolkit will easily complete new products and task that were not available using conventional methods.

The Toolkit is unique in that it can be used effectively in any Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Field Office no matter what are available. It uses commercial software, and is easy to use and very versatile depending on the software skills of the user.

The conservation plans and contracts were completed with ease and quality was excellent. I was able to manage these plans with greater efficiency. I was impressed with the accuracy for practice certification. I modified plans and contracts with ease.

The modified choice list was easily used in planning and servicing plans and contracts. Choice list such as Local Land Use, Resource Inventory Line, Resource Inventory point, and Resource Inventory polygon were used with conservation plans and contracts but were also used to create a locally lead inventory. Inventory tools use can be very diverse because data can be collected at a point, along a line or inside an area. Conventional data gathered on photography could be captured easily especially if the GIS components were available. Historic data could be entered into the Toolkit that could be used in many ways. For example vegetative transects could be entered into Toolkit from ancillary data that could be used in an extensive county or large area evaluation or analysis. Point data from wells could provide similar results using point resource inventory techniques. Wetlands would be a prime example for area resource inventory.

I would have been able to manage and use Field Office personnel more effectively and efficiently. Scheduling and prioritizing of Field Office activities could be greatly benefited.

The development, analysis and management of resource data such as soils, land use, land cover, climate, topography and demography was much easier, more timely and had tremendous advantages over current conventional means.

Toolkit promoted speed of delivery and content of numerous Field Office products such as maps and printed data.

The use of GIS in planning is easily demonstrated but even without GIS the Toolkit is a very effective and efficient tool. It has tools that can easily import FOCS data. When plans are generated or imported into the Toolkit the needs for servicing, managing and analyzing them is easily accomplished. Plans on systems that originally had no GIS capability are easily linked to GIS data if the software and GIS data are added at a later time.

Lack of GIS data availability should not stop offices from using he Toolkit. One of the most useful GIS layers that takes advantage of Toolkit is the digital ortho layer. However, it is not mandatory. Areas where this is not available should be using the DLG layers, which are available for the entire contiguous United States at http://ortho.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/.

The Toolkit provides many easy to use tools to analyze, evaluate and manage the soils database and GIS layer. It is extremely easy to make soil interpretations from the soil database.

As with any software additions, modifications and repairs are needed. Toolkit will not completely satisfy every customer. However, I feel it is an wise and needed improvement to Field Office personnel to provide assistance to our customers.