Apr 19, 20202 min read

The 4 Principles of Katapult Pro

Updated: Oct 22

The development of Katapult Pro began many years before our first client came on board and long before considered ourselves a software development company. Early on, we were looking for a competitive edge, and trying to find ways to make the pole attachments process safer and faster for our fiber clients.

Now, with dozens of teams and hundreds of users pushing the industry further using the platform, we took a look back at a few of the guiding principles of Katapult Pro and outlined the pieces of our stack that highlight those principles. Here's what we came up with:

Principle #1: Data Transparency

We believe the most important factor in getting fiber attached to poles safer and faster is getting all parties involved on the same page. With this in mind, data transparency is of the utmost importance. Katapult Pro provides data transparency by presenting accurate, real-world conditions—in real-time. Users can interact with the data remotely and work on the same job at the same time, avoiding mistakes and miscommunication associated with conflicting data. Our team uses Katapult Pro's online deliverable to conduct virtual rideouts without leaving the office.

Katapult Pro Online Deliverable

Principle #2: Location-Based Design

In Katapult Pro, all design elements, field data, and photos are mapped to true geolocations. This allows users to export designs and pole data in a variety of formats, such as shapefile/KMZ. Because the design elements have true geolocations, Katapult Pro can calculate distances and bearings necessary for pole loading analysis, resulting in dynamic exports of fully loaded poles into SPIDAcalc, O-Calc Pro, and PoleForeman. This also allows the system to auto-calculate the effect of make ready moves on midspan heights over critical crossings.

Katapult Pro Make Ready View

Principle #3: Defensible Photo Data

Perhaps the most important element of the Katapult Pro platform is the pole photos. Providing pole owners and foreign utilities with photo evidence of existing conditions is crucial to making the pole attachments process a faster, more collaborative process. Our accuracy is +/- 3" at 50' above ground, and relative heights (distances between to bolted attachments) have an even smaller error. Additionally, time stamps on photos and poles clearly indicate the time and date that each pole was inspected.

Katapult Pro Photos view

Principle #4: Data Organization

The essential promise of the Katapult Pro platform is: "if you put good data into the system, you'll get good data out of it." By taking high quality, measurable photos and associating them to true geolocations, the export and deliverable options are almost endless. The Katapult Pro platform utilizes hub and spoke exports to integrate with legacy solutions, industry-leading programs, and creative map and photo deliverables that we created. Another popular export from the platform is a custom profile sheet or spreadsheet exports required by pole owners. Additionally, because the data is formatted in a controlled way, we can also implement QA/QC checks to ensure each project is meeting accuracy requirements.