What people say about me or my work…

Please note that the testimonials on this page are the personal views of the named people and may not an official view of the organisations they work for.

Simon

Danish Police

The work Anette Rosengard Poulsen refers to below concerns the rebuilding of their street centroid database (used for dispatch purposes) that has to be recreated every time the Danish Police ingest a new version of the Country’s street network. Previous processing took many, many hours and was done using MapInfo MapBasic processing requiring coordination of multiple pieces of software and computers. The replacement was done using SQL Server Spatial only. The work was executed remotely (teleworking) and is yet another example of quality work that can be achieved even when working in such a way. I have worked remotely (never actually meeting the customer in person) for many others over the years including NSW Forestry, Tweed Shire Council, Danish Police, Southern Solutions, Visual Lease Services etc.

Here is a translation of what Anette wrote:

“I would like to give a little hint. In Danish police have used a unique database developer, Simon Greener, from www.spatialdbadvisor.com, Australia. Simon developed an efficient and advanced SQL algorithm that has shattered a very complex problem on a very large dataset. A fantastic piece of work that we are very relieved to have been resolved. I can therefore recommend you take a look at Simon’s website, which offers tips, free code and software. Perhaps Simon can also contribute to your puzzle solution! September, 2018.”

Her original comments in Danish are on LinkedIn

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Laser-Scan, now 1Spatial
Following on from my research and development work for Laser-Scan, and a few years of using their excellent products, I became the first Certified Practioner for Radius Studio (I am also one for Radius Topology as well). This is what Dr Michael Sanderson, CEO of Laser-Scan said:

“We have been working with Simon for the last 3 or so years. He has consistently provided pertinent feedback on the tools we have released in the Oracle spatial technology stack. He is a total enthusiast in the spatial domain. I have no hesitation in recommending Simon as a Radius Studio Practitioner.”

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Hume City Council
A small consultancy benchmarking an Oracle Locator/Spatial database for a customer in Victoria, Australia.

“Simon has performed Status Analysis of our ORACLE developments at Hume City Council and compiled a detailed report. The Report contained many useful recommendations of things to fix and things to follow up in the future and was prepared in high quality.”

Recep Alakus
GIS Administrator

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Personal
The following was written by Marco Giana, an excellent web-developer currently working for ESRI Ireland in Dublin. Marco worked for me when I was GIS Manager at Forestry Tasmania (FT).

“While working with Simon at FT, I found him to be a fair and excellent manager, with knowledge of GIS and IT greater than anyone else I have worked with. He is very resourceful and extremely innovative, always a forward thinker on how to utilise in place and new technologies. Simon is definitely a great asset for any project/company. I highly recommend him.”

Marco Giana
August 17, 2006

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Personal
Jamie Keene was one of my staff when I was GIS Manager at Forestry Tasmania (FT). Jamie was a reliable and hard-working team player who blossomed under my watch into someone with strong cross-platform GIS development skills. He now works as an Senior Spatial Analyst for a company in Victoria providing, amongst other things, Oracle Spatial development skills.

“I would recommend Simon Greener to any organisation or person who is seeking sound advice on spatial data management and system design. At Forestry Tasmania he took a infrastructure that required specific knowledge of data locations and software, and molded it into a infrastructure that centralised data locations (database, directory structures) and used best of breed applications (GIS and non-GIS).”

Jamie Keene
November 2006

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Personal
Sivagurunathan Chinniah was an IT developer at Forestry Tasmania (FT) and implemented a multi-threaded Web Mapping Service in C#.NET using one of my architecture designs. The design used used Microsoft Message Queues (MSMQ), ASP.NET and published a internet mapping API via WebServices and SOAP. Siva now works as a technical architecture for the Public Sector Mapping Authority. It was his brilliant programming skills that should get the credit for the implementation. This is what he says:

“I worked with Simon Greener at Forestry Tasmania in 2005 on his brilliant brainchild project named Web Mapping Services.I found him to be visionary, highly intelligent with exceptional talent and I greatly admire his remarkable multitasking capabilities. Though I don’t work with him anymore, personally, he still takes his time to provide me complete and comprehensive answers to my questions for free on spatial technologies indicative of a person with high standards in the subject. He would prove to be a valuable asset for any organisation. I highly recommend him.”

Sivagurunathan Chinniah
January 2007.

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Mid Coast Water
Brendan Soustal was GIS Manager at MidCoast Water based at Forster (near Taree), NSW. Brendan is a young, talented and very capable geospatial professional who knows that the data he manages is there to support the engineers within MidCoast Water responsible for the creation, management and maintenance of the sewer and water network within their area of operations. This strong focus is reflected in his always targeting the data quality improvement and reporting work he gets me to do towards improving his organisation’s decision making. This is what he says:

“We have been using Simon as our Spatial DB advisor for about 2 years now and have found him to deliver not only innovative solutions, but substantial ROI on our spatial information. His strong work ethic and personality make him a pleasure to work with and his ability to automate and value-add within the database environment make him a valuable asset to our organisation. I would strongly recommend him for any Oracle Spatial, database, SQL, Radius Topology or Studio project.”

Brendan Soustal
GIS Manager
MidCoast Water, Forster, NSW
February 2007.

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Web GIS Consultant
Tom is a fellow who has found my blog articles on Oracle SDO_Geometry helpful. He contacted me “out of the blue” and offered this testimonial. What a gentleman: thanks Tom.

“Today our DBA asked for help with an Oracle Spatial query that was taking 10 min to run and I used tips that I learned from the SpatialDB Advisor to re-write the query so that it ran in under a second. She asked how did I know how to do that (she thinks of me as a Google Maps/ESRI/JavaScript developer), and I said that she absolutely had to bookmark the site. More than once I’ve found an answer on this site that I can’t find in any of the online documentation, books, or forums. I now check this site first before Googling for solutions to spatial DB problems, and I encourage all my colleagues and clients to do the same.”

Tom Wayson
Web GIS Consultant
Los Angeles, CA
April 7th, 2011

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Personal
I often get asked to help people solve problems who live all over the world. For some I get some remuneration but for most I don’t. Here is what Ronald from Holland said recently:

“The spatial world in technical sense isn’t as vast as the real world. At least for spatial developers this seems to be the case. It’s nice to know that there are a few people out there that can help you out or give ideas.”

“Thanks Simon, for sharing your knowledge!”

Ronald Boonstra
The Netherlands
October 2009

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Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment
Earlier this year I was asked to review a design for a new Metadata System for the Spatial Information Infrastructure, Information Services Branch, Department of Sustainability and Environment, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. (The year before I reviewed a new system they had just commissioned with which they were having difficulties.) The customer was pretty pleased with the work and I received this from the Project Manager who supervised my work, Mr Anthony Draga:

“Victorian Government Department of Sustainability and Environment has been grappling with the implementation of the ANZLIC Metadata Standard for several years. We finally decided to commission a Metadata System Design project in 2009 and the design that came back was perhaps technically correct but not easily adapted to our existing technologies and skills set. We were somewhat stumped as to how to move forward until one of the project team suggested we ask Simon for his assessment of the design. It was the best thing we could have done, as Simon analysed our business and the proposed design and made useful and practical recommendations, which have given us a path forward to implementing a modified version of the design. Throughout the project Simon worked in our office and that allowed us to have regular discussions about every aspect of the project. He was able to explain technical aspects of XML vs Relational Database designs and he used his wide and varied network to ascertain others progress in this field, which obviously influenced the final recommendation. He showed that he is extremely technical knowledgeable, being able to decipher the complexity of the metadata standard, understand our business and make practical recommendations for implementing a workable solution. Simon’s independent assessment and recommendations have lifted the metadata fog and given us the momentum we needed to proceed from design to build of a workable metadata system. I would recommend Simon for similar work.”

Spatial Vision
It is a rare thing to get someone contacting me about how the ideas and code available on my website have helped them or their customers. I was very pleased to receive this:

“The SpatialDB Advisor website provides a wealth of expert knowledge, tips and software for the Oracle Spatial community and is my first point of call when I have problems in this area. I have used his PL/SQL packages in BioSIRT, a national biosecurity application used by governments around Australia. Many thanks to Simon for his efforts and generosity in providing this service.”

Ian Miller
Spatial Vision
Melbourne, Victoria
September, 2011

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Red Consultants Ltd
Perhaps it is having a range of techniques, examples and free software that attracts. Paul uses my Spatial Companion For Oracle (SC4O) package (amongst others).

“There is one site I visit first whenever I’m doing any Oracle Spatial work, and that is SpatialDB Advisor. I just dont see anyone else out there sharing the same kind of detailed knowledge that Simon Greener has. His Spatial Blog articles are simply invaluable.”

Paul Brookes
Red Consultants Ltd

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Southern Solutions
The web is wonderful as it allows one to work with people all over the world. Working with Daniel’s agricultural business was technically interesting and rewarding.

“Simon Greener was a pleasure to work with. His understanding of spatial data and the methods that manipulate it was crucial in our development of mapping software. While he was initially hired to develop a certain number of functions, he went beyond that to help us grow the database structure in its robustness. Simon has proven to exceed expectations, as he continues to help the GIS world find solutions.”

Daniel Cole
Southern Solutions
October 2012

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Visual Lease Services, Inc
The web is wonderful as it allows one to work with people all over the world. Working with Visual Lease Systems (both remotely and onsite in Oklahoma) to solve application and data model integration issues, and recommending additional products to improve business applications, was great fun.

“I am pleased to recommend Simon Greener, Owner of Greener Productions Pty Ltd, also trading as The SpatialDB Advisor, whom we have retained to assist us in filling a key position in our progress to spatial organize our company business data.

We consulted with Simon last year to analyze our data and create a spatial search function for our product iPropLogic. Simon invested the time to look into the solution upon our request. Furthermore, he took the initiative to analyze our spatial database, document several issues, provide us with his concerns and advise, and submitted his thoughts for direction. His comprehensive knowledge of Oracle and GIS solutions are above reproach. Simon is a good communicator and will keep you informed through the life cycles of your project. It would be a mistake not to hire Simon and take his advice when database consulting is needed for your products.”

Original Testimonial Letter

Sincerely
Chris Mask
VP Of Operations
Visual Lease Services, Inc
Oklahoma, USA
1G2015 and 2016.