For almost 30 years we develop complex technical and geospatial information systems and digitalise organisations. We connect know-how and technology into solutions that help our clients work better, save resources, increase profits or value of services. We take care of safety and reliability of industrial networks, forest and water management. We operate electronic technical and trade dispatchings and digital archives. We work with organisations that decide to be digital. It is our key value to be absolutely reliable with our solutions and maintain long-term relationships with customers. The company has always been owned and strategically managed by its founders, and we cooperate with most our customers indefinitely. Keep reading to discover our full business story.
Three Decades
Next year company will celebrate 30 years in business. Long-term success of the brand is grounded in the basic philosophy of reliability of our solutions, dependable partnerships with the clients and clever use of innovative, as well as robust technologies. „Or clients enter contracts with us because they know that they will get exactly what they need and can rely on our know-how and flexibility. We keep agreements and solve competently any situations that are not foreseeable. Often clients become friends that cooperate closely. Morover, every year we organise meetings with users of our solutions, a professional conference and unusual social gatherings. YMS is a complete package, in which the client receives everything that is needed“, sais General Manager of YMS, Milan Kánya.
Information into GIS
Company’s focus on geospatial information systems is not random. When Mikulas Szapu, today’s member of the Board of Supervisors, founded the company, he had many years of experience in the energy sector and he knew the needs of energy companies. Even thirty years ago the key need was for precise and available information. „Networks were built according to documentation that was not precise after many years. At times of failures or problems, it was difficult to find the exact location, to access land that was owned by third parties, and while the whole process was complete, people and factories were without electricity,“ Szapu describes the circumstances at that time. At first, the company started to map the existing condition of the networks, down to the level of machines and technology, and the data was fed into a geographic information system. „I signed the first contract with YMS as surveyor of the line part of Slovtransgaz in May 1994 to digitalise contour lines from maps and longitudinal profiles of four lines of the transit gas pipeline“, describes the oldest YMS clien, retired surveyor of Eustream, Ladislav Mihályi.
Beginnings of Integration
After mapping the real status, when the base of the information system was laid, the company started to add technical drawings and other databases. Islands of information were created, which YMS connected through a central portal into a unified system. „At that time we created the ITIS brand – Integrated technical information system, which we develop to this day,” explains Mikulas Szapu junior, who took over company management at turn of the millenium. „Already then it was out motto to integrate applications, including integration of information using the newest world standards,“ adds Mikulas Szapu.
Applications with Added Value
When all data was cleaned, organised and digital, YMS began to create applications, that help clients to do its own business better. Most energy was given to yPipe, which has been serving gas companies for more that 20 years now. „It is our flagship solution aimed for gas and oil companies. Using complex calculations it evaluates many types of pipeline risks, models possible threats along with their impacts and offers solutions,“ explains director of Division of Network Industries, Radoslav Beres. yPipe grabbed the attention of the whole world in 2009, when Eustream presented it on the prestigious World Gas Conference in Buenos Aires. Today yPipe is a robust platform for a new system for decision/making in strategic projects – Management of spatial decision-making, yDecision.
Public Service
A few years later YMS began to present its pilot know-how of professional applications during own nation/wide GIS and ITIS conferences. „The conference tradition held strong for about ten years and we shortly became well-known throughout Slovakia,” remembers Mikulas Szapu jr. Thanks to the publicity, technical systems were also introduced to the public sector. YMS created a GIS for the Slovak Water-Management Enterprise, Military Forests and Estates, Slovak Cave Administration, Veterinary information system for the State Veterinary and Food Administration and a digital archive for the State Geology Institute of Dionyz Stur. For the latter, we have been improving the technology for the past several years, including complete digitalisation of the geology archives for the pst 75 years, using a special hardware and software scanning line.
Progressive Foresters
The GIS system of the Military Forests and Estates grabbed the attention of the professional public from the very beginning. Several years after the millenium transition, when most organisation worked with excel sheets, forresters used electronic scanning of each piece of wood, automatic calculations for wood logging, automatic preparation of invoices and letters and much more. After ten years on the technology peak, Military Forests and Estates decided to implement a majr technological upgrade and selected YMS, onec again, 10 years later. „It is important feedback for us, an expression of trust and contentment with our lon-term services”, sais Stefan Hudak, YMS Project Manager.
International Projects
YMS had a strong streak of international projects. „We had lots of know-how, national success and clever people, who had the capacity to work even on the most difficult international projects“, sais Mikulas Szapu jr. Even when it seemed that a Slovak company can not be strong enough to participate in international tenders, opportunities arose. Thanks to those projects, YMS widened its portfolio by monitoring vehicles, navigation and dynamic transport applications. YMS supplied the navigation for the World Football Championship in Germany in 2006, and created the Dalili for Dubai, an interactive navigation tool for the City of Dubai, meaning in Arabic “My Guide”. „We won the tender for dynamic navigation for the City of Dubai. With support of our application, drivers were receiving not just navigation, but also fresh information on traffic, traffic holdups or roadwork,” sais Mikulas Szapu jr.
New Solutions
In Slovakia, YMS outran the time with its monitoring and localisation applications. We won a prestigious award from the IT community already in 2010 for the Electronic Guard. „We widened the portfolio of safety and reliability monitoring from technical operations and data even to persons and property, whether it was from the perspective of social care or safety of people working in difficult conditions,“ sais Marek Ivanak, Operation Director of YMS. Mobile solutions for managing crews in the filed are now standard part of technical dispatching solutions. „We have implemented the newest electronic dispatching to the Road Administration of the Trnava region, part of which is also the complete management of winter and summer road maintenance,” concludes Marek Ivanak.
Data Complexity
As soon as our solutions begin to bring its fruit, quality and accessibility of client data becomes visible. Most clients has operations scattered throughout the whole territory of Slovakia, or administers large areas, therefore to gain good quality data is often difficult and time-consuming. „For several years we have been offering our clients aerial laser scanning of the Earth surface using the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology. This way data is gathered quickly and accurately especially in terrain, which is difficult to access, dangerous or covered with thick vegetation“, sais Marek Ivanak. In 2015 and 2016 we scanned data for network operators, but also for example for archaeologists. In the archaeological site Molpir, which belongs to unique and well-explored European sites, professionals used laser scanning to discover new historical objects.
Digitalisation and Electronic Services
Long-term experiences with all types of technology and clients brought us, in the recent years, to complex digitalisation of services and organisations. „Clients turn to us already at the stage of contemplating the transition from paper operation to digital. Because we predominantly provide professional analysis, with which client digitalises only what is effective and needed for the organisation,” explains Milan Kanya, General Director, the newest part of YMS portfolio. In 2016 we provided complex digitalisation to the Geofond Archive, in 2017 the Slovak National Accreditation Service.