Improving Operational Efficiency and Data Management for Archdiocese of Portland

The Archdiocese of Portland operates two local cemeteries and a third, smaller facility in Eugene, Oregon. As part of its mission to Catholics and others in the community, the archdiocese offers a complete array of services, including in-ground interment, crypt entombment, and cremation niche placement. The archdiocese also operates a full-service funeral home and crematory. The larger of the two local cemeteries, Mount Calvary, has a capacity for 50,000 in-ground interments within its 80 developed acres. The smaller, Gethsemani, occupies 18 acres and houses the funeral home and crematorium. The archdiocese assumed operation of the Eugene facility, also known as Mt. Calvary, in 1995.

As director of Funeral Services for the archdiocese for more than 20 years, Tim Corbett was aware of the serious limitations inherent in paper-based mapping. When he determined the time was right for the archdiocese to transition to digital maps, portability was high on the list of requirements he outlined in his request For proposal (RFP). Over the years, Corbett had developed full-featured management software for the archdiocese and wanted geographic information system (GIS) mapping software to work with that system. As technology continued to advance, Corbett determined that a geographic approach with Esri's ArcGIS tools provided the greatest mobility and the most GIS capabilities. 

As with many cemeteries in the US, the Archdiocese of Portland relied on paper maps for most of its business and operations. Reliance on paper records results in two areas of concern:

• Cemetery maps based on decades-old surveys may not accurately reflect the current details of the grounds, adding an element of uncertainty to sales and operational decisions.
• Daily reliance on paper maps introduces multiple opportunities for errors. Since paper maps make checking or disproving errors difficult, those errors can easily become part of the facility's permanent record.

"Sales and related activities would get written on the map . . . we'd double-check the maps at the end of the month; we'd keep backup copies, typically on Mylar. At the end of the month, we'd transfer all the names from the paper maps to the Mylar maps. The paper [maps] would get real beat up, of course, so we'd create new ones from the Mylar maps. Just think about how many opportunities for errors that creates!"

Tim Corbett, Director of Funeral Services, Archdiocese of Portland

After a thorough review of industry offerings, Corbett chose Esri partner Behar Mapping's Cemetery Mapping Solution, a web map that was built using Esri's ArcGIS Online. An interactive, cloud-based GIS mapping platform for cemetery plots and utilities, Behar's solution offers location-based precision and security in real time. Behar Mapping was the only respondent to the request for proposal that seemed both willing and able to work with the existing management software, and an ArcGIS Online web map  was the best solution to manage inventory, identify available plots, and help guide visitors. Web maps published in ArcGIS Online are guaranteed speed, accuracy, and ease of use. The map is highly configurable, and the cemetery now has the capability to color-code each type of inventory item and its current availability status. This facilitates easy-to-use, high-impact visual queries for management, staff, and families.

"Sure, we can run reports all day out of our management system, but the data doesn't jump out at you like Esri's ArcGIS Online web map visuals do. The images make it so easy for us to communicate internally about what's happening operationally . . . so much better than before."

Tim Corbett, Director of Funeral Services, Archdiocese of Portland

During the digitization process, the archdiocese provided copies of all its maps to Behar Mapping, along with access to its internal database. The maps were converted to a verified, GIS-based mapping database hosted as feature services in ArcGIS Online. This meant that every individual and each location would be digitally tied to a highly accurate GPS location.

The conversion process was extremely thorough. Dozens of old errors were discovered at each cemetery—many simply the result of names being jotted down on paper maps during a sales process. This led to the finding that many graves previously marked as sold were, in fact, still available.

Once the cemetery's digitized data came into view, Corbett immediately knew the benefits would be far greater than he expected. In addition to providing highly accurate and detailed views of all graves and operations, the ArcGIS Online web map revealed a tremendous amount of unused space that could now be put to use as cremation graves—each about half the size of standard interment space. These new spaces were now included in the web map. The result was an additional $500,000 worth of inventory—far more than the cost of the entire mapping project.

By using ArcGIS REST API, Corbett's management system now sends automatic updates to the web map several times each day, guaranteeing that the team is always working with the most current data. Behar also incorporated cemetery utilities into the web map, a new and invaluable resource for the maintenance team.

"I believe that digitizing our maps has reduced our errors by at least 95 percent."

Tim Corbett, Director of Funeral Services, Archdiocese of Portland