2026-10-06 –, Capalari
For many years, our organisation Geotest AG relied on FeldApp, a custom-built field data collection tool that emerged as a modern digital solution when mobile GIS options were limited. Over time, however, maintaining and extending this homegrown application became increasingly demanding. With frequent updates, limited staff, and growing amounts of data and expectations, our in‑house capabilities reached their limits.
We decided to rethink our strategy and evaluated modern solutions with a clear focus: sustainability, interoperability, and full control over our data. Open source emerged as the strongest foundation. Among several candidates, QField stood out thanks to its seamless integration with QGIS, its customizability and an active community including opengis.ch as a local partner and supporter.
This led to the development of GI-ANT, our new field data ecosystem built around opensource components. GI-ANT combines:
• QField for mobile data collection
• A QFieldCloud instance, hosted by opengis.ch, to ensure data sovereignty
• A PostgreSQL/PostGIS backend
• Custom QGIS plugins based on qfieldcloud-sdk for project creation, cloud synchronization and export
• A WebGIS solution (currently under evaluation and development) to provide browser‑based access also for external customers
The migration from FeldApp to GI-ANT required reengineering workflows, automating maintenance processes, and aligning data models with modern standards. This has produced a powerful, scalable system that lowers maintenance demands while providing users with efficient, QGIS native tools. In doing this we can now concentrate our efforts on increasing functionality, capability and support for our users.
Our presentation highlights the strategic reasoning, migration experience, and lessons learned while transitioning from a homegrown solution to an open, future-proof architecture.
Originally trained as a surveyor in the early 1990s, Hans-Jörg began his professional career in the GIS industry. After 12 years in the private sector, he accepted a post as a GIS professor at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Northwestern Switzerland. In 2016, he returned to the business world, initially working in administration, and since 2025 he has headed the GIS department at GEOTEST in Zollikofen, near Bern.
He is one of those increasingly rare individuals who entered the world of work at a time when personal email did not yet exist, when installing Oracle for spatial data took around three hours using nearly 30 1.44MB floppy discs, and nobody owned a mobile phone. A laptop cost at least 10,000. Google and smartphones were unknown, and a 21-inch monitor weighed between 35 and 45 kg. The term ‘open source’ referred to an open watercourse in the Alps, and Apple lost around 816 million US dollars in a single financial year which led many analysts to consider bankruptcy or a takeover a distinct possibility. Social media was at that time considered to enjoy listening together to a radio station or watching tv together. After all, it was a really great time.
I'm a Data Engineer and GIS Analyst at GEOTEST AG in Switzerland, where I build geospatial data pipelines and QGIS/QField workflows for natural hazard assessment and geotechnical fieldwork, backed by PostgreSQL/PostGIS. I came to GIS from development economics and impact evaluation, after working in data analytics on public infrastructure and development projects, including at the World Bank. Today I also share that experience by teaching a GIS course at Toulouse School of Economics.