15/07/2026 | Infrastructure

TLI Group

Achieving growth with agile and efficient processes

The critical infrastructure services provider TLI Group has leveraged the capabilities of Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform effectively, to achieve its growth ambitions. With new agile and efficient processes, it has doubled the size of its business and established the flexible and scalable foundations for sustained business success.

200 fieldworkers use ArcGIS mobile apps to work more efficiency and consistently when delivering new critical infrastructure
100 office-based employees, across four business units, use ArcGIS web apps and desktop tools to manage projects
400-500 health and safety reports are captured weekly, helping the business to maintain its very high safety standards

The Challenge

Growth was firmly on the agenda for TLI Group. The successful business aimed to become the safest and best-in-class critical infrastructure services provider in the utilities sector, but recognised that its business processes were neither scalable nor sustainable for the future. Operational data was held largely in silos, which hampered the organisation’s ability to respond quickly to new business opportunities. Meanwhile, engineers relied on printed maps and documents in the field and used paper-based forms to feed information back to the office. If TLI Group was going to achieve its growth ambitions, it was going to need to become both more agile and more efficient.

ArcGIS gives us a lot of functionality, off the shelf, and the flexibility to build the GIS services we need on a project-by-project basis, without bespoke code and without the need for a supplementary development budget.

Paul Sweeney,

GIS and Data Manager, TLI Group

The Solution

With these objectives in mind, TLI Group decided to digitise, streamline and automate key business processes with geographic information system (GIS) technology. It then selected Esri’s cloud-based ArcGIS Online platform because of its versatility. “ArcGIS gives us a lot of functionality, off the shelf, and the flexibility to build the GIS services we need on a project-by-project basis, without bespoke code and without the need for a supplementary development budget,” explains Paul Sweeney, GIS and Data Manager at TLI Group.

The use of ArcGIS grew rapidly, and, today, TLI Group has a team of fourteen GIS analysts, who use a wide range of ArcGIS solutions to create GIS apps and services for specific projects. Typically, analysts prepare datasets with ArcGIS Pro and build web apps and dashboards for managing programmes of work using tools including ArcGIS Experience Builder and ArcGIS Dashboards. They also create mobile apps with ArcGIS Field Maps and ArcGIS Survey123, enabling teams to collect and view data digitally in the field.

Throughout the business, there are now around 300 ArcGIS users, 200 of whom work primarily in the field. Almost all projects, across all four business units, depend on GIS. In the Telecoms Division, for instance, TLI Group uses ArcGIS web maps to plan the roll out of national broadband infrastructure. Field-based staff then use an ArcGIS Survey123 app to record information about the as-built infrastructure.

In the Smart Energy Division, TLI Group uses an ArcGIS Survey123 app for quality assurance in the installation of smart metres, and the data collected is monitored through an ArcGIS dashboard. Notifications of quality deviations are automatically sent to managers, and a further ArcGIS Survey123 app is used to ensure these deviations are swiftly remedied.

Teams in the Power Division use ArcGIS for planning and conducting works to replace or upgrade overhead power lines. Engineers use ArcGIS Field Maps apps to view pole locations when on site, in conjunction with other ArcGIS apps for managing projects, collecting data and sharing insights. Similarly, teams in the Renewables & Engineering Division use ArcGIS apps to plan, conduct and monitor trenching and ducting works for cable routes from wind and solar farms and share project updates seamlessly with clients.

One particularly pivotal app has been built with ArcGIS Survey123 to support health and safety processes, enterprise-wide. Called the ‘Near-Miss, Good-Catch’ system, it enables all staff to record potentially dangerous situations, straight away, on their mobile devices. Managers are immediately notified in the event of serious incidents and use an ArcGIS dashboard to monitor trends and patterns.

After all this time, we haven’t come across anything yet that we can’t do with ArcGIS!

Paul Sweeney,

GIS and Data Manager, TLI Group

The Benefits

Efficient processes from field to client
ArcGIS Online has completely transformed business processes, improving efficiency in the field, in the office and in client communications. Information doesn’t have to be manually entered into systems, and many time-consuming processes have been completely eliminated through automation. “ArcGIS lets people focus on the important stuff, where they can add value, and not waste time on tedious, repetitive tasks,” says Sweeney.

Consistent, high quality project delivery
Across all four business units, ArcGIS is helping TLI Group to deliver high quality services for clients. The ArcGIS-based quality assurance process, for instance, plays a pivotal role in ensuring that thousands of installations are completed correctly, to a uniform standard. The digital process reduces the need for revisits and reworks, ensuring consistency on large-scale contracts and driving the success of high-profiled projects like Ireland’s National Smart Metering Programme.

Significantly improved health and safety
TLI Group’s ArcGIS app for ‘Near-Misses and Good Catches’ has had a significant impact on the rigour of the organisation’s health and safety processes. TLI Group now receives and analyses 400-500 reports per week, which gives it the insight to make process changes, update employee training and take other steps to improve safety. “ArcGIS presents high quality data that the health and safety team can use for monitoring and reporting,” says Sweeney. “Our moto is ‘Everyone Home Safe, Every Day’, and ArcGIS definitely helps with that.”

Greater agility to facilitate business growth
When new business opportunities arise, TLI Group can build mobile, web-based and automated project-specific apps, quickly and easily. This agility has undoubtedly supported TLI Group’s expansion, enabling the business to double in size in under seven years. “The ArcGIS Online platform gives us all the functionality we need and the flexibility to spin up solutions for new and bigger projects, on demand,” explains Sweeney. “After all this time, we haven’t come across anything yet that we can’t do with ArcGIS!”

An ArcGIS Dashboard for monitoring the progress of tree trimming along a powerline route

Left: An ArcGIS Field Maps app showing ducting progress in a project to connect renewable power to the national grid
Right: An extract from an ArcGIS Survey123 form for conducting smart metre audits

Get in touch

Download Case Study PDF

Drop us an email

Give us a call

+353 (0) 1 869 3900

TLI Group

Achieving growth with agile and efficient processes

200 fieldworkers use ArcGIS mobile apps to work more efficiency and consistently when delivering new critical infrastructure

100 office-based employees, across four business units, use ArcGIS web apps and desktop tools to manage projects

400-500 health and safety reports are captured weekly, helping the business to maintain its very high safety standards

The Challenge

The Solution

The Benefits

Get in touch

Stay connected with us