MISSION

Too often, companies tend to think about short term investing, short term profitability, and short term staffing in order to endure economic swings.  At Seisland we think long-term, and big-picture – about planning for the future, forseeing shifts in technology, and retaining staff long-term in order to give our clients, vendors, and employees stability. Aiming to be a leading Canadian provider of mapping, surveying and GIS services, we make wise investments to reduce costs, improve productivity, heighten accuracy, and improve accessibility of geographic data for a diverse range of present and future needs.

HISTORY

Our story begins in a booming year of Alberta’s energy industry: 1980. Garvin Geck founded the firm we know as Seisland Surveys Ltd. to provide conventional seismic surveying. Garvin basically “beat the dirt” in his pickup truck, chaining and surveying lines that were to be seismically shot for oil and gas potential.   Raised on a farm in Saskatchewan, he always had a view to “plan for a rainy day” and think long-term, so as the years went by, we at Seisland have been very fortunate to be able to weather the energy industry’s many ups and downs.

Thanks to this forward-thinking, we have been able to invest in some very advanced technologies to streamline our work, and handle more types of jobs.  For example,  we were among the first companies to utilize hand-held GPS (Global Positioning Systems) technology to provide field culture maps for the seismic industry.  We also invested in INS (Intertial Navigation System) and barometry technology to aid in heavily treed areas where satellite reception is poor. INS has allowed us to work in underground mines, inside tunnels, and mountainous terrain.  

Today, Garvin still provides our leadership at Seisland, and we employ up to 70 technical and field staff who handle an enormous spectrum of mapping, surveying and GIS work.  We continue to weather our industry’s “rainy days,” and we are proud to lead the way in “big picture thinking!”

HOW WE DO BUSINESS

Invest in personnel. Our personnel play an extremely important role in suggesting solutions that have given Seisland a reputation for innovation. Seisland’s applications and business processes have benefited greatly from our field personnel’s hands-on advice. Seisland has one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry. One reason for this is management’s willingness to involve employees in making decisions; another is our commitment to providing field crews with exceptional support, up-to-date and well-maintained equipment and any available information to ensure the job goes smoothly.

Invest in technology. Leading-edge technology helps us provide the solutions our clients require – safely, accurately and with minimal footprint to the environment. Our use of leading edge equipment and technology in all areas of surveying, mapping and information systems provides us with a competitive advantage in the industry.

Understand each client. At Seisland, we recognize that customers have their own preferred methods of operation. Our depth of experience, technology and equipment enable us to customize our service to each customer to ensure that requirements are achieved in the best possible manner.

Keep constant contact. If you want the best job done, you expect your vendor to keep you in the loop, especially when field conditions are different than expected. At Seisland, our processes and technology ensure daily field reporting and therefore allow you maximum control over your job.

Make information accessible. The GIS data we develop is housed in the industry-standard ESRI platform which means it can be integrated with your systems for use by multiple departments to maximize its usefulness and value to you.

Protect our staff. We understand that our role in a job is sandwiched between that of many other contractors, and that this sometimes puts our team under pressure. That said, we take direction from you, our client, only – and only to the extent that it does not place our personnel or the job standards at risk. We are very upfront and honest with clients in explaining when we cannot perform requested tasks, or meet requested timelines, which always is the wise choice in the long run.

Our founder, Garvin Geck – in the early days!

One of Garvin’s first Business Cards