Kumoy Organization Management for QGIS Teams

Introduction

Have you ever wanted to share the data and projects you create in QGIS with your team safely? When you work alone, everything can stay on your own PC. Once several people work with the same data, problems start to appear: managing the latest version, setting permissions, and sharing with stakeholders.

For example, nobody knows where the latest project file is, one person overwrites data that someone else edited, or the data each stakeholder should see cannot be separated properly.

This article shows how to use Kumoy's organization management feature to share and manage QGIS data and maps safely as a team.

To learn more about Kumoy itself, see this article as well.

What is Kumoy's organization management feature?

Kumoy's organization management feature manages QGIS data and maps by organization, team, and role. It is available on the Business plan or higher.

Kumoy manages a large unit such as a company or department (a workspace) as an "organization," and you create "teams" inside it for each project or department. You then set a "role" for each member, which separates who can manage, who can edit, and who can only view.

Here is the flow from getting started to sharing data as a team.

1. When you create a Kumoy account, Kumoy first creates an organization that only you belong to.
2. When you upgrade to the Business plan, that organization can use the organization management feature.
3. Invite the members of your company or department to the organization.
4. Create teams in the organization, and set the members, the sharing scope of the data, and the roles for each project, department, or other group.

First you manage who uses Kumoy at the organization level, and then you separate the sharing scope by team. Instead of passing QGIS data around file by file, you manage the sharing scope and what each person can do in Kumoy, so the team can use the data safely.

Organization

An organization is the base unit that uses Kumoy, such as a company or department (a workspace). It holds the overall settings for using Kumoy, such as inviting and managing members and settings for the contract and plan.

For example, create an organization for the whole company if the whole company uses Kumoy, or for a department if only that department uses it. Prepare the large frame of an organization first, and then create teams for projects or departments inside it.

In short, an organization is where you manage who uses Kumoy. Which data and maps are shared with whom is managed by the teams you create inside the organization.

Organizations have roles such as Owner, Admin, and Member. These are mainly permissions for managing the whole organization.

Team

A team is a unit for sharing data and maps within an organization. By splitting teams to match actual work, such as projects and departments, you can organize the sharing scope of your data.

Even within the same organization, not everyone needs to see all the data. For example, you can share the data for Project A only with the people involved in Project A, and put common data that the whole company should see in a shared team.

Teams have roles, Editor and Viewer. These permissions decide how much members can do with the projects and data in the team.

For example, you can make the in-house administrator an organization Admin, make the GIS staff for each project team Editors, and make supervisors and stakeholders team Viewers.

Because you can separate organization-wide management permissions from permissions for working with the actual data, it is easier to share QGIS data safely as a team.

What organization management lets you do

With Kumoy's organization management feature, you can handle the management that team use of QGIS requires, all in Kumoy.

1. Manage members at the organization level

When you invite a member to the organization, you can manage that member in Kumoy. You invite by entering an email address, so adding new members is simple. Which data and maps a member can actually access depends on their teams and roles.

As the number of members grows, you can check who has joined at the organization level, which makes it easier to keep track of who uses Kumoy.

2. Separate teams by project or department

You can create multiple teams in an organization. By splitting teams to match actual work, such as by project or department, you can organize the sharing scope of data and maps.

For example, you can use teams like this:

• Create a team for each project and add only the relevant members
• Create a team for each department and manage the department's data
• Create a team for common data that the whole company should see
• Manage highly confidential data in a team of limited members

Even for data in the same organization, you can separate the sharing scope by project or department, so it is easier to deliver the necessary information to only the people who need it.

3. Separate what each role can do

In organizations and teams, you can set a role for each member. Because you can separate who can manage, who can edit, and who can only view, it is easier to prevent mistakes and unintended edits.

For example, GIS staff can update data as Editors, while field staff and supervisors check the latest map as Viewers.

The key point is that you manage what each person can do through settings in Kumoy, instead of relying only on where files are stored and on operating rules.

4. Access the same data from QGIS

Data uploaded to Kumoy is accessible from each team member's own QGIS. Instead of copying and passing files around, you can edit and update the same data in Kumoy while syncing it, which reduces the effort of managing the latest version.

This also works when several members update the same data. A change made by one person is reflected in the cloud data in real time, and other members see the latest state by syncing from their own QGIS.

Note that if several people edit the same feature or attribute at the same time, their changes may conflict. When editing at the same time, it is safer to divide the areas or features each person edits in advance.

5. Share with stakeholders as a web map

With Kumoy, you can share the data and maps you create and manage in QGIS as web maps. This makes it easier for stakeholders who do not use QGIS to check the map in a browser.

You can share only the necessary scope even with people who do not use QGIS day to day, such as clients, supervisors, field staff, and members of other departments.

You can separate the people who make maps in QGIS, the people who check them in a web map, and the people who edit as needed, so the whole team can put the map to use.

On the Pro plan or higher, you can also set a keyphrase on a public map, so that knowing the link is not enough and only people who know the keyphrase can view it. You can then limit sharing to stakeholders without inviting them to the organization.

File sharing versus Kumoy

There are two ways to handle QGIS data as a team: the traditional way of sharing a full set of data on a file server or cloud storage, and sharing data and maps in Kumoy. The table below summarizes each workflow.

A workflow based on file sharing is easy to adopt when there are few stakeholders, when updates are infrequent, or when you want to match an existing folder workflow.

On the other hand, a workflow with Kumoy suits cases where several people keep updating the same data, where you want to separate viewing and editing permissions by project or department, or where you want stakeholders who do not use QGIS to see the map.

Examples of use

Here are some concrete examples where Kumoy's organization management feature is useful. It helps to think of organization-wide management and team data sharing separately.

Data management by project

When you use QGIS for contract work or internal projects, create a team for each project and invite only the relevant members. The project's data can then be managed entirely within the team.

It also becomes easier to divide roles: GIS staff prepare the data and styles, another member updates the necessary data, and a reviewer checks the contents in a web map.

Data sharing across departments

When the whole company uses Kumoy, you can create a team for each department and manage data used in common separately from data that stays within a department.

For example, you can share data edited by the planning team with the survey team and the sales team as view-only, and put data that the whole company should see in a shared team.

Collaboration between field and office staff

For work that involves field surveys and on-site checks, Kumoy also makes it easier for office staff and field staff to share the same map.

For example, if office staff share a survey map they created and organized in QGIS as a web map in Kumoy, field staff can check the map in a browser and understand the survey points and target areas.

Sharing with clients and supervisors for viewing

When you want supervisors, members of other departments, or, as needed, external stakeholders to check a map, sharing it as a web map is easier for them than handing over a QGIS project as is.

If you share as a Viewer, the recipient can check the map in a browser. You can deliver the necessary information clearly even to people who are not used to QGIS.

Conclusion

When you use QGIS as a team, challenges arise that differ from personal use: managing the latest version of data, file sharing, permission management, editing, and sharing with stakeholders.

With Kumoy's organization management feature, you can organize QGIS data and maps by organization, team, and role, and manage what each member can view and edit. This makes it easier to use QGIS not only as a personal tool but as a common foundation for handling GIS data as a team.

The organization management feature is available on the Business plan or higher. If you want to try it on real work data, or want to discuss whether it fits your workflow, feel free to contact us.