It started with a simple realization: co-ops deserve better than hand-me-down software

When we first started talking to electric cooperative vegetation managers, we kept hearing the same frustration over and over. “This software wasn’t built for us,” they’d say. “It’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.”

They were right. Most vegetation management platforms were designed for massive investor-owned utilities with large budgets and dedicated IT teams. 

But electric cooperatives aren’t just smaller versions of investor-owned utilities. They’re fundamentally different organizations serving fundamentally different communities with fundamentally different challenges.

Getting to Know Our Customers (Really Know Them)

As we dove deeper into the co-op world, we realized we needed to understand not just what vegetation managers do, but how they think about their work. So we spent months talking to folks like James Tanneberger, CEO, Gregg Hopsicker, VP of Distribution Services, and Chris O’Neal, Head of Vegetation Management at SCI-REMC in Indiana.

These conversations weren’t sales calls or feature requests. We wanted to understand the daily reality of managing vegetation across thousands of miles of rural lines with limited crews and tight budgets. We learned about the delicate dance of member relations and how a poorly handled tree removal can turn a satisfied member into a critic overnight.

We discovered that when a vegetation manager asks “Which span is most critical?” they’re not just asking about tree proximity to wires. They’re thinking about member impact, crew logistics, weather windows, and a dozen other factors that go into top-notch vegetation management.

The “Aha” Moment

The breakthrough came when we realized that all this valuable vegetation intelligence was trapped in systems that required a GIS degree to operate. Vegetation managers were spending more time wrestling with software than actually managing vegetation.

What if we could build something that spoke their language instead of forcing them to learn ours?

That’s how our spatial intelligence chatbot was born. Instead of complex database queries, vegetation managers can simply ask: “Show me the most critical span in this area” and get instant, map-based answers. No technical jargon. No training manuals. Just answers.

Building Differently Because Co-Ops Are Different

Working with SCI-REMC taught us that cooperative vegetation management has its own unique rhythm. Member notifications aren’t just regulatory requirements, they’re relationship opportunities. Maintenance scheduling isn’t just about efficiency, it’s about being good neighbors in small communities where everyone knows everyone.

So we built those cooperative values right into the platform:

Member-First Communication: Our integrated parcel data doesn’t just identify property owners, it helps vegetation managers approach member conversations with respect and transparency.

Practical Intelligence: Our remote sensing identifies vegetation risks early, but we present that information in ways that help managers make decisions, not drown in data.

Field-Friendly Design: We designed every screen for the person in the truck, not just the person in the office.

The Real Test

“They asked us the right questions, paused to listen, and let us tell them what we wanted to see,” James told us recently. “The result is a customer-designed tool that actually solves our problems like none other in our space.”

That feedback means everything to us. Because at the end of the day, this isn’t about showcasing our technical capabilities. It’s about making life a little easier for the people who keep the lights on in rural America.

What’s Next

We’re not done listening. Every conversation with a vegetation manager teaches us something new about the unique challenges facing electric cooperatives. Extreme weather events are becoming more unpredictable. Regulatory requirements keep evolving. Member expectations continue to rise.

But we’re confident that with the right tools, tools built specifically for cooperative needs, vegetation managers can meet these challenges head-on.

If you’re curious about how this might work for your cooperative, we’d love to show you. Not with generic demos or theoretical scenarios, but with your actual service territory, your real vegetation conditions, and your specific challenges.

Because that’s how we learn best, by listening to the people who do this work every day.

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Want to see what this looks like with your actual service territory? Reach out to us at contact@bloomspatial.com. We’ll build a custom demo using your real data, because generic doesn’t work for cooperatives.