TELL CITY — Tell City and Perry County are partnering with An Island LLC to bring new technology to the community designed to aid in searching cemetery plots.
This will be the first of it’s kind in the region. Other counties are already beginning to look into what the company has to offer with the newest project, but Perry County will be the first.
An Island LLC is an Enterprise Consulting Company located in Tell City that has been in operation since 2007.
They are specialized in providing IT solutions to all businesses, organizations and municipalities. They provide complete IT/Software/ERP solutions, such as SAP, for any type of organization regardless of their industry segment.
An Island LLC even has their own proprietary cloud-based customizable ERP application/platform called CENT for businesses and organizations of any size and also offer website development, custom software development and hosting services.
Balaji Kashyab is the Founder & CEO of the Company with over 30 years experience throughout various industries for software development and enterprise implementations. One of B. Kashyab’s main visions is to help create a difference in rural communities, as they are an important backbone of America.
Most rural areas do not have a business like An Island, since most people in the tech industry go to larger cities for the opportunities. B. Kashyab has done business worldwide and wants to bring more business to Perry County. He also wants to create many high-tech jobs through the company in those communities, such as in the companies very own Tell City, Perry County.
Aside from the high-tech solutions and services, one of B. Kashyab’s primary objectives since he started the company has been the CENT Smart Community Initiative. Fortunately, he has had the help of his son, Anjan Kashyab, who has now been helping him and the company to realize the cemetery mapping module, which is one thing CENT has to offer.
“We want to help connect communities, especially Rural Communities, through our software,” said A. Kashyab. “We know that it will help bring efficiency to the communication and information shared, especially between local governments, residents, businesses and any other organizations. My father has been highly invested and passionate in this objective throughout the years and we are now working towards making this a reality first in our Tell City, Perry County, Ind., and then scale it out.”
The cemetery mapping module is one of the innovated programs being brought to Perry County. It is accessed through a website that will allow users to see locations of plots and to also see what is available for purchase. All purchase request will still be approved by City Hall or the Cemetery Sexton, but they will at least have a visual of plot locations and what the public sees at the site.
All resident interaction will essentially be done or initiated from a cemetery satellite map page. From this map, one can see plots that are available for purchase and request to do so; as well as search the names of anyone buried there to see their location and burial information. They will also be able to see and filter the results by veterans or children, which are denoted by purple or blue pin markers respectively.
Ultimately, all patrons will be able to create and have a CENT account that will allow them to manage and view their owned plots as well as all corresponding documentation like deeds, receipts, etc.
Last year, The Greenwood Cemetery Sexton Alvie Stiff, along with the city, was looking for a better way to track information at Greenwood Cemetery. The company had been talking in parallel with the city regarding their Smart City Initiative. After they reviewed things, The Greenwood Cemetery Mapping System was the first module the City wished to proceed with in the initiative.
According to A. Kashyab, this system has enabled the following:
• Residents can search for loved ones buried in the Cemetery from anywhere and see their location and any pictures available, such as their headstone.
• Residents can filter the system by Available Plots for Purchase, Veterans, or Children buried at Greenwood Cemetery.
• In the near future, once Residents get access to CENT, they will also be able to make a purchase of an available plot at Greenwood Cemetery or provide additional information for their loved one’s plot through CENT.
• This also helps improve and digitalize the process of entering records for The Greenwood Cemetery, The City, and any other communication between local Funeral Homes.
This system is all cloud-based through the CENT software, making it accessible anytime, anywhere that has an internet connection. Helping to accomplish An Island’s long-term goal of creating a smart city, something the company hopes to accomplish through the continued implementation of various portions of software by the local establishments.
CENT has numerous modules that have been developed and the Cemetery Mapping System is one of the modules. CENT has the capability to be used in virtually any industry and its modules and/or the services are currently being used in industries such as Manufacturing, Local Government/Municipalities, Real Estate, Educational Institutions, Service-Based Industries, Retail, Insurance, and more.
Stiff has been truly passionate about the project. There has also been help from an intern that was hired last year for the summer, Lain Knieriem. There was also work put into the project by Kali Lehmkuhler, a Senior from Tell City High School who was hired to be an intern for the city.
“We want to thank The City, Mayor Chris Cail, Clerk-Treasurer Connie Berger, Alvie Stiff, Penny Newlin, Shelly Linne, City Council, and Board of Public Works for their support in our visions and objectives and we look forward to continuing to make a difference in our Tell City, Perry County, Ind., area and beyond. We will be implementing this similar system to other nearby local area cemeteries and communities also, along with our Smart Community Initiative,” stated A. Kashyab.
It is available through a link that people can find on the tell city website (https://tellcity.in.gov/greenwood-cemetery/) as of Thursday, April 14, which is the day that was planned to “go live” and make it available to the public.
Gloss