Trailmark Software

Trailmark is designed to support Indigenous data sovereignty and community control. The system includes customizable permissions, access controls, user roles, and data-sharing tools that help organizations decide who can view, edit, export, or share information. OCAP® is not a software checkbox or certification. It depends on governance, policies, agreements, and day-to-day practices. Trailmark supports those practices by giving your team tools to manage ownership, control, access, and possession of information in practical ways.

Trailmark uses Canadian AWS hosting, so client data is hosted in Canada through Amazon Web Services’ Canadian infrastructure. Each Trailmark subscription has its own instance of the software. Your data is not pooled with data from other subscriptions, and other clients cannot access your information. This separation supports privacy, security, and clear data governance for each organization. For many of our clients, data residency and separation are important parts of data governance and sovereignty. We can discuss hosting, backups, security, and access requirements with your team during setup, procurement, or agreement development.

If your organization decides to stop using Trailmark, your data remains yours. We will work with you to export your information in a usable format and support a transition plan where needed. We do not hold your data hostage or prevent you from leaving the platform. Before cancellation is complete, we confirm what should be exported, transferred, retained, or deleted according to your organization’s direction and any applicable agreements.

Yes. Trailmark allows organizations to set permissions for different users, teams, projects, records, maps, and materials. This means sensitive cultural, environmental, legal, or community-held information can be restricted to the people who are authorized to access it. Trailmark can also help support cultural protocols through permissions, labels, collections, access rules, and careful data organization. Each organization decides how sensitive materials should be categorized, described, accessed, shared, or withheld. The software does not replace community governance or cultural decision-making. It provides tools to help apply those decisions consistently.

Yes. Trailmark supports data export so your organization can retrieve and use its information outside the system anytime. Export options may depend on the type of data, such as records, spatial data, documents, media files, survey responses, or database tables.

Trailmark was built with Indigenous knowledge stewardship, data sovereignty, and rights-based decision-making at its core. However, it can support any user working with complex, unstructured qualitative data and mapping.

No. Trailmark is designed to be usable by teams with different levels of technical experience. Some users work mainly with maps, while others use forms, records, archives, referrals, reports, or field data collection tools. We provide training and support to help your team use the parts of the system that matter most to your work.

Yes. Trailmark subscriptions include access to a large library of how-to videos covering common tools, workflows, and software functions. These videos allow users to learn at their own pace, revisit training when needed, and onboard new team members over time. We also provide live training for administrators, field staff, researchers, referrals teams, archive users, mapping users, and other team members. Training can be tailored around your projects, workflows, and comfort level with the software.

Yes. Trailmark includes built-in flexibility for different projects, workflows, forms, permissions, maps, databases, and reporting needs. We work with clients to understand how they organize information and how Trailmark can support their day-to-day work. If there is a feature your team needs that is not currently available, we can work with you to explore adding it. Trailmark has been shaped by user feedback from the beginning — every function, big or small, has grown out of real client needs, field experience, and stewardship workflows.