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An introduction to Enterprise GIS
A. R. Dasgupta
Distinguished Professor BISAG and
Honorary Advisor, GIS Development
arup.dasgupta@GISdevelopment.net
Geospatial information is
increasingly becoming a part
of the information needs for
the daily operations of an enterprise. The
enterprise could be a business like a
department store, a utility like a power
company or a local government entity
like a municipality or even a government
department like roads and buildings.
In each case the importance of 'where'
becomes enhanced as enterprises try to
maximize their profits or effectiveness
in an increasingly competitive and
demanding environment. In this milieu
GIS plays an important role by ingesting,
storing, processing and analyzing
geospatial information relevant to the
operation of the enterprise. GIS utilization
began as a standalone operation in
the IT or MIS department of an enterprise
but, as the technology matured it
migrated to the desktop, and now to
hand-held devices. GIS operations have
thus become more decentralized,
democratized and ubiquitous.
This process has major benefits as it
puts the information right in the hands
of an end user but it also results in
problems like fractured databases, lack
of synchronization, data duplication,
loss of data and ultimately loss of efficiency
and accuracy. Unorganized
growth also leads to a proliferation of
systems with attendant interoperability
and compatibility problems. An
Enterprise GIS is the solution to such
problems. Such a system is designed to
provide an integrated and interoperable
environment in which the individual
departments and functionaries of
an enterprise can create, access, view,
and analyze data and information relevant
to their tasks. This information
could encompass spatial as well as nonspatial
data sets. Applications could
range from complex spatial models to
delivery of services encompassing government,
business and citizens.
The first gain from an enterprise GIS is
the reduction in data redundancy and
the standardization of data acquisition
and content. Data needs to be acquired
by the focal agencies as per a predefined
format agreed upon in advance
by the data using agencies. Such data
has an associated accuracy, integrity
and reliability assured by the focal
agency. By reducing redundancy in
data collection, costs are saved in terms
of collection, timely data availability
and repeated reuse of the collected
data. Standardization results in better
data management and enhanced modelling
capabilities. Standardization also
ensures a higher degree of semantic
interoperability since all users will use
standard terms to describe geospatial
features.
Limiting standardized data acquisition
to focal agencies also ensures data
security particularly where the data is
confidential to an agency or an individual
like financial records and health
records. Standardization also frees
users from the bother of data collection.
They can concentrate on the analytical
tasks and resort to data collection
only when such data is not readily
available. Such application specific
data can also be shared for use by other
agencies. This scenario has two underlying
implications. Firstly, the availability
of standardized data sets must be
catalogued and the catalogue must be
made available across the enterprise.
Secondly, data access has to be regulated
depending on its level of confidentiality.
Thus street can be open access
but property tax records need to have
controlled access. These features and
controls are easy to implement in an
Enterprise GIS.
Enterprise GIS will also enable interoperability
across applications. Thus
applications like citizen services, road
maintenance, health care, market
research, etc can use geospatial data
seamlessly with other business
processes like Enterprise Resources
Planning systems, SCADA, e-Governance,
etc. To enable this Enterprise GIS
needs to be in the core of the organization
with links to all services and applications.
Enterprise GIS thus becomes
subsumed in the IT infrastructure of an
enterprise.
Architecturally, an Enterprise GIS is a
hybrid of tightly and loosely coupled
systems. Individual departments can
have tightly coupled systems, software
and hardware but across departments,
field units and public interfaces the
coupling has to be loose to allow independence
to the users to choose their
own systems. Such an
approach will also insulate
end users from changes
which may be required to be
made from time to time in
individual departments.
Such changes may involve
system upgrades or workflow
changes and these
should not necessitate corresponding
changes in end
user systems. Similarly
users may upgrade their systems
without fear of losing
access to their data and
information sources. This
type of coupling also enables
easy scalability. New departments
can be brought on line
without disturbing the system
for others. Increase in
the number of users can be
managed through additional
systems being brought in to
the network. Distributed GIS
required every user to
become a Jack of All Trades;
data collector, GIS operator
as well as applications
expert.
The end users of an Enterprise
GIS need to be trained
in the usage of the system,
its rules and regulations and
features, in order to enable
them to use the system for
their needs. A plan for establishing
an Enterprise GIS
must be financially viable
and technically sound. The
plan should address five
aspects:
- definition and design specifications for enterprise GIS;
- description of internal and external databases being managed;
- plan for conceptual applications and database architecture;
- system architecture, including hardware, software, and applications; and
- implementation plan encompassing tasks, methods,and activities, schedule,funding sources and organizational responsibilities.
Most GIS vendors provide
the tools necessary to create
an Enterprise GIS. However,
open source solutions are
also attractive and they provide
the opportunity to
share and learn from others'
experiences.
The cost of an Enterprise
GIS is not just the cost of the
hardware and software. The
initial planning, data standardization,
identification of
core applications, data acquisition,
applications development
and final systems
deployment will involve
costs up front.
The payoff will come from
higher data usage, ease of
data access and sharing of
data and applications over
time.
Hence any commitment to
the deployment of an Enterprise
GIS should be made
with a clear understanding
of these issues. Finally, the
measure of success of an
Enterprise GIS is how well it
performs its intended service.
This could be in terms of
ease of data access, variety of
applications, number of
users and uses, reliability
and stability.