Page 1 of 3 Next  Karl Boone PA Consulting Group, USA  Yann Pastor PA Consulting Group, USA As GIS become commonplace, their users and advocates are migrating towards more sophisticated and integrated solutions. GIS can deliver real operational efficiencies, ultimately translating into revenue-increasing and cost-reducing benefits. For instance, the information provided by GIS technology can help improve customer service through faster reaction time from the GIS-equipped operator. Competitive advantages can be built upon the provided “single source of truth” of physical network information. Those who do not adopt these capabilities will lose market share in the long run, as these more advanced GIS adopters become the standard across a variety of industries. However despite the tremendous potential for benefits to be realized, the adoption of GIS is not only slowed down by the size of the investment -which requires approval from top management- but also by the difficulty in linking operational and financial benefits together. Furthermore, the general consensus outside the network or engineering department that "We've always got by before, why do we need to invest more?" makes the adoption even more difficult. Paradoxically, those who need the power of GIS the most are often the ones with limited information on the business efficiencies and effectiveness (because they don’t have this GIS single view) with which to make the business case for the investment in the first place. Most GIS technology advocates come from the “grass-roots” of the business with a discipline focus in engineering and environmental or urban planning. As a result they sometimes struggle to build consensus and ownership at Executive levels for GIS initiatives. They simply lack the tools, expertise, and time to sell the idea internally. How can the advocates of GIS demonstrate the Return On Investment (ROI) to the top management team and ensure that the benefits are realized through implementation? Through our experience designing strategic GIS programs for clients who operate physical networks in different sectors, we have developed a value-driven framework that has allowed our clients to demonstrate the ROI and drive benefits realization from GIS and related technologies. Our methodology, which is completely independent of technology choice, includes the following key steps:
When identifying GIS benefits, it is critical to emphasize the collective nature of the exercise. Going through this as a group, including not only engineers and operators but also business and financial managers, is crucial to building consensus around the benefits of the implementation of GIS. Indeed, although the key output of the exercise is a document linking the business objectives with GIS benefits, the main outcome from the exercise is the ‘journey’ rather than the ‘destination’.
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