Economic development using AM/FM/GIS data

Many local governments and utility companies have invested millions of dollars in the design, development and deployment of advanced AM/FM/GIS solutions to address engineering, operations and maintenance needs of their infrastructure. Through simple GIS data distribution initiatives they can now also take advantage of this data asset to promote economic development in their area through increased data access, increased efficiency and cost savings, and improved public/customer service. Several case studies demonstrating both public and private sector initiatives will be presented at the conference.

What is economic development?
Economic development is the process to attracting, stimulating and maintaining business activity in a region. Several key goals of economic development from a local government perspective include:

Create more and better jobs for local residents
Generate additional tax base
Improve the infrastructure
Stabilize the community

From a utility company perspective, several economic development goals include:

Expand customer base (generate additional commercial/industrial customers)
Improve and grow the utility (infrastructure)
Provide better customer service (establish brand loyalty through faster, better and value-added services)
Keep utility costs competitive (do more with less)