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Business Applications
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Stop your GIS project now!
The GIS struggles for acceptance
Despite all the training efforts and data cleanup, the GIS still struggles for acceptance. Here are
some possible reasons:
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The GIS is not a business solution - it is a business foundation.
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The system is complex.
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Since the GIS is a host based standalone system, the data is not widely accessible to the casual
user.
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Even though the data is very accurate, it is not perfect. People accept imperfect data from old
manual maps, but are much more demanding from digital systems
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People still love paper. In fairness, paper still is the easiest thing for humans to read. People
continue to want maps. While the GIS does a good job at creating maps, it is less flexible than
free hand mark-ups of maps.
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The complexity and volume of the data easily slow down the fastest of processors. In our
current host based configuration, the more users, the slower the system. Thus as soon as the
system gains popularity, the poorer the performance gets. This follows the old Yogi Berra
adage. "No-one ever goes there anymore, it's always too crowded."
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There isn't a fast way for the data to be corrected from the field.
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The business process of posting recent field changes is not simple and fast
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After the "classic" GIS project was completed there were still thousands of un-posted paper
work orders.
The finale to this section is that the GIS alone, does an incomplete job of solving business needs
and satisfying customers.
The Seven Impeachable GIS Offenses
So, you persist in forging ahead with a "classic" GIS project. Well hereto help are my seven
impeachable GIS offenses to avoid: -
Keep the project going for a long time.
In my 1997 AM/FM International paper, I outlined the long project liabilities. GIS projects
last a long time, and often do not produce significant benefits until long after the project is
complete. This will never fly in this period of rapid change and electric restructuring.
- Keep the system complex.
People need quick and ready access to the information. One-size fits all applications that are
geared for advance GIS users discourage casual users. The idea would be for casual users to be
unaware that they are using a GIS or GIS functionality at all. Menus should not contain GIS
jargon, such as polygon, arcs, point text, or annotation.
- Talk up the potential of the system
The GIS is often sold on potential, instead of actual performance. So statements such as the
GIS could do market segmentation analysis or could do reliability analysis lead people to
believe that the GIS can do these things right now. Repeating: the GIS is not a business
process, it is business foundation. This means that in order to do the analysis, one needs spatial
or geocoded data served to a particular application. The GIS alone probably cannot do the
application without other information from other sources.
- Keep the system isolated
I know of one GIS that has completely converted data, has a suite of applications and is in full
operation. Yet a small group of "specialists" run and maintain the system and data. In fact,
the old manual mapping system continues to be maintained. The data is not shared by any
other system.
- Let the users figure the system out
This is a corollary to keeping the system complex. During the initial rollout of the GIS at
Boston Edison, we assumed that the users would love and embrace the new system. The
software was still new and untested. The users not only hated the system, but they corrupted
some of the data as well. Once we figured out that training was so critical to user acceptance,
the overall operations improved dramatically.
- Dump as much data in the GIS as possible
This-is a carryover from the old AM/FM world. Recall that once upon a time there were two
kinds of digital mapping systems that originated from two very different industries. GIS has its
roots in environmental and urban planning. ANUFM was rooted in the electric, gas and water
industries. The focus of the original GIS'S was on analysis of land, whereas the AM/FM focus
was on facilities. The AM/FM system was a natural place to store and manage facility
attributes. The outcome was that too much attribute information is managed by the AM/FM
system (now called the GIS). The result is that the GIS becomes the de-facto place to store
everything and anything about facilities. If the GIS is a closed system, that access to the
facility attribute information is difficult. If access is difficult, users will duplicate data
elsewhere.
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