Towards the Integration of Geospatial Information & Technology into an OSS Environment
The approach of never attempting to create and employ a large system seems to have been the one that many utilities followed effectively. This approach took existing applications and legacy systems from throughout the organization and integrated them together into an enterprise-wide information network.
In the middle 1990’s this began to change.
Integrating Geospatial Information & Technology into the Enterprise Workflow Leads to a More Effective OSS
When we talk about enterprise GIS we sometimes make the mistake of focusing on large organizations. While they are often quite large, a more important characteristic of the enterprise is its set of interconnected business processes and information needs which cross a number of departments and functional areas. So one key characteristic about the enterprise is not really its size, but the increasingly interconnected way the various parts of the organization operate.
A second important requirement of integrating geospatial information and technology into the enterprise is the need for longevity of data within its scheme of operations. The enterprise can not be dependent on any individual “owning” data or its meaning; the data types, formats, must be long-lived and independent of any individual operator, employee or department scheme.
As the modern enterprise moves forward, its geospatial information technology must be integrated into its workflow; the technology becomes most valuable if it is there to solve a business problem that crosses more than one department. “islands of automation,” that often existed in the past, no longer provide sufficient ROI by themselves. In addition, utility executives are calling for access to real-time information from their systems. In a survey conducted recently among 200 utilities in North America, we found that between 42% and 53% of decision makers in the electric, water and gas industries felt that access to real time information on their systems was “Essential” for running the businesses effectively. Only about 15% of decision-makers in these utilities thought access to real-time information was “Not Important.”
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