I’ve Looked at GIS From Both Sides Now

It’s not often one gets an opportunity to experience evaluating solutions from both sides of the table, first as a user and then as a provider. I’ve had the opportunity to visit and talk with a number of municipal and investor owned utilities about GIS and it was clear that my experiences were very much the same as what everyone else was experiencing, such as organizational silos, the pressure to make changes and tight budget constraints. I also learned that sometimes people from the outside have a much broader knowledge of what’s going on in an organization than some people on the inside. I’d like to share with you today some observations and thoughts prompted by the insights gained by this experience. Specifically, how do we reconcile the incentives of the user and the provider of GIS services and where are we headed in the future?

The four phases of a project; needs analysis/needs realization, justification, approval process and implementation all contain critical areas of focus. Let’s look at each of these areas a little closer.

Needs Assessment/Needs Realization
I’ve termed this heading this way for a reason. In typical consultant jargon, the first step is always to do a needs assessment. This normally assumes that you have an issue you are trying to resolve or a new goal you are trying to achieve. I submit that in the rapidly changing technology environment we are in, people are so focused on providing operational excellence and better customer service that there is a growing gap between what they need and their knowledge of what is out there to help them. In the fast paced life of most utilities these days as they struggle with deregulation and mergers, they don’t feel they can stop and get educated on what they could be doing. What’s more, the overall game plan has changed so much that it’s hard to tell what decisions may support the overall IT strategy for a company. In my previous position, the dramatic increase in expectation levels from the customers and governmental bodies prompted me to make decisions to address the immediate issues at hand. Based on that I outfitted all construction trucks with AVLS and cellular phones. Did it help from an operating point of view? Definitely! Were my decisions in keeping with an overall strategy for collecting and utilizing information? At the time, I had no clue. As I’ve talked to a number of folks in the industry, I’ve come to realize that the gap between the operating people and the overall IT strategy is still huge.