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Beyond Enterprise GIS in Local Governments

William A. Lloyd
Vice President
PlanGraphics, Inc.
112 East Main Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601

What’s Wrong With Enterprise GIS?
The conventional definition of Enterprise GIS has included a core staff of highly trained GIS professionals maintaining an organization’s GIS data and the rest of the staff (theoretically) accessing this data using viewers (e.g., ArcView, GeoMedia). However, organizations that implemented this model found that few staff have become proficient in using complex viewers, which require a substantial amount of training (like any software with high functionality and flexibility).

In one City government whose definition of Enterprise GIS included licensing viewers for every desktop PC and providing each user with four hours of training, the result at the end of one year was extremely disappointing—only two users in the entire City government (one in Engineering and one in Planning) were accessing GIS through their viewers. One year after all of the training and deployment of viewing software, virtually all of the GIS analysis and map generation that was being done in this City was still performed by the core GIS staff.

The deficiencies of the conventional definition of Enterprise GIS are the following:
  1. Access to GIS is not usable by most staff
  2. Most business processes are not taking advantage of the organization’s investment in GIS
  3. Other enterprise applications have not been “spatially enabled”
  4. The core GIS staff is spending most of its time making maps instead of making updates, enhancements, and standards.
As a result, GIS is failing to achieve its potential for impacting the achievement of strategic objectives or producing the greatest payback for these organizations.

Overcoming the Limitations of Convertional Enterprise GIS
Successfully achieving the potential of GIS in a complex enterprise (such as a City or County government) involves agreeing upon some essential objectives. In a local government, the objectives include the following:
  1. Easily accessed GIS on every desktop (plus vehicles, etc.)
  2. GIS improving the organization’s business processes
  3. GIS impacting the accomplishment of the organization’s strategic objectives
  4. “Spatially-enabling” the organization’s other enterprise applications
  5. Non-redundant entry of updates and other transactions
  6. GIS specialists maintain base data, standards, and enhancements
  7. Support for electronic transactions with the public
  8. Tangible return on GIS investments.
These objectives form the basis for going “Beyond Enterprise GIS.” The application of GIS technology to achieve these goals includes effectively addressing at least six implementation components, including technology, GIS software, data, applications, integration, and (most importantly) management.

This presentation will describe how local governments have applied Internet technology, implemented spatial data warehouses, and optimized business processes to successfully achieve the objectives for going “Beyond Enterprise GIS.”

Internet Technology Applications
Internet technology has provided an opportunity for achieving the objective of easily accessed GIS on every staff desktop, as well as facilitating citizens’ information retrieval. Taking advantage of people’s widespread familiarity with using browsers, local governments have deployed browser-based applications in the following categories:
  1. Staff-accessible GIS applications for general GIS access
  2. GIS applications for supporting specific business processes
  3. Public access applications for disseminating information, answering frequently asked questions, and, ultimately supporting electronic transactions.
Many potential users of spatial information do not know anything about GIS technology, nor can they take time from their full-time jobs for the extensive training necessary for applying viewer technology to their business processes. This is the rationale for delivering browser-based GIS applications over an intranet to provide general GIS access to government employees. ArcIMS, Autodesk MapGuide, GeoMedia Web, and other technologies are available to serve maps over the Internet, through organizational Intranets, and to a specific population through an Extranet.

By providing a familiar browser interface, non-GIS professionals can easily gain access to GIS data for map queries, mailing list generation, map generation, pin mapping, tagging locations, merging map layers, customizing maps, and other general GIS applications. These applications will address a large proportion of general GIS questions. Moreover, applying Internet technology minimizes the central GIS staff’s effort involved in supporting individual users.

Implementation of these applications for use on multi-thousands of desktops will force an organization to assure the integrity of its data on an ongoing basis. However, browser-based general use applications are an excellent way of showing many users (including policy-makers) that an organizational investment in GIS is providing a return.

General GIS Access Application
The City of Olathe, Kansas, has implemented an ArcIMS application for general GIS query and generation of hardcopy maps. The City’s objective for this application is to provide ad hoc query of the City’s GIS data, with an option to produce hard copy output. The application was designed to be easy for City staff and policymakers to use with a very low amount of training. It is assumed that these users will have no background in cartography or GIS, and their hard copy output will not require highly precise spatial displays. Because of the limitations of the ArcIMS programming toolkit, the quality of hard copy output is limited to what the user sees on the screen. For users that require presentation quality, precision, and/or sophisticated ad hoc analysis, the City’s ArcView licenses and GIS staff expertise are available to satisfy these needs.


The primary tool for searching and zooming to a particular location in the City is an address, and the user may select whether to use a street centerline address or a parcel address. In addition to the search by address functionality, staff can search and zoom by subdivision name, government building name, and departmental map sheet designations. Users are able to transfer their compositions into Microsoft Office documents (e.g., Microsoft Word). For generation of hard copy output, users can specify a map title, map comments, resolution, size, and format. Dynamic definition of other text elements and/or editing of annotation is also available.

Other browser-based general GIS applications include mailing list generation, pin mapping/dot mapping, tagging locations, merging map layers, and customizing maps. By placing these applications on the desks of end-users, a large proportion of general spatial queries can be successfully addressed without the specific involvement of the central GIS staff.

Business Process-specific GIS Application
The State of Kentucky Cabinet for Families and Children (CFC) has used Internet technology to develop and deploy a business process-specific application for supporting the staff of the Independent Living Program (ILP). CFC operates the ILP and helps foster children (“clients”) between the ages of 12 and 21 develop skills that support independent living. An original ArcView application combined the ILP database with GDT’s DynaMap 2000 to create a searchable geocoded database of locations for clients, care providers, and community resources. The Program staff used the application to locate services (e.g., schools, hospitals, and churches) that are in close proximity to a client. The application results can be displayed as a map of the area, a list of available services and their addresses, or imported into a document for use in form letters and mailing labels.

An updated version of the ILP application was developed using MapObjects IMS. The browser look and feel has simplified the staff’s training requirements, resulting in increased benefit from the application. In addition, serving maps and data over CFC’s Intranet has resulted in improved security, simplified application updates and upgrades, increased consistency, and reduced cost.


Public Access Application
After a series of workshops to determine public access policy, the City of Olathe, Kansas, used ArcIMS to develop a “first generation” map server application for disseminating information and answering frequently asked questions. Because the City cannot assume that users have any familiarity with spatial information, this application was kept simple, with the objective of targeting City residents’ information requirements. More extensive functionality targeted at commercial users will be added in the future.


Access to the mapping component is from the City’s previously existing Web site. After a disclaimer screen, at which the user “Accepts” the disclaimer, a City map is displayed. The list of all available layers is displayed, and the user may select which layer will be active (for display of attribute data). Addresses and government buildings are the primary tools for searching and zooming to a particular location in the City.

Implementation of Spatial Data Warehousing
Data warehousing is an established practice among users of non-spatial data, whose requirements for management-level decision support require different data structures and query tools than those used for transaction data. For governments using spatial data, management-level decision support similarly requires a different delivery architecture than that used with operational information. At a minimum, a spatial data warehouse needs to separate complex queries (such as those performed for management-level decision support) from update transactions. In addition to duplicating transaction data into an operational data store, implementation of a spatial data warehouse can include restructuring data, consolidating data from multiple sources, and aggregating/summarizing spatial data as necessary to support complex management-level queries.

The Nashville-Davidson County Metropolitan Government needed to integrate its map maintenance and parcel update processes within its Land Information System. The objectives for this integration included eliminating redundant data entry and reducing the lag time associated with parcel updates. Operational data was not capable of achieving these objectives, for the following reasons:
  1. Most users relied on text-based queries, not GIS,
  2. The long duration required for parcel update transactions would tie up the associated data,
  3. Constraints in the technology of Nashville’s mainframe database management system.
Implementation of the data warehouse involved transforming the Land Information System operational data into an architecture that is suitable for supporting complex management-level queries. This facilitates acceptable performance for complex queries, and eliminates conflicts with maintenance and updates. Some of the specific steps included:
  1. Replicating ArcInfo coverages into SDE layers,
  2. Extending and restructuring layers to provide the functionality necessary for the anticipated edits and queries,
  3. Integrating a free-standing database into the operation for tracking maintenance and time lags,
  4. Extracting mainframe data and restructuring it into a relational database management system,
  5. Developing a bilateral synchronization between the two versions of the textual data.
The resulting data warehouse is now in production, and the Nashville-Davidson County Metropolitan Government is achieving efficiencies and improved effectiveness from integrating its map and Land Information System updates.


Optimization of Business Processes
The optimum results from implementing any information technology are realized when the organization’s business processes are optimized to take advantage of the capabilities offered by the new technology. An early step in going beyond the conventional definition of GIS involves obtaining an understanding of the business processes that utilize spatial data. This is accomplished by documenting existing processes (“AS IS”) and then modifying these business processes to exploit the capabilities of newly implemented digital resources (“TO BE”).

Changing a business process to take advantage of GIS technology can produce improved efficiency, higher service levels, and/or increased effectiveness (e.g., quality, consistency). Some examples of changing a business process to take advantage of GIS technology are a direct result of the capabilities implemented:
  • The City of Raleigh (North Carolina) changed the workflow for updating parcel maps, thus eliminating 2 positions (i.e., more efficiency).
  • The City of Winnipeg (Manitoba) changed its process for drafting legal survey plans, reducing the time required from 3 days to ½ day (i.e., higher service level).
  • The City of Minneapolis (Minnesota) has achieved greater consistency and accuracy by changing the process of generating geographic-based mailing lists (i.e., more effectiveness).
Enterprise GIS has the potential to support sweeping transformations in business processes, especially when multiple departments (that may never have worked together in the past) are involved. An example of an organization that has achieved benefits from such a transformation is Prince George’s County (Maryland). There, the land development process involves multiple departments, including Planning, Environmental Regulation, Inspection, Health, and Fire. An early step in implementing an integrated permitting and GIS system was the documentation of existing business processes and the identification of opportunities for improvement. As a result of this analysis, the integrated permitting system was tailored to fit the enhanced multi-departmental workflow. In the resulting operation, each review and approval triggers movement of a permit application to the next node in this complex process. The benefits include the following:
  • More accountability—for whose approval is the application waiting?
  • Improved service levels—reduced lag time
  • Enhanced effectiveness—applications aren’t “lost”
  • Greater efficiency—faster answers to questions, less time lost tracking application status.
Business process reengineering actually has little to do with GIS per se. It is simply about making your organization work more efficiently by optimizing the integration of computer technology. Because it is a challenging, detailed process, many organizations are unwilling to spend the necessary time and effort. Nonetheless, optimization of the organization’s business processes is necessary to realize the full potential offered by the new technology.

Conclusion
Going beyond the conventional definition of Enterprise GIS will generate broad support, results (productivity, effectiveness, and service improvements), and payback. Experience with local governments has proven that a well-planned, well-managed GIS implementation can result in cumulative payback exceeding cumulative expenditures by the end of the third year of implementation. Going Beyond Enterprise GIS is an effective approach to assure broad support for GIS from users as well as policymakers, to remain focused on improving the delivery of services, and to achieve the expected return on a GIS investment.

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