Popular Acceptance of GIS through Implementation of an enterprise-wide view and query application at Reliant Energy
Cindi Salas
Manager, Business Solutions
Reliant Energy
Houston, Texas
Email: cynthia-salas@reliantenergy.com
Jeff Meilandt
Director, Business Partnerships
GIS Technology, Inc. (GTI)
Redlands, California
Email: gmeilandt@gistech.com
Preface
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) applications have officially entered into the set of basic business tools. Today, data is not considered valid without inclusion of the related geo-information; the "who, what, when, and how much" must now necessarily include the “where” of the data. Reliant Energy has seen this evolution first hand. However, until recently, the “where” content of data has been the hardest element to technically represent. Location-sensitive information is normally a highly complex combination of X-Y points that mathematically describe location-specific data, which to be easily understood, requires a graphical, map-based display medium. In the past, expensive, highly missionspecific equipment and customized software were required to display and use GIS databases and location-based data. This report documents why this in no longer the case by describing the successful implementation of an enterprisewide view and query GIS application at Reliant.
The Acceptance of GIS in the Marketplace
In the beginnings of Geographical Information Systems, government and landscape-engineering markets primarily drove the research into GIS. Today, most every application that touches these markets includes GIS as the standard and central feature around which applications are designed. Within these sectors, the following uses are commonly serviced by GIS-based applications:
Building permits
Census related data
Drivers licenses
Public safety (fire/police/911)
Facilities management
Weed abatement and related property code enforcement
Land use, design and conservation
Property tax revenues
Transportation design and flow management
However, bringing GIS systems into popular usage has been a problem not unlike the historical rise in popularity of PCs, where revamped and simplified operating systems resulted in increased Internet access and usage. The PC revolution of the early 80s was based on MS-DOS, the most commonly used desktop operating system of the period, which by 1985 accounted for about 65% of the worldwide PC operating system market. Microsoft had to share the PC OS market with a single rival, Apple Computer, who offered a graphical GUI, the "look and feel" of which Apple tried unsuccessfully to patent. At that time, in terms of actual numbers, the penetration of desktop PCs in the general population was a fraction when compared to the present day. The PC revolution did not jump into overdrive until two events came together--Windows OS and the Internet. The arrival of the Windows OS achieved a level of graphical sophistication and ease of use that opened PC usage to the general population. The popular usage of the Internet was driven by two new Windows-based applications, Netscape and Internet Explorer, both of which full advantage of the easy-to-use features offered in the Windows OS.
