Enterprise GIS: The Minneapolis Model
William Beck
ITS Program Management Director
Gary Criter
GIS Business Services Director
City of Minneapolis
Information and Technology Services
350 South 5 th Street - Room 127
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55415
Abstract
The successful Cities of the next decade will be the ones that use Business Process
Driven, Enterprise Information Management to reinvent the way they work. Enterprise
GIS is about improving citizen access through Business Process innovation and
collaborative Enterprise information management. An Enterprise culture, reinforced by
intuitive information flow, makes it possible for people in City government to improve
citizen access. The primary objective of Enterprise GIS is to enhance the way people
work together, share ideas, debate issues, build on one another’s expertise and then
act in concert for a common purpose. The City’s business driven priorities are
articulated through strategic lenses that define the culture of the organization, the
standards that drive enterprise technology infrastructure, and the data environment that
enables access to the organization’s enterprise information. Enterprise GIS is built on
this principal and alliances between major stakeholders: City departments and affiliated
agencies; Hennepin County, MN; Oracle Corporation; Environment Systems Research
Institute; Bentley-Intergraph; and EMA, Inc. This is The Minneapolis Model. This
presentation will provide insight into the Minneapolis Model, which has allowed for
unprecedented influence and participation on the part of the departments and agencies
involved in the enterprise GIS initiative, enabling them to transform the very nature of
the organization and their inter-relationships.
