Keeping score - What’s the payback from GIS?
Bill Lloyd
PlanGraphics, Inc.
112 East Main Street
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Abstract
Whether you’re planning or building a GIS, you are likely to be asked, “What’s going to
be the return on this investment?” This paper will discuss how to identify and measure
the benefits of GIS, using examples from both local and state government. The
presentation will include benefits from productivity gains, service level improvements,
enhanced effectiveness, “home runs,” and quantifiable-but-not-predictable paybacks. In
addition, techniques for communicating these benefits to policymakers will be
introduced.
Introduction
As GIS has evolved from an emerging technology to a proven operational tool, anecdotal
evidence has replaced intuition that there are benefits to applying this technology in state
and local governments. One of the industry’s canons is that a well planned, well managed
GIS program can provide a cumulative “payback” that exceeds the cumulative
expenditure by the end of the implementation’s third year. But what is that “payback” in
a local government? How is “payback” quantified? And how can a GIS professional
apply the concepts of “payback” and “return on investment” to resource allocation
discussions with top management and policymakers?
Figure 1: Summary of Typical GIS Benefits—Cumulative Payback vs. Expenditures
