Keeping score - What’s the payback from GIS?
Payback in the public sector
Government exists for the purpose of providing essential services that would not be
feasible without the financial support of taxpayers, or that are so risky that the private
sector will not touch them. As a result, a government ends up being very much like a
private sector conglomerate—a collection of completely different businesses that have
very little relationship, except that they occur in the same geographic area. Since each of
these different businesses has its own mission and constituency, they end up competing
for resources from a limited pool of funds. Historically, each business has maintained its
own data (or “silo of information”), limiting governmental effectiveness in achieving
broad objectives that involve multiple departments.
Not only does a state or local government contain a variety of disparate businesses, but its
success is not measured by its profitability. For the most part, governments deliver
services. While services do not have a “bottom line” expressed in dollars, governmental
service can be quantified. The quantity of service delivered, the level of service provided,
and its effectiveness are all measures of service. The following table shows some
examples of quantifying service for various local government functions.
Table 1: Examples of Service Measures in Local Government Functions
Other factors that increase the management challenge in government are their reliance on
cash basis accounting, their annual budgeting process, and the possibility of drastic
changes in policies. Most governments operate on a cash flow basis, with budgets that are
set and balanced one year at a time. This creates a barrier to making investments whose
cash payback does not happen in the same year, no matter how great the total payback.
Long-term program continuity is not assured, as policymakers may change during the
time it takes to implement a program and achieve a multi-year return.
For many of the functions provided by state and local governments, a direct relationship
exists between expenditures and the level of service provided. For a given set of work
methods, that relationship is illustrated in Figure 2. Each year, the budgeting ritual
establishes the level of expenditures for the ensuing year (shown on the horizontal axis).
The curve predicts the level of service that can be provided for that expenditure. As an
example, if more money is expended to deploy additional ambulances, the level of
service provided to citizens (as measured by the average length of time required to
respond to a call) is expected to improve.
Figure 2: Service Levels and Expenditures
