Customization with Standardization: The Architectural Challenge for Corporate GIS applications
Carlos Alberto Previdelli
CPqD - Fundação Centro de Pesquisas e Desenvolvimento em Telecomunicações
Rodovia Campinas Mogi-Mirim, Km 118,5
Campinas, SP – Brazil 13088-902
Email: delli@cpqd.com.br
Abstract
Until now, corporate GIS applications have, as one of their main objectives, the
standardization of maps, symbology, data model and data exchange formats.
These applications usually sprout from engineering areas and, as the geographic
data sources increase in size and quality, they eventually begin to be used by other
areas of the companies. The technology available and architectural decisions
made in the past attempted to leverage a rigid application structure yet fall short of
meeting new users requirements. These barriers do not allow the same GIS
application to be used enterprise-wide. New technologies, methodologies and
emerging standards can now be combined to design a corporate GIS application.
Introduction
Over the years, corporate applications were struggling against process mapping,
data standardization, interface definition and many other standards. New ideas
were right at that time because the lack of standards had led corporations into
chaos in terms of information.
The problems for GIS applications were even worse. Mapping issues such as the
use of different scales, datum and coordinate system issues, were problems that
traditional applications never needed to deal with. Additionally, the symbology
representation throughout different areas of the organization was a difficult problem
to solve.
To solve all these organizational problems, utilities and telcos teamed with GIS
vendors to develop a corporate GIS application. These solutions started from
scratch or with a vertical solution offered by some vendors as a starting point. It
was then necessary to customize these basic applications to fit the particular and
unique needs of both the users and their organizations.
Those that have already traveled the GIS path are all too familiar with the results.
As the need for reports and queries increased and as applications grew more
complex the size of the GIS databases quickly became overwhelming. This
occurrence catapulted the telco and utility industries to begin to look at a broader
solution designed to meet a more complete solution.
Unfortunately, the foundation of many GIS solutions and their associated
applications could not support additions or enhancements to existing company
requirements. Data was not available to all employees as it was not stored in a real
DBMS (Data Base Management System)> Each department operated in data silos
resulting in duplicate data throughout the organization, maintained independently
of one another under various data access and permission rules and drawing
symbology. Additionally, the IT infrastructure was not prepared for any increase in
system load.
The data silo problems existed not only between departments within an
organization but also between organizations interested in sharing geospatial data.
Each GIS solution had its own data format and each organization had its own data
model. Exchanging information among different companies such as utilities and
government agencies was a difficult job, if not impossible.
All these points raised during these years were very important to help the industry
come up with real corporate-wide solution. To this end, the Open GIS Consortium
(OGC) [1] , W3 Consortium[7], OMG [6] and OAGI [8] are playing a key role in
developing standards for corporate-wide geospatial initiatives.
