GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY/Needs analysis improves enterprise GIS

Given the potential of a geographic information system (GIS) as a tool for enhancing decision management and efficiency, local governments can make a mistake by limiting GIS access to one or two departments. In so doing, government organizations end up creating data silos — segregated pockets of information and systems — that result in redundancy and inefficiency. By collapsing that segregated data into an enterprise GIS that is accessible to many departments, local governments can increase the usefulness of the geographic information they collect.

Countless GIS applications are relevant to municipal and county government. Some of the more traditional applications include: demographic analysis, land records management, address matching, route planning, strategic response planning, resident notification, infrastructure inventory/management, work order management, sanitary and storm sewer utility management, land use planning, site selection analysis, transportation planning and permit tracking. GIS also can contribute to governance issues related to licensing, permitting, code enforcement, and police and fire activities. If each department that collects geographic data combined it into an enterprise GIS, each could benefit from the others’ information.

The first step in implementing an enterprise GIS is to define needs. A needs assessment clarifies current and future GIS opportunities. It includes:

• evaluating the content, accuracy and adequacy of existing data sets and maps across departments;

• identifying data needs;

• determining data set and map requirements for implementation in GIS;

• establishing how potential users will use the GIS;

• identifying potential GIS applications for each department;

• identifying staff training issues related to implementation; and

• identifying areas for potential process improvements and data sharing.

• The needs assessment must address users’ daily work processes; data complexity and common data fields — such as property addresses — existing on different databases; and security needs. Additionally, the assessment must include a review of the local government’s IT structure to ensure that an enterprise GIS will work effectively with other software and hardware tools. Too often, a GIS is installed almost independently of a local government’s existing IT structure, which limits the government’s potential for data sharing, thus diminishing the return on investment.

  In August 2000, Beloit, Wis., performed a citywide needs assessment and created an enterprise GIS implementation plan. The assessment helped the city organize its GIS data and provided the information the city needed to plan for data integration.

  Within the next several years, the city will have a common data warehouse and one base map for most of the data currently housed within more than 20 different departments. The warehouse will reduce duplication of efforts and promote information sharing among departments. The GIS eventually will allow city employees and the public to query and view data related to any aspect of their community via the Internet. Much of the data will be linked to maps, photographs and other graphics.

  An enterprise GIS is a tool that can help organizational departments of a government manage their business processes. However, its success will be linked to how thoroughly needs were identified in the analysis phase. Often, the importance of conducting a needs analysis is underrated because it may seem to be an obvious step, but its weight in setting the course for a GIS is substantial.

  The author is GIS division manager for Brookfield, Wis.-based R.A. Smith and Associates.