Making the Business Case for GIS
Across the country and throughout the world, organizations—both public and private—are receiving  real returns on their investments in GIS. A new Esri Press book, Measuring Up: The Business Case for GIS, demonstrates the real business value of implementing GIS in dollars, cents, and staff hours saved.
In 75 case studies that represent six industries and 22 sectors, this book documents how organizations benefit by incorporating GIS into work flows. GIS has helped these organizations become more efficient—saving both time and money—and has increased productivity. Enterprisewide GIS provides better access to information and enhances communication, both internally and externally. Intelligent GIS implementations improve accuracy and support decision making processes.
The organizations featured have measured the benefits of GIS in increased productivity and efficiency, cost avoidance, and improved service. A chapter on making the business case for enterprise GIS discusses basic issues that businesses and organizations should consider when expanding GIS programs so they can maximize benefits.
The book's other chapters are organized under 13 benefit categories:
- Saving Time
- Increasing Efficiency
- Saving Money/Avoiding Cost
- Generating Revenue
- Providing Decision Support
- Automating Work Flow
- Increasing Communication and Collaboration
- GIS as a Budgeting Tool
- Building an Information Base/Managing Knowledge
- Increasing Accuracy
- Increasing Productivity
- Managing Resources
- Improving Access to Government
What is the business value of adopting GIS? Though initially used as a project tool, GIS functionality has expanded from the desktop to the network to the Internet. As it has become more powerful and accessible, it has become a valuable tool not only for decision making but also for responding to accountability and performance measurement issues.
By developing a solid foundation of data and services that can be applied across an entire organization, GIS can help solve an array of problems. The work of the Coeur d'Alene tribe, one of the case studies included in the book, effectively illustrates this benefit. The reservation, located on 345,000 acres in northern Idaho, currently has one of the most advanced GIS programs of any tribal government.
The Coeur d'Alene GIS program, which began with one employee in 1991, was started to find more effective ways to manage the tribe's natural resources. Since that time, the program has expanded to eight staff members and has not only helped the tribe map its forestry activities and supplemented cleanup efforts at the sites affected by mining activity but has also been used to implement community development programs; generate a land parcel database; and assist tribal efforts with lake management and fish, water, and wildlife programs. In addition, GIS has helped the Coeur d'Alene people preserve their culture by documenting their native language and the geographic places described by it.
Through this and the many other case studies drawn from a broad spectrum of organizations, this book provides specific information on GIS benefits and shows that investing in GIS is a commercially sound strategy. The discussion is continued through an interactive companion Web site. Visitors to the site are encouraged to submit their own return on investment stories. The site also features video clip interviews of GIS managers as well as excerpts from the book. The book can be ordered online at www.esri.com/measuring-up.
|
