{"id":102052,"date":"2019-02-01T14:21:07","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T22:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcnews&p=102052"},"modified":"2022-08-10T12:56:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T19:56:12","slug":"establishing-the-relevance-of-gis-in-your-organization","status":"publish","type":"arcnews","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcnews\/establishing-the-relevance-of-gis-in-your-organization","title":{"rendered":"Establishing the Relevance of GIS in Your Organization"},"author":1312,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[472991,10992,691],"tags":[196042,160642,351,711,11052],"arcnews_issues":[86262],"class_list":["post-102052","arcnews","type-arcnews","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gis","category-managing-gis","category-smart-communities","tag-gis-professionals","tag-local-government","tag-planning","tag-smart-cities","tag-urisa","arcnews_issues-winter-2017","arcnews_sections-gis-people"],"acf":{"short_description":"Your GIS program may be suffering from lack of relevance. Here\u2019s how to revamp awareness about GIS in your organization.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Managing GIS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":203152,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Does your organization seem to lack interest in GIS? Are you frequently left out of discussions about how GIS can play a vital role in a project or system interface? Is your team being asked for GIS assistance midproject? Do you have to keep explaining the purpose of GIS to others in your organization, frequently pointing out that it is more than a cartography tool?\r\n\r\nIf you answer yes to any of these questions, your GIS program is suffering from lack of relevance. The good news is, you're not alone.\r\n\r\nOver a period of four months, I polled GIS managers through LinkedIn and my MuniGovGuy.com email subscription list about their biggest GIS challenges, and lack of relevance ranked high among the responses.\r\n\r\nLack of relevance usually results from having executive management that is uninformed about GIS technology and, therefore, can't explain the merits of GIS to their business peers. GIS can also suffer from a dearth of awareness when the GIS team is ineffective at marketing its services. There's no immunity to this issue, as it can happen to small or large GIS programs. The one-person, multi-hat-wearing GIS organization can get buried in endless mapping requests and never be able to explore new technologies or promote alternative mapping options, while large organizations can be subject to managerial changes and lose GIS champions, reducing the sphere of influence around the technology and ultimately resulting in loss of funding.\r\n\r\nTo help you revamp the relevance of GIS within your organization, I have come up with a four-step framework that refocuses your vision and makes executive management more conscious of everything you and your team can do.\r\n

1. Build a Foundation<\/h3>\r\nIt's important to establish a foundation on which to build your GIS program. Setting up guiding principles for your team will help institute organizational trust in the technology and open up opportunities for you to expand your GIS capabilities. I recommend basing your foundation on the following six principles:\r\n