{"id":734562,"date":"2025-02-10T13:06:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=734562"},"modified":"2025-02-20T09:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T17:32:14","slug":"build-a-strong-geospatial-foundation-for-your-organization","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/build-a-strong-geospatial-foundation-for-your-organization","title":{"rendered":"Build a Strong Geospatial Foundation for Your Organization"},"author":5752,"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":[25012],"tags":[275882,491582,253922,490392],"arcuser_issues":[491442],"class_list":["post-734562","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-managers-corner","tag-business","tag-geospatial-excellence","tag-gis-strategy","tag-governance","arcuser_issues-winter-2025"],"acf":{"short_description":"Check out the Path to Geospatial Excellence, an online resource that helps organizations implement a successful enterprise GIS environment.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"As organizations evolve and embrace digital transformation, digital and data strategies have become indispensable components of their success. And in this strategic planning landscape, the integration of geospatial elements has become critical. The central advantage of folding GIS into your business strategy is its ability to provide spatial context. This adds a new dimension to strategic initiatives, enabling businesses to gain deeper insights, delve into advanced analytics, optimize resources, and unlock opportunities for growth.\r\n\r\nBuilding your organization\u2019s GIS program on a strong foundation is essential to the success of your geospatial operations. Enter the Path to Geospatial Excellence web page, an online resource designed to help organizations implement and maintain a successful enterprise-class GIS environment. This programmatic approach involves five key components on which organizations can build their geospatial technology capabilities and leverage location intelligence to drive innovation and informed decision-making. These components are business, governance, systems, engagement, and capacity."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

1. Business<\/h2>\r\nBusiness is the first and most critical component to building a strong foundation for an organization\u2019s GIS program. Aligning GIS with the organization\u2019s mission, vision, and priorities is essential. The core of geospatial operations success involves thorough understanding of how location intelligence impacts business operations and outcomes. Organizations must align their GIS initiatives with their overarching business objectives, vision, and priorities while identifying specific use cases and applications where geospatial insights can deliver tangible value.\r\n\r\nBy integrating geospatial considerations into strategic planning and decision-making, businesses can harness the power of location intelligence to optimize processes, mitigate risks, and gain a competitive edge. A core element of this component is developing a geospatial strategy with executive backing and support. That means building a strong team with all the right people involved, who represent key aspects of the organization."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":734592,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

2. Governance<\/h2>\r\nEffective governance is crucial for managing a geospatial operations program and ensuring alignment, impact, capacity, quality, and security. This component involves establishing clear policies, standards, and procedures that govern an organization\u2019s geospatial operations program. This includes organization structure, GIS environment, data, applications, and tools. By implementing robust governance frameworks, organizations can maintain a comprehensive system, preserve data integrity, enforce compliance, and facilitate transparency and collaboration among stakeholders. Governance provides a decision-making structure, clear ownership, and organizational accountability needed to manage and allocate limited geospatial resources such as people, processes, and technology.\r\n\r\nOrganizations can struggle with various challenges when it comes to governing a geospatial operations program. Many of these problems stem from not having a clear understanding of policies and procedures or the capacity to address governance challenges. Knowing what challenges are most critical to your organization helps you optimize your resources and\r\norganizational structure.\r\n\r\nThe national Geospatial Data Act (GDA) of 2018 and the FAIR Principles, introduced in 2016, spurred many organizations to begin their governance journey of geospatial data and technology. Several federal, state, and local government agencies established effective geospatial governance frameworks, policies, procedures, standards, best practices, and tools to ensure that their geospatial systems and data adhered to their strategic plans. This allowed the organizations to:\r\n