Five Ways GIS Delivers Local Government Solutions

Recently, local governments have faced unprecedented challenges. The global pandemic, coupled with aging infrastructure, public safety concerns, and equity  efforts have pushed government capabilities and resources to extremes. The ability of local governments to address these challenges has become even more precarious as they navigate environments with limited resources and new operational requirements. 

Geographic information systems (GIS) continue to be an essential capability for governments as they use a location-based perspective to better understand their business operations and community needs. For local governments, GIS easily enables data collection and visualization, spatial analysis, public engagement, and new insights into the communities they serve. Esri’s local government solutions are delivered as a core capability of ArcGIS Online—as a software subscription—allowing local governments to create and share valuable GIS maps and applications quickly and broadly without the need for custom development, on-premise software, or additional IT infrastructure. These preconfigured solutions and ArcGIS Online open the floodgates for governments of all sizes and jurisdictions to scale GIS deployment quickly and sustainably in a 100 percent online environment, delivering five key benefits for tangible results.  

Our team has collaborated with local governments, large and small, to develop GIS solutions that address their biggest and most common business needs. The current portfolio of ArcGIS Solutions now includes over 150 applications that combine to streamline hundreds of organizational workflows. Take a minute to think of your organization’s most pressing needs. Whatever they are, you can use the local government solutions to discover and configure applications that align with these needs—and deploy them in just minutes. Whether you’re seeking solutions to support your elections process or understand road conditions, we have you covered.

ArcGIS Solutions are organized by domain and the repeatable work that local governments perform. For example, the elections solutions cover a variety of election-specific functions and can be used to increase public awareness, reduce voter apathy, run efficient election operations, and clearly communicate election results. While all these solutions are designed to support the full life cycle of elections, they can also be deployed individually for specific priority needs.

Through our work with over 30,000 local government organizations, we have come to know that location is the most effective framework for organizing, disseminating, and understanding complex data. Adding location and spatial analytics to your data makes it easier to see patterns, comprehend scope, and gain actionable insights that drive more informed decisions. This has proven to be the case for virtually every functional government domain—from understanding hazards like destructive weather to collecting, maintaining, and sharing your district's land records. A location-based approach also lends the unique opportunity to bring these organization-wide data points together. Everything happens somewhere in your community, which means everything can be viewed together on a map. This comprehensive context empowers city, county, and department leaders to understand the far-reaching impact of every decision.

Location is a catalytic agent in government efforts to drive engagement and participation from citizens. The ArcGIS Civic Engagement solutions leverage location to drive civic interest in government priorities and provide opportunities for direct civic involvement through a variety of citizen-led data collection apps. This creates engagement using place-based interest and allows citizens to feel connected to their communities through their ability to directly participate and contribute to community priorities. 

The City of Arlington, Texas, has taken full advantage of the solutions, building a portal that gives residents an overview of their community metrics. Jay Warren, an ArcGIS user and the Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs for the City of Arlington, said, “The city’s new website has many features to provide a better customer service experience for our residents, businesses, and visitors. The website features Your City At Work, a visually appealing, intuitive, and informative dashboard created using Esri technology.”

Government priorities are constantly shifting. One would need to look no further than the last two years for examples of crisis-based priority adjustment and the need to quickly offer new capabilities and modify business operations. Esri local government solutions are designed to support times like these—times that require dynamic and agile innovation efforts that culminate in the deployment of solutions and workflow adaptations. Times that require governments to deliver more capabilities and services in the face of resource constraints, and that inherently amplify expectations for service delivery, sound decision making, and effective communication. Your ability to find, configure, and deploy hundreds of maps and apps will transform your responses to new business requirements and enhance the level of community support you are able to provide at your organization. 

In addition, your local government solution deployments will always be up to date and performant. There is no need to install updates, manually upgrade your apps, or plan for surges in use.

Cloud-based GIS is designed to be secure and reliable. ArcGIS Online is engineered to accommodate surges without performance degradation and support a nimble digital infrastructure that you can easily design and scale to fit your needs and budget.

Esri has been leading the market for location technology for 50 years—and for all of that time, local governments have been looking to our tools for insights and answers. We’ve tailored our solutions for local government based on the real-world experiences of our customers. We’ve earned a 98 percent customer retention rate because we continue to invest our time and resources into your success. When it comes to building your technology portfolio, you can choose our solutions with the confidence that we have everything you need now to get started, and everything you’ll need in the future as you grow. Visit our local government solutions page for more information about how this software can help you support a thriving community. To talk to a representative or get started, please complete the contact form below.