1. Communicating the Value of Your GIS
May 10, 2016
Phil Worrall
Steve Hook
Jim Sparks

2. Why Worry About the Value of Your GIS?
To garner support for your GIS program
To get funding to grow (in the good times)
To survive (in the bad times)
GIS

3. How do you communicate the value of your GIS?

4. How do you communicate the value of your GIS?

5. How do you communicate the value of your GIS with stories?

6. How do you communicate the value of your GIS with numbers?

7. ROI ‘With versus without” research design.
By comparing the “with and without” scenarios, we can assess and monetize the added value of the GIS applications to compare to the costs of implementation, maintenance, and/or additional training.

8. ROI Studies: Enterprise
Authors: Richard Zerbe and Associates Location: King County Washington When: 2012 Target: Net benefits from 1992 to 2010 Results: The use of GIS produced approximately $775 million in net benefits over the eighteen year period
‘With versus without” research design.
By comparing the “with and without” scenarios, we can assess and monetize the added value of the GIS applications to compare to the costs of implementation, maintenance, and/or additional training.
Google “King County GIS ROI”

9. ROI Studies: Enterprise
Authors: Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA)
Location: State of Iowa
When:
Target: 99 counties, 11 state agencies, three utilities plus Iowa One Call, and consulting firms
Results: 20 year Net Present Value of $271 million
The study noted that “Many additional organizations were interviewed during the project but not all were able to provide quantifiable benefits.” (Stewart, 2008). Clearly, these intangible benefits had value but were not measured, thereby increasing the overall benefit level beyond the stated number.
Stewart, 2008

10. ROI Studies: Project Bolder County, CO Road Maintenance Dept.
Sign Inventory
Over 7,000 signs to manage
Results: $20,000 inventory cost savings

11. Return On Investment in GIS
PROs
Credible
Repeatable
Transparent
Understandable (+/-)
Traditional
CONs
Can’t always compare “with vs without”
Requires some non-GIS expertise
Lots of effort (or cost)

12. A Better Approach to Showing Value with Numbers
Credible
Repeatable
Transparent
Understandable
“Apples to Apples”
Reasonable effort level
Within our GIS skillset
UoI

13. Utility of Investment
The report also shows that an initial investment of $8.5 million in the IndianaMap is supporting over 200-times its value in projects and operations with 86% of users stating they could not do their projects without it.

14. Utility of Investment

15. Utility of Investment

16. Utility of Investment Can be expressed as:
GIS supports 43% of the organization’s budget.
$11,863,000 of the agency budget is support by GIS.
The Utility of our Investment is 4 to 1.

17. Utility of Investment Needs to be: Credible Repeatable Transparent
Understandable
“Apples to Apples”
Reasonable effort level
Within our GIS skillset .

18. Government Activities Supported by GIS
Tax Assessments
Capitol Improvements Planning
Economic Development
Complaint Monitoring
Land Use Management
Comprehensive Plan
Address Assignment
Zoning History/Permit History
Resource Allocation
Political Party Enrollee Tracking
Demolition Control Districts
National Historic Districts
Community Development Block Grant (CDBC)
Tax Increment Financing Districts Management
Inspection Routing
Wetlands Management
Redevelopment Districts
Neighborhood Organization Analysis
Historic Districts/Properties Management
Variance History/Land Use History
Section Corner
Building/Boardings
Ownership History/Transfers
Homestead Properties
Tax Abatement Properties
Covenants/Setbacks/Zero
Minority Business
Instrument Numbers/Recorder Index
Legal Parcel Descriptions
Geographic Base File (addresses/street guide)
Parks Facilities, Pools, Tennis, Ball Courts
Housing Starts and Losses
Development Barriers
Area Calculations, Polygon Dimensions/Filling
Site Design/Review/Shadow Analysis/CAD
Land to Improvement Ratios, % Development
Construction Cost Estimating
Hearing Scheduling
Subdivision Control Ordinance
Digital Subdivision Submission

19. Government Activities Supported by GIS
Public Safety Dispatch
Police/Fire Jurisdiction ID
Crime Analysis
Burglaries Trending
Hot-Spot Location
Calls For Service
District Overlays
Pattern and Trend Identification
DWI Tracking
Special Reports
Emergency Preparedness
Fire Hydrant Location
Evacuation Procedure Planning
Hazardous Materials
Flood District Management
Shut-in’s Location
Suspicious Fire Analysis
Standardize Accident Reporting Requirements
Address Location and Verification
Nearest Station
History of Activity at the Location
Transportation and Highway
Pavement management
Traffic courts
Sidewalk and Curb Management
Road Work Tracking
Traffic Signal Work
Transportation Modes/Traffic Zones
Thoroughfare Plans
Transportation Improvement Plans (TIP)
On-Street Parking Management
Sign Locations/Conditions
Street Functional Classifications
Street Lanes/Turn Lanes/Passing
Transportation Improvement Locations
Pavement cut Coordination Blisters/Acceleration/Deceleration Lanes
Snow Removal Routing
Parking Studies
Customer Location
Tree Maintenance
Pavement Width

20. Government Activities Supported by GIS
Transportation and Highway
Bridge and Culvert Inventories
Traffic Signal Inventories
Noise Contours
Airspace Restrictions
Transit Routes
Project Coordination
Risk Management
Preliminary Design and Cost Estimates
Modeling
Analyze Multiple Factors Effecting Problem Intersections
Access to and Annotation of Maps & As-Builts in the Field
Track Work Order & Project Status for Construction and Maintenance
Predict Impact of Spills Based on Slope and Drainage Structure
Track Environmentally Sensitive Lands to Project Project Impact of Proposed Projects
Project Traffic Volumes or Waste Demand Based on Population Estimates and Land Uses
Calculate Impermeable Surfaces
Identify All Homes and Businesses Effected by Pending Project
Calculate the Value of Assets in a Selected Area
Post Labor Costs to Facilities Identified on Work Order

21. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?

22. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?
Report Builder: Disbursements by Fund Report
Example:
Select: Dekalb City/Town Butler Civil City [GET REPORTS]
A problem I see is some of these report options in the long list are currently only available for 2014, because 2015 is not submitted yet [unless you look at budgets versus actual] - which we sure can!

23. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?
Report Builder: Disbursements by Fund and Department Report
Good information, but could difficult to use this without diving down into the individual Department Level Report, so I did!

24. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?
Report Builder: Line-Item Budget Estimate Report
The report above gives a breakdown by department, but only from the General Fund [not all the other department funds].

25. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?
4. Therefore, I believe the only way to get ALL the budget information together in one spreadsheet is to run the budget line-items reports, and run a separate report for all [each] FUND. Butler has 16 Funds in the drop down, and then merge them together.
Report Builder: Line-Item Budget Estimate Report
So I ran Butler's reports for all 16 Funds [for 2015] and merged them all together and sorted by Dept. to create a single 237 line spredsheet.

26. Where Can I Get Budget Numbers?
Prepare Spreadsheet for UIO Analysis: Add 2 columns to this budget spreadsheet to allow assignment of GIS UOI % benefit for each line item, and then add summary lines to automatically calculate a GIS UOI $ value. [Assigning the % is another local knowledge thing].

27. NIGIC ROI Study in 2013
NIGIC discussed performing ROI Study on one GIS layer, Parcels, with Jim Sparks and Phil Worrall – Noble Co. selected
Studied how parcels impact 218 GIS layers:
42 created from Parcels
97 dependent on Parcels
144 affecting Parcels
Also considered processes requiring the Parcels layer – 20 identified
The findings were eye-opening
How to proceed with the ROI study? We didn’t – too complex & time involved
Why not consider a UOI study instead

28. A Noble County Perspective
Reflecting on Noble County’s UOI:
Used a Dept. head meeting to introduce study and elicit participation
Include Commissioners in order to encourage better Dept. participation
Time required to review DLFG budget with internal budget reports
Provide better explanation of what’s required from Depts.
Allow sufficient time for Depts. to report their results
May need to schedule time to assist Dept. heads
Personal visits could be beneficial – how GIS is or isn’t being used
Study is somewhat subjective
Study provides good overall use of GIS among Depts.
Revisit study every 3 to 5 years to monitor progress

29. A Noble County Perspective
1. Confirm the total 2015 budget is correct [or close]. 2. If it is close, then continue with step 3. If not then [STOP] and me the correct budget total and where you found it, and we will first try to generate a better report. 3. This data is reported by Fund and is currently sorted by Fund. It may be easier to Assign UOI to each line item if you first sort the rows by department and expenditure category.

30. A Noble County Perspective
4. Go line-by-line and enter a UOI % to each line item in the budget [Column J - enter a value from 0% to 100%]. This value indicates the percent of that line item that is supported by GIS data of activity. (See note A Below) 5. When done, the Totals at the bottom should reflect how much and what % of the organization’s total annual budget is supported by GIS (the UOI). Note: If it is difficult to understand and evaluate the % that GIS supports a specific line item - be conservative and leave it at 0%

31. Utility of Investment in GIS
Where Do We Go from Here
Utility of Investment in GIS