What is GIS strategy
The best time to develop a strategy for incorporating spatial thinking into the business is the moment that business begins asking questions involving “where”. Where is everything from ‘Where do we locate our office?’, to ‘Where are our customers?’ or ‘Where are needs being unmet or underserved?’. Having some clear goals and expectations will help in right sizing the investment in GIS - from a consumer to an enterprise contributor. You don’t need to see into the distant future, however you should have some clearly defined agency goals that you are trying to achieve, then investigate where GIS can help to achieve those goals.
Spatial champion
Forget fancy maps and data visualizations – the real key to unlocking the power of location data for your organization is getting someone, a champion, on board who understands its value. Find a champion who sees the potential of using location information to improve decision-making.
Together, you can explore how to integrate this type of analysis into your everyday work processes to solve real problems. Even a simple map showing the current situation can be very helpful. But the real power comes from seeing how things change over time and location. This can reveal hidden patterns that can lead to better choices across the company.
Is your data ready
Does your data contain a street address, a zip code or something that could be considered a location or boundary? If so, then ensuring that the spatial component of your data is suitable for analysis is a critical step in the development of an overall business strategy regarding spatial data. Get in touch with us if you need help with this aspect of your data.
Where to start
There are many ways to get started using and thinking about geospatial data. One of the best ways we’ve found for agencies interested in GIS to get started is to buy an office subscription to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform , opens in a new tab . It gives you access to all of the data, including the SGID on ArcGIS and Esri’s Living Atlas , opens in a new tab . It has tools to help you analyze your data , opens in a new tab , you can create and deploy low code and no code applications to highlight and bring attention to your GIS efforts, and most importantly from UGRC’s perspective, it allows you to easily share your data with a wider audience if appropriate to your business's goals and mission. ArcGIS Online can scale with your agency needs without having to make a huge initial investment in GIS. Reach out to us if you have any questions about joining Utah's preferred spatial data and low code no code platform.
