Bill Oates, CIO for the City of Boston spoke at the Senior Executive Seminar at the ESRI User Conference about using GIS as a wedge to improve business process. One of the problems that the city faced was multiple different address databases for each individual system in various departments.  Standardizing the address system into a central system was seen as an opportunity for process improvement and better customer service throughout the city, eliminating repetition of work, and ensuring that the data would continually be updated.

Technology wasn’t the limiting factor, the issue was process, and the Street and Address Management system (SAM) has now been implemented. The implementation of the address system integrated GIS with other business systems, and was the driver for business operation change. The common user interface for multiple applications served to connect different departments, and brings them together to change the business process around these systems. Having the ability to tie the address to the parcel, and the various uses for the address, gives the opportunity to address business inefficiency.

Read more related Spatial Sustain posts: