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IT departments are being forced to become more process oriented, which is a good thing. Instead of just being stewards of all the infrastructure and applications, IT is being held accountable for process outcomes and the support of business objectives. Geospatial tools are inline with this growing trend, with an increasing number of vendors marketing solutions and services in addition to platforms.

Computing power, connectivity and the resources to customize are becoming more of a commodity with the service as the ultimate focus. Geospatial solutions stand to garner a good deal of attention and IT spend if the focus for geospatial investment emphasizes increased efficiency, problem solving and decision support. While the underlying system and workflows are still important, new investments will primarily involve the extension of existing systems rather than the purchase and migration toward new platforms.

Leveraging Information

Traditional GIS was occupied first and foremost with cataloging the location of assets and producing map products. The emphasis has shifted toward leveraging geospatial information for business process enhancements, with custom applications that are largely being built online. New solutions are created leveraging web services as well as software as a service architectures with development tools that allow for the creative combination of data from various sources to provide insight tailored to specific audiences.

Server-based approaches are more nimble and collaborative than desktop software. The flexibility of a web-based approach enables organizations to incorporate data from multiple sources, including the ability to pull together live data feeds such as traffic, weather or the location of mobile workers. This ability to easily integrate with other systems for dynamic visualization is of increasing importance for decision makers who have become accustomed to dashboards and the simpler geographic viewing environments such as Google Earth.

Powerful Data Integration

Databased asset details are being extended now and integrated with other systems. The utility sector provides a good example of how GIS investments have lead to broader enterprise integration. The GIS provided good asset details and a network model that has subsequently been leveraged for outage management, work management and customer management.

Here, the base investment to better manage the grid and elements on the grid have led to greater efficiencies in other parts of the operation. Similar benefits can be uncovered and found in other sectors where the geospatial investment isn’t as mature.

Accelerated Application Development

Rich Internet applications are now being developed using a variety of tools that are much simpler to develop with. ESRI has a REST API, JavaScript API and Flex API. There’s also Microsoft’s Silverlight that’s gaining followers. Building impressive applications and tools has become much quicker and easier than in the past, creating compelling geospatial tools without the need for desktop software.

The ranks of geospatial application developers are growing steadily. With every new easy-to-use tool that aligns geospatial closer with standard web development practices, the growth leaps forward. The swelling of the ranks of new online application development comes at a good time when companies are looking for low-cost and high-impact means to extend their long-term investments in systems.

Geospatial technology has made inroads into IT departments, and is often now a subset of IT in many organizations. Now, with greater geospatial alignment with standard web development practice, the time is ripe for geospatial developers to extend a hand of welcome for more collaborative solution development with geo newbies. The barriers are coming down between GIS and IT, and both camps stand to benefit.

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