GIS Return on Investment (ROI) Fundamentals

Goals and objectives of this workshop

Show me the money! A geographic information system in any government agency, non-profit, or private company competes for financial resources. GIS managers must be able to articulate the many qualitative and quantitative benefits that GIS provides. But ultimately GIS needs to show the financial benefits that it provides to decision makers. How does a highly competent GIS manager accomplish this?

GIS management is a challenging profession. Effective GIS management is a critical success factor for an agency to leverage the potential of its investment in geospatial data and technology and to maximize GIS ROI. Adequate financial support is a key factor for a successful GIS. This is a key GIS management responsibility.

This GIS Management Academy™ workshop introduces the use of return on investment (ROI) analysis methods to document the net financial benefits that an agency might achieve from its GIS. In this workshop we will review the types of benefits that GIS provides. We will focus on recent (non-GIS industry) literature that documents the significant ROI from GIS at various social and institutional levels.

A major portion of the workshop will demonstrate a simple, objective methodology that has been used to quantify and report GIS performance metrics and ROI. This demonstration will include the use of a custom Excel Spreadsheet template that will be provided to all students who complete the workshop. After the workshop each attendee will have the tools and framework to input data to document their GIS ROI.

This GIS Management Academy™ workshop aligns with several of the competency clusters included in the US Department of Labor Geospatial Management Competency Model (GMCM) including:

• Performance Management

• Communication

• Relationship Management

• Political Skills

• Financial Management

Enterprise GIS is expensive to develop, maintain, and operate. Even small-to-medium-sized cities, counties, and regional agencies have invested millions of dollars to develop their GIS capabilities, and they can have large annual operating budgets. Many recent third-party studies have proven that GIS delivers significant financial return on investment (ROI) to organizations that deploy it as an enterprise business-support tool. Register for GIS ROI Fundamentals from the GIS Management Academy™ today.

Audience

Current GIS managers, supervisors, and coordinators, and those who aspire to a successful career in GIS management. Also, agency budget and finance managers and senior agency stakeholders interested in understanding the quantifiable financial benefits from geographic information science and technology.

Topics Covered

How organizations achieve their goals and objectives

Budgets as tools to allocate resources within organizations

The societal benefits of GIS

• Non-financial

• Financial benefits across society

• Financial benefits within organizations

Fundamentals of estimating future GIS benefit-cost analysis

Return on investment basic concepts

Fundamentals of calculating actual return on investment (with demonstration)

• Quantifying GIS costs

• Quantifying GIS financial benefits

Practical considerations of using GIS ROI as a decision support tool

Methods of displaying and comparing results

Exercise: Attendee discussion and feedback

Prerequisites and Recommendations

No prerequisites. Recommended for GIS managers, consultants, and academics, as well as budget and financial managers interested in assessing the financial benefits from their GIS operations.

What You Will Receive

Two (2) hours of instruction from Greg Babinski, who is a subject-matter expert and workshop author.

A copy of the workshop presentation and exercises.

A copy of the GIS ROI excel spreadsheet template.

Upon completion, a signed completion certificate which will indicate the CEUs (0.2) and GISCI points (0.05) earned.

An invitation to periodic GIS management Q&A sessions with the instructor and other workshop attendees.

Instructor

Greg Babinski is a GIS management consultant and founder of GIS Management Consulting Services LLC, located in the greater Seattle area.

Between 1998 and the end of 2021 he served as GIS Manager, GIS Finance Manager and GIS Marketing & Business Development Manager for the King County GIS Center in Seattle. Previously he worked for nine years as GIS Mapping Supervisor for the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland.

In 2010, in partnership with the University of Washington Evans School of Public Administration and with partial funding from the State of Oregon, Greg launched the first comprehensive retrospective ROI study of a major GIS operation conducted by a non-GIS financial professional. This study led to an Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award for King County in 2012. He has continued to research and refine GIS ROI methodologies, most recently conducting a multi-agency ROI analysis in the Seattle area.

He holds an MA in geography from Wayne State University. Greg is a GISP – Certified GIS Professional. Babinski is Past-President of URISA and founder and Past-Chair of URISA’s GIS Management Institute. In 2005 he founded The Summit – the Washington State GIS Newsletter. In 2019 Greg was awarded an EthicalGEO Fellowship by the American Geographical Society. In addition to GIS consulting, he is a GIS researcher, author, and instructor. He has spoken about GIS management across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Greg has taught GIS for Public Policy as an instructor with the University of Washington Evans Graduate School of Public Administration. In his spare time Greg likes ‘hiking steep, narrow and dangerous trails that lead high above the clouds to awesome views’.

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