Sustaining ArcGIS Indoors: Why Data Stewardship Matters More Than Deployment
Deploying ArcGIS Indoors is a major milestone. Bringing together CAD drawings, floor plans, building information, and space data, all in disparate formats, from across an organization requires significant planning, collaboration, and technical expertise. When the deployed system finally goes live, it feels like you've reached the finish line.
In reality, you've only just reached the starting line.
At Arizona State University, our Facilities Management GIS team recently completed a large-scale ArcGIS Indoors deployment spanning nine campuses, 427 buildings, 1,367 floors, and nearly 90,000 mapped spaces. Along the way, we integrated GIS with our Computerized Maintenance Management System (our Work Order system, WebTMA), deployed the ArcGIS Utility Network for our water infrastructure, and continued advancing our digital twin initiatives.
Those projects were exciting, but one lesson stood above the rest:
The long-term success of ArcGIS Indoors depends far less on deployment than it does on governance and data stewardship.
Success Changes Everything
When we first launched ArcGIS Indoors within our ArcGIS Enterprise environment, we focused on delivering an authoritative indoor map for Facilities Management, first responders, law enforcement, executive leadership, space managers, and project teams.
The benefits were immediate.
Instead of relying on disconnected PDFs, spreadsheets, or departmental floor plans, everyone could reference the same authoritative view of campus space. Operational awareness improved. Outage communications became more effective. Departments began making data-driven decisions from a shared understanding of the built environment.
Then something interesting happened. People started asking for more.
Environmental Health and Safety wanted to map hazardous materials. Life Safety wanted fire suppression systems.
Facilities managers wanted key box locations. Researchers wanted emergency power locations.
Leadership wanted occupancy insights.
Other groups requested ADA entrances, AED locations, water bottle refill stations, recycling stations, and dozens of other operational datasets.
The conversation had shifted. ArcGIS Indoors was no longer viewed as an indoor mapping application—it was becoming the foundation of an enterprise operational platform.
Figure 1: Data Stewardship groups in the Enterprise portal, organized by business function
The Challenge Becomes Trust
As adoption grows, expectations grow with it.
People begin relying on the system to make operational decisions.
That means the information must remain accurate, current, and trustworthy. An outdated office assignment might be an inconvenience. However, an incorrect utility location during an outage—or missing emergency information during an incident— exposes the organization to unnecessary risk.
Trust is one of the most valuable assets an enterprise GIS can have, but it's also one of the easiest to lose. The question we found ourselves asking wasn't, "How do we deploy ArcGIS Indoors?"
It became:
How do we keep it accurate five years from now?
Why Centralized Editing Doesn't Scale
Every GIS team eventually encounters the same reality.
The GIS professionals are rarely the people with the deepest operational knowledge. Environmental Health and Safety knows where hazardous materials are stored.
Life Safety understands fire protection systems. Facilities staff know where key boxes are located.
Project managers understand what changed during the latest renovation.
The people closest to the work are the people closest to the data.
As organizations grow, expecting a centralized GIS team to maintain every operational dataset simply isn't sustainable. Eventually, every request, every update, and every correction flow through one team. That team becomes the bottleneck.
A Shift in Mindset
To solve this challenge, we began thinking differently about the role of the GIS team.
Instead of serving as editors of every dataset, we became administrators of the enterprise platform. Our responsibilities shifted toward:
- Maintaining ArcGIS Enterprise
- Developing data standards
- Establishing governance
- Building repeatable templates
- Training departmental data stewards
- Simplifying editing workflows
Operational departments continue owning their expertise. The GIS team owns the platform that enables them.
That distinction changed everything.
Building a Data Stewardship Framework
Our approach is intentionally simple.
Each operational department identifies a data steward—the individual responsible for maintaining a specific dataset.
The GIS team provides the framework:
- Feature services
- Standardized web maps
- Configured web applications
- Documentation
- Governance
- Training
Departments maintain their own operational information while the GIS team ensures consistency across the enterprise.
New datasets begin in a development environment where workflows and quality can be validated before being promoted into production.
Likewise, editing privileges are intentionally limited. Data Stewards are only responsible for editing and maintaining their own business data. Most users consume information, as Viewers only. Only designated data stewards edit authoritative data, and editing is done through feature services.
That governance model protects data integrity while creating clear ownership and accountability.
The Hardest Part Isn't Technical
Looking back, one of the biggest surprises wasn't technical at all. It was organizational.
Many departments historically viewed GIS as "something the GIS team manages." Data stewardship requires a cultural shift.
Departments become partners instead of customers. That requires outreach. It requires training. It requires patience.
Some groups embrace the opportunity immediately. Others need help understanding that stewardship isn't additional bureaucracy—it's an opportunity to make their operational knowledge visible across the organization.
The technology enables collaboration. Relationships make it successful.
Looking Beyond Deployment
When people ask about implementing ArcGIS Indoors, conversations often focus on floor-aware maps, space planning, mobile experiences, or integrations. Those are all important.
But after deployment, every organization eventually confronts the same questions:
- Who owns each dataset?
- Who is responsible for keeping it current?
- How are edits governed?
- How do you preserve trust?
- How does the system scale as adoption grows?
Those questions ultimately determine whether an indoor GIS becomes a lasting enterprise system or gradually becomes another outdated map.
Final Thoughts
ArcGIS Indoors gives organizations an incredible opportunity to understand and operate the built environment in new ways.
But technology alone doesn't create sustainable GIS. People do. Governance does. Ownership does.
Data stewardship is what transforms an indoor mapping application into an enterprise system that organizations can trust for years to come.
If you're planning—or have recently completed—an ArcGIS Indoors implementation, my advice is simple: Celebrate the deployment. Then start planning for stewardship; that's where the real work begins.
About the Author
Matt Riley is GIS Manager at Arizona State University - Facilities Development and Management, and an Instructional Professional in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning. Feel free to contact at [email protected] or comment any questions you might have.