Your Questions Answered – Strategy

[StevenAustin]

At the GIS Managers Summit in July, attendees were able to submit questions for our live panel. While we had some great answers, there were dozens of questions we didn’t have time for, so we’re going to answer them here!

Our panelists will be posting, Q&A-style, over the next few weeks, so check back here regularly!

At the Summit, @MatthewLewin1 (Matt Lewin) from Esri Canada hosted a section on Strategy & Governance.  Matt and @AllenWilliams lead strategic advisory and management consulting at Esri Canada, and addressed some of the questions submitted about strategy.

Here are some of your questions answered, and if you have more questions, please post them here!

Q: How do you ensure your GIS strategy is fully integrated into your organisations enterprise data and analytics strategy and not separate to this?

 

A: A well-aligned geospatial strategy builds systems and capabilities that support the organization's overall goals by providing location-based insights that help you compete and succeed. This includes maps, data acquisition, user-facing tools, training, and the technology infrastructure needed for long-term success.

Key components to ensure alignment:

• Data: Your geospatial strategy should align with the organization's data strategy in terms of handling geospatial records, meta-data, imagery, and maps effectively.
• Analytics: Geospatial insights should enhance all levels of analytics—descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive—across the organization.

 

Q: What are some ways to you engage with people for a GIS strategy?

 

A:  Engaging with people to develop a GIS strategy involves fostering collaboration, gathering diverse perspectives, and ensuring stakeholders understand the value of GIS to meet their needs.

Some effective ways to engage may include:

• Hosting workshops to gather insight into business needs and challenges.
• Conduct one-on-one stakeholder interviews to understand their needs, pain points, and goals.
• Conduct a survey to reach a broader group of stakeholders and gather input on how GIS could be most beneficial.
• Set up regular meetings for ongoing discussions, allowing stakeholders to provide feedback as the strategy evolves.
• Regularly hold feedback sessions where users can share their experiences with the GIS, offering suggestions for improvement.

 

Q. What do you do if your org does not have an organizational strategic plan while trying to develop a geospatial strategy

 

A:  If your organization doesn’t have an organizational strategic plan, I would focus on department-level plans, information technology priorities, or short-term organizational objectives. You could align your geospatial strategy to support departmental priorities or focus on how GIS can provide value to core products, services, or customer programs that are part of your organizational operations.

 

Q: How do you ensure institutionalization of the GIS strategy in the organization?

 

A:  Ensure you have strong executive support, commitment, and leadership influence to drive GIS adoption and innovation. Continuously reinforce GIS as a key component of your organization's operations and strategy.

 

Q: Should I focus on customers / departments with bigger budgets, or customers with better defined projects but lack funding?

 

A:  In developing a GIS strategy, we recommend engaging broadly across your organization. All business needs should be considered, scoped, vetted, and prioritized according to value, risk, and strategy alignment. This ensures your GIS resources are allocated to your organization's highest-value, best ROI projects.

 

Q: How do you overcome the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ for projects that are now antiquated and there is no change plan to update them, yet they are still pursued.

 

A:  Here are some practical steps to help overcome this fallacy.

Revisit the cost-benefit analysis with updated data. If the costs now outweigh the benefits, it’s time to reconsider the commitment to the project.

Recognize the decision to stop pursuing the outdated project as a strategic pivot rather than a loss and communicate this positively to stakeholders.

Create a phased exit plan if the project is antiquated but still has some ongoing utility. Gradually reduce resources, migrate critical components to more modern systems, and communicate the wind-down timeline to stakeholders.

 

Q: Working with consultant to create comprehensive GIS Strategy what internal human resources required to ensure it created and implemented properly?

 

A:  Creating and implementing a comprehensive GIS strategy requires collaboration between several key internal human resources. Some key roles required for strategic planning are executive Sponsor, GIS Program manager, IT infrastructure resources, GIS analyst, business analyst, and engagement with business SMEs and leads. Ensuring communication between these roles and departments is crucial to the success of the GIS strategy. For the implementation phase, each project may have specific skills and requirements. However, we recommend running the GIS strategy with a multi-year roadmap as a Program so that you can have a Program Manager and a technical lead guide the program over its term.