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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Ogden City General Management and Operations Study for GIS Ogden City initiated this geographic information systems (GIS) audit study to assess the city’s GIS program as a whole. The assessment was spurred by an earlier information technology management study, conducted by Plante Moran, which identified that the city’s GIS program lacked a clear focus and would benefit from a strategic plan. This audit study was carried out between September and November of 2015 and completed the following activities: Review of existing documentation on GIS as well as the Plante Moran findings New information gathering including conducting a geospatial end-user survey and completing interviews that involved 45 members of the Ogden City staff from seven city departments Assessing and the information gathered and producing a weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) assessment Conducting on-site workshops with Ogden City’s GIS Staff and GIS Committee to review the SWOT and refine preliminary recommendations Finalization of recommendations and preparation of the final report and on-site presentations of the findings and recommendations to the GIS Staff, GIS Committee and IT Steering Committee Key findings from the SWOT analysis included: to leverage o Strong understanding of the value of geospatial technology to city government o Strong GIS Staff o Strong geospatial data backbone that includes over 200 GIS data layers Weaknesses to address o Lack of a tactical plan o Increased volume and sophistication of end-user needs and a lack of adequate supply of “GIS service bureau” resources to meet requirement o Increasing customer dissatisfaction with GIS staff response times Opportunities to capitalize on o Ogden City staff are open minded to change and new approaches o New technology offers increased abilities to provide end-user self service for basic mapping and querying Threats to avoid o The appearance of departmental silos of data o Lack of evolution and change now that issues have been identified The following seven recommendations were put forward to help address the issues identified in this study: 1. The operating model for the Ogden’s GIS team should evolve from a “service bureau” approach to a “departmental enablement” approach. The GIS team should remain in the Information ---PAGE BREAK--- Technology Division and this evolution should be codified by developing a “job description” for the adapted GIS team. The core functions of the GIS team under the enablement model are: a. Caretaking of the city’s geospatial infrastructure – both data and technical – and servicing public facing resources such as data dissemination. b. Assisting departmental geospatial activities, especially among the “power user” departments, by providing training and support of more technically challenging initiatives. c. Performing limited service bureau and special projects work for departments that do not have their own geospatial capacity. 2. Ensure that the GIS team has a complement of approximately 3 full time equivalents (FTE). In addition, reconfigure the GIS team so that one of the three current GIS is tagged as the GIS Coordinator and day-to-day leader of the team, reporting into the IT Division Operations Supervisor. 3. Allow city departments to have their own GIS positions. Larger departments with more geographically focused missions such as Public Services, Community and Economic Development and Public Safety should be encouraged to continue to make geospatial investments, including staff. In this manner, subject matter expertise and geospatial skills can be brought together to help fill the gap between geospatial needs and the existing capacity to meet those needs. 4. Enable maximum self service to departmental end-users and the public. Ogden City should acquire, or develop a strong, user-friendly viewer application that can be deployed to both city staff and the general public. Such a viewer should enable a large number of basic requirements – such as creating a PDF map of a property of interest – to be handled on a self-service basis. Increased self-service will help free geospatial staff resources for more challenging and higher value assignments. 5. Experiment with, and potentially invest in, new technologies, particularly cloud-based, geospatial Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). There is new and strong innovation in the geospatial marketplace both with Ogden City’s existing software supplier, Esri, and with new suppliers. These new technologies offer Ogden the potential for increased capability at lower cost and the city will be well served by understanding the suite of options that are available. 6. Complete an inventory of existing data resources. As part of the evolution from service bureau to departmental enablement, Ogden City should complete a comprehensive data inventory and develop a data management plan. Such an inventory will help identify which data sets should be managed and maintained by the IT GIS Staff aerial photography) and which should be handled by departments utility systems). 7. Continue the governance role of the GIS Committee. With the departments making their own investments in geospatial staff, and the GIS team in more of an enablement role, the opportunity for dialog and two-way feedback provided by the GIS Committee is increasingly important. Ultimately, Ogden City has built a strong geospatial foundation and this plan and the slate of seven recommendations provides a practical and realistic path for further evolution that will help address some of the shortcomings that have emerged recently. Document produced by: Applied Geographics, Inc. (AppGeo), Boston, MA ~ November, 2015