Building a Business Case for Geospatial Information Technology

The objectives of this study were to (1) review current literature related to Geospatial Information Technology (GIT); (2) perform a web-distributed survey of water utilities, other utilities, and government agencies regarding geospatial benefits; (3) further develop return on investment methodology; (4) develop a set of spreadsheet templates, examples, and directions for utilities to analyze; and (5) visit water and other utility sites to perform individual case studies and perform an investment analysis on these projects.


GIT is defined as a collection of hardware, software, data, and procedures functioning together to capture, manage, analyze, maintain, and display information that has a geospatial reference to the real world. GIT is a complicated investment. Initial costs can be high and tangible benefits can take several years to materialize. Organizations must identify these benefits and then predict their financial impact. The implementation of a GIT program can assist an organization's ability to reduce operational costs and data redundancy, improve analysis process, and increase the ability to access and integrate information. However, the technical intricacies of GIT can be overwhelming.