Resources

The Green book is the central point for access to guidance on the financial assessment of spending and investment and to related guidance including the preparation of business cases for the public sector.

This book provides guidance on how to measure seemingly intangible benefits. It includes useful sections on problem decomposition, measurement techniques, estimate calibration, adjusting for bias, risk and sensitivity.

Geospatial information contributes to decisions by both societal and individual decision-makers. More effective use of this information is essential as issues are complex and consequences can be critical for future economic and social development. The workshop on Defining, Measuring, and Communicating the Socio-economic Benefits of Geospatial Information/GEOSS 2012 was held at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, USA, on June 12 through 14, 2012. The workshop convened a wide range of participants that included  researchers and analysts from academia, governments, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector government officials, communicators for government and private institutions and the news media, and technical specialists. A range of policy issues, management needs, and resource requirements were discussed and a wide array of  analyses, geospatial data, methods of analysis, and metrics were presented for assessing and communicating the value of geospatial information. Over 80 participants attended the meeting.

This is a report on a return on investment (ROI) study of the development and use of geographic information systems (GIS) within King County, Washington State in the USA.

This study presents the first assessment of the value of geospatial information undertaken on a national basis (covering England and Wales) using proven economic modelling techniques. The study looked at local public service providers including local authorities, emergency services and local health services. it includes many case studies where cost-benefit cases have been established, providing a wealth of examples to illustrate possible savings in services from transport, information management, health and social services.

This article argues that the geospatial industry has been very poor historically at presenting the business case for projects in objective and compelling terms. It provides a methodology for approaching business case development and presents a number of examples.

This book presents a methodology for building a business case for an existing or planned GIS implementation from preparation, through business prioritisation to benefits estimation and report presentation.

This report is the result of an international workshop to examine the state of the art in assessing the business case for spatial data infrastructures and includes contributions from many of the leading experts from across the world.

This article argues that the business benefits of GIS are maximized through careful planning, design and implementation, along with some coaching, cajoling and deft salesmanship.

ESRI GIS technologies are being used at FedEx Express to solve complex business problems in both the planning and execution of the daily delivery process. The application of spatial data at FedEx is unique in that it is being used to support several mission critical, multi-user applications and processes worldwide. Spatial data is being implemented within the organization for use in decision making for the routing and scheduling of thousands of pickup and delivery vehicles on a daily basis. It is aimed at minimizing costs such as mileage, overtime of workforce, efficient routing, and effective delivery methods, leading to higher productivity and greater customer satisfaction. The dynamic nature of the daily execution as a business problem, when coupled with the analysis of histroical events, GIS spatial data, customer data, and resource information can predict best practices for delivery methods and productivity.

Mapflow GEO allows an insurer to quickly and cost effectively model and visualise the accumulation of risks on its book. It also supplies the underwriting process with perils and an accumulation risk model for use at a property level both automatically and visually. This paper introduces some of the benefits that Mapflow’s customers are gaining as a result of their use of Mapflow’s GEO: solutions.

This article gives examples of the use of geographic information in the delivery of environmental services by English local authorities to reduce costs and contribute to a sustainable environment by the reduction of emissions and waste.

This paper discusses the economic benefits of the introduction of the INSPIRE Directive, in a very financially focused manner and is a good example of how such studies should be presented.

The article describes how South Tyneside Council used web mapping services to improve efficiency with measurable savings by enabling citizens to gain access to information through the internet and reducing contacts by phone and visits.

This comprehensive study uses local information systems in 12 local authorities to demonstrate the substantive savings in time and money that can be attributed to better decision making.

Building Information Modelling or BIM is a technology that brings with it a new way of working. Companies that adopt BIM can benefit from its streamlined approach, in which data is shared in a collaborative environment.

The savings that can be achieved by route optimisation of the service in terms of fuel reductions, captial expenditure on vehicles and more efficient use of labour are dramatically described in this case study.

The regional newspaper managed to show a Return on Investment in under three months using logistics software based on GIS to optimise routes and delivery points for newspapers.

This is a vendor case study from ESRI (UK) outlining the business benefits of introducing their GIS platform for Insurance.

This report presents case studies exploring the costs and benefits that Public Sector Information (PSI) producing agencies and their users experience in making information freely available, and preliminary estimates of the wider economic impacts of open access to PSI.

This study published in 2011, assessed the different models of supply and charging for public sector information (PSI) and their effects through the analysis of 21 case studies. The study also produced a snapshot of the smartphone applications market based on PSI and a comparative analysis of several Open Data portals in Europe and beyond.