2025 WA GIS Conference

The City of Tacoma has been using distributed collaborations to share data between Enterprise portal and ArcGIS Online since 2022. Progress has not been linear: there have been many challenges. We will share how our distributed collaborations are set up, lessons learned along the way, and tips and tricks to help you on your own distributed collaboration journey.

This presentation outlines the results of the Seattle 2024 GIS Return on Investment (ROI) Study. This study was a partnership between GIS Management Consulting Services of Edmonds and four key leaders of Seattle GIS.

The study was based on the GIS ROI methodology developed by Prof. Richard Zerbe of the UW Evans School of Public Administration. The study approach was a snapshot in time – to analyze the financial benefits from using GIS across all the departments and offices in Seattle during 2024.

The data to analyze GIS ROI was compiled from both online surveys and from multiple face to face interviews with those knowledgeable about GIS in individual departments. The report also compiled an extensive catalog of other types of benefits from the use of GIS. The report calculated a range for GIS for the entire city and also for many individual departments. GIS ROI was calculated in a variety of ways: net financial ROI in dollar terms, net financial ROI as a percent of GIS costs, GIS ROI as a percent of the entire annual city budget, and the equivalent staff savings in FTEs represented by the net financial ROI. The report also includes 1o appendixes which are GIS ROI reports for 10 key Seattle Departments. In addition to sharing the results this report will provide an overview oof the modified Zerbe methodology used.

Why is data so important for modern government and why is there a need for better data sharing? This presentation will focus on the state’s goals and newly released Enterprise Data Strategy to create a unified data ecosystem to help state agencies make better decisions. Joanne will walk through examples of how we can combine spatial and non-spatial data to improve efficiency and services. Partnerships, pathways and people help make that magic happen and Joanne will focus on what we as a GIS community can do to help accomplish these goals.