[gis_info] FW: King County GIS Delivers Significant Return on Investment

[SMITH Cy * EISPD GEO]

The article below contains an ROI report from King County that GEO
helped fund with a small amount from the Strategic Planning grant we got
a couple years ago from FGDC.  As you will see in the report on pages 12
and 13, if you get that far, the estimated measurement of ROI for King
County's use of GIS is about $2 billion, using a middle-of-the-road
approach (not too conservative or too generous).  The King County GIS is
an enterprise program, very similar to what we are trying to develop
statewide in Oregon.  We will be using this same ROI methodology very
soon to measure the ROI on the public safety common operating picture
project we have developed in Multnomah County and at Oregon Emergency
Management.

 

cy

 

Cy Smith, Oregon State GIO

DAS/EISPD Geospatial Enterprise Office

Secretary, Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO)

Past President, Urban & Regional Info Sys Assoc (URISA)

Past President, Natl States Geographic Info Council (NSGIC)

503-378-6066          http://gis.oregon.gov 

 

 

King County GIS Delivers Significant Return on Investment

April 4, 2012 

Twenty years ago, geographic information services were in the proposal
and planning stage in King County, Washington. Today King County's
geographic information system (GIS) includes integrated spatial
databases, mapping and analysis software, information technology, and
professional GIS staff. King County's GIS was developed to meet the
business needs of county users, and it also provides free data and
online mapping capability to the public.

In March 2012 a return-on-investment (ROI) report issued by Professor
Richard Zerbe and Associates showed that use of the King County
Geographic Information System has resulted in at least $775 million in
net benefits to the county over the eighteen-year period from 1992 to
2010.

While ROI estimates are often developed as part of a proposal to develop
a geographic information system, it is believed that this is the first
study by independent economic consultants to examine and measure the
actual benefits realized by a city or county from the internal agency
use of GIS.

The study methodology looked at the cost to perform county agency
business functions both with and without GIS. For example, county permit
technicians were asked how much time it takes to pull together all the
maps and spatial data needed to assist a permit applicant now with GIS,
versus the time it would take the technician to perform the same
business function without GIS tools and data. The methodology included
detailed interviews of 30 key county staff and then an online survey to
county GIS users that was completed by 175 respondents.

Interview and survey responses were analyzed to compare both with-GIS
and without-GIS level of effort. The results were then compiled and
monetized by output type and agency to measure cost savings and
productivity benefits.

The total cost for King County GIS, including capital development,
central GIS operations and maintenance, and agency GIS end-user costs
from 1992 to 2010 is over $201 million. In 2010 alone these county GIS
costs were $14.6 million, but for the same year the Zerbe report
measured benefits from GIS of $180 million, with a lower estimate of $87
million. So the benefits over a single year far outweigh the costs for
the year, and if repeated for 2011 and 2012, the benefits realized over
just two years could eclipse the costs of the previous twenty.

This project was partly funded by the Oregon Department of
Administrative Services, Geospatial Enterprise Office.

Dr. Richard O. Zerbe, Jr. is the Daniel J. Evans Professor of Public
Affairs at the University of Washington, where he is Director of the
Center for Benefit-Cost Analysis.

The King County GIS Center is a part of King County Information
Technology, chartered as an internal service fund to provide GIS
services to county agencies and external customers. The King County GIS
Center operates King County's enterprise GIS and provides data,
services, and training to help put GIS to work.
(www.kingcounty.gov/gis). For more information, contact Greg Babinski at
the King County GIS Center (206-263-3753; greg.babinski at kingcounty.gov).

*	KCGIS ROI Report Executive Summary
<http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/GIS/~/media/operations/GIS/documen
ts/KCGIS_ROI_ExecSummary.ashx>  (65kb PDF)
*	KCGIS ROI Report, complete
<http://www.kingcounty.gov/operations/GIS/~/media/operations/GIS/documen
ts/KCGIS_ROI_Report.ashx>  (459kb PDF)

-greg babinski

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