Web Applications and Web Serivces

Easy-to-use and IT friendly methods to distribute location technology across organizations

Executive Summary

Problem: Spatial data is a valuable information asset that can be used to support daily tasks and business decisions throughout an enterprise. However it is usually restricted to a handful of technical experts within GIS departments and is often duplicated between different offices and departments within the same organization.

Solution: Use GIS Web Applications to eliminate duplication and inconsistency, and make location information conveniently and intuitively accessible across departments, at a lower cost per user. Non-professional GIS user gain easy and fast access to the centralized location analyses data to assist them in their day-to-day work.

Web Application Sub-Categories

The roadblocks to disseminating GIS data across an organization

Dissemination of GIS data and functionality has traditionally been restricted by difficulty with integration into traditional IT, analytical complexity, the size and format of data sets and the limitations of network bandwidth. These factors conspire to restrict GIS largely to a high end workstation application within GIS departments. Distributed access has been both limited and relatively expensive.

Web applications offers distributed GIS access at a reduced per user cost

An highly cost-effective way to make geographic data and analyses more widely available and more accessible across an enterprise is to develop web applications. These can provide an easy-to-use, fast, and convenient method to access spatial data. This permits visualization and simple query of spatial information, but also complex spatial operations such as geocoding and route networking. Web applications also makes GIS cheaper by dramatically altering the cost-benefit ratios of GIS implementation when assessed against user accessibility.

GIS web applications built using web services also permits geospatial information to be directly integrated with applications that have no spatial functionality in themselves. This has significantly reduced the cost per user ratio.

Benefits of using a web-based GIS include:

  • Create an enterprise-wide information center which combines graphical and textual information, providing users one-stop access to location-based information.
  • Encourage more effective use of staff and resources.
  • Provide a strong tool to support business decisions by making more complete, accurate, and current data easily accessible and understandable.

GIS on demand to lower the total cost of ownership

Difficulties in disseminating data have meant that more often than not the same data is duplicated by each organization using it - a complete copy of the same base map can be at each organization. It is not uncommon for the same dataset to be duplicated even between different offices and departments within the same organization. This is not only wasteful in storage; it incurs a significant overhead in data management and update, and inevitably leads to inconsistency between the datasets used by different organizations (or parts of organizations). An irregular, unintegrated workflow requires more time, energy and money.

With Farallon web services GIS, geospatial information is readily available to all who need it. Whether it be adminstrators, finance, researchers, or constituents. All authorized users can securely access necessary geospatial information no matter where it resides, what format it takes, or how quickly it changes - and integrate it into their daily workflow. This greatly reduces fragmented and compartmentalized workflows and communication, and increase efficiencies.

Web services also permit web editing which offer organizations maintaining data a cost effective approach to disseminated editing functionality across either intranets or the Internet. This is of significance as it permits the update and maintenance of data within central data stores to be carried out remotely, allowing data to be updated from the field, site office or remote station.

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