Best Practices For Financial Management of GIS Operations

Best Practices for Financial
Management of GIS
Operations
GIS-Pro 2013
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Providence, Rhode Island
Greg Babinski, MA, GISP

URISA Past-President
URISA GMI Committee Chair
COGO Secretary
Finance & Marketing Manager

King County GIS Center
Seattle, WA USA
Management of GIS Operations
Agenda
 Why develop GIS best practices?

 What is financial management?
 What are key aspects of GIS financial management?
 Recommended best practices
 The role of the GIS Management Institute in the
formal development of best practices
Why develop GIS best practices?
 We all have ‘practices’ for the work we have to

accomplish as GIS Managers.
 We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing if it did not
work, right?
 We all have ‘practices’ for the work we have to

accomplish as GIS Managers.
 We wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing if it did not
work, right?
 But ‘I’m a manager, and I can change, if I have to.’
 We come to conferences to improve our practices,
correct?
 Developing best practices is the mark of a maturing

profession
Babinski’s Theory of GIS Management: As GIS Operational Maturity Improves, ROI Increases
Because
‘best’ is
better!
What is financial management?
 Financial management is the efficient and effective

application of funds (money) and resources to
accomplish the goals of an organization.
 It includes finding funding sources, acquiring the funds,
and allocating them to achieve the goals.
 It includes controlling costs and maximizing revenue.
 Professional management includes carefull fincial
stewardship.
What are key aspects of GIS
financial management?
One of 18 competency clusters in the URISA GMI Geospatial

Management Competency Model adopted by USDOLETA
Seven individual competencies in the URISA GMI Geospatial

Management Competency Model adopted by USDOLETA:
64. Prepare and document budgets
66. Manage expenditures and income
66. Identify Funding sources and obtain funding, including
collaborative opportunities
67. Develop and maintain a long term financial plan
68. Conduct regular financial analysis
69. Implement standard financial accounting procedures and
controls
70. Assure accountability by periodic independent audits
Three designated components of the URISA GMI GIS Capability

Maturity Model:
Recommended best practices
Prepare and document budgets:

 Know your organization’s budgeting process
 Understand your organization’s financial drivers
Manage expenditures and income:

 Know and negotiate the fair market price for services and products
required to develop, operate, and maintain your enterprise GIS
 Ensure fair compensation for enterprise GIS services and products:
 Ensure that your rates cover your costs
 If required develop rates that generate profit and/or financial
reserves
Identify funding sources and obtain funding, including collaborative

opportunities (part 1):
 Promote enterprise GIS that is a valuable business tool that should
funded by those who use the tool
 Understand regional collaboration as a means to share costs for non-
value added functions:
 Aerial imagery acquisition
 Certain framework data development and maintenance
 Back-office data storage and system administration
 Within enterprise GIS, allocate costs to users:
 Desktop GIS users
 GIS software as a service
 Web application users
Identify funding sources and obtain funding, including collaborative

opportunities (part 2):
 Understand and pursue commercial opportunities:
 Commercialize applications or other products
 Commercialize internal services of value to outside customers
 Understand alternate funding sources:
 Grants
 Consortiums
 Understand and be conversant in the ROI from GIS:
 Internal ROI from implementing GIS to reduce costs
 Internal ROI from implementing GIS to increase productivity or
effectiveness
 External ROI from regional economic benefits derived from GIS data,
products, and services
Develop and maintain a long term financial plan:

 Understand cyclical funding needs:
 Equipment replacement
 Imagery replacement
 Other periodic data replacement
 Labor payouts (retirement, long-term leave, other labor
settlements)
 Develop emergency financial reserves or contingencies
Conduct regular financial analysis:

 Compare budgeted revenue against actual revenue received
 Compare budgeted expenditures against actual expenses incurred
 Compare your costs against peer agencies
 Conduct activity based cost analysis
 Conduct periodic supplier cost analysis
Implement standard financial accounting procedures and controls:

 Know and implement your organization’s financial accounting
procedures
 Know and implement your organization’s financial control
procedures
Assure accountability by periodic independent audits:

 Understand your organization’s audit environment
 Develop transparent financial systems
 Discuss financial accountability and transparency with GIS staff:
 Financial accountability as a part of GIS ethics
 Transparent processes that are open to everyone promote clean
audits
The GIS Management Institute &
the development of best practices
GMI GMI
GIS CMM GMCM
PPD:
URISA Labs
GMI
GMBOK
AcD: AcD: PPD: UI ED: CD:

Gov Agency Educational Educational Educational GISP-M
Accreditation Accreditation Requirements Content Requirements
GMI Local GMI URISA GISCI

Agency Educational Workshops GISP-M
Accreditation Accreditation ULA Certification
Program Program University Program
GMI: GIS Management Institute

GIS CMM: GIS Capability Maturity Model
GMCM: Geospatial Management Competency Model
GMBOK: GIS Management Body of Knowledge
GISCI: GIS Certification Institute
AcD: GMI Accreditation Division
CD: GMI Certification Division
PPD: GMI Professional Practices Division
UI ED: URISA International Education Division
Bibliography
Abrahams, M., Fletcher, M., and Simpson, W. GFOA Workshop: Costing and Outsourcing Government Services. Government Finance
Officers Association, Tampa, March 31 – April 1, 2004.
Antenucci, J. C., Brown, K., Croswell, P. L., Kevany, M. J., and Archer, H. Geographic Information Systems: A Guide to the Technology.
New York: Van Nordstrand Reinhold, 1991.
Archer, H. “Providing and Selling Access to AM/FM Data” in Proceedings of the 26th Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional
Information Systems Association. pp 348-357.
Babinski, G. “A Business Line Approach top Enterprise GIS Finance” in Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional
Information Systems Association. Atlanta, GA. 2003. pp 176-183.
Babinski, G. “GIS as an Enterprise Municipal System” in Government Finance Review. Government Finance Review, February 2009.
Babinski, G. “URISA Leadership Academy” Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Most recent, Baltimore: 2011.
Bamberger, W. J. and Sherwood, N., ed. Marketing Government Geographic information: Issues and Guidelines. Park Ridge, IL: URISA,
1993.
Castle, G. “A Conceptual Framework for Setting Prices for Local Government Information-Related Products” in Proceedings of the
Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Vol. IV: pp 26-32.
Croswell, P. L. The GIS Management Handbook. Frankfort, KY: Kessey Dewitt Publications, 2009.*
Croswell, P. L. and Wernher, A. GIS program Revenue Generation and Legal Issues in Public Sector Organizations. Park Ridge, IL:
URISA, 2004.
Croswell, P.L. Metcalf, A., Smith, C., and Anderson, J., King County GIS Conceptual Design. Frankfort, KY: PlanGraphics, Inc. 1992.
Croswell, P.L. and Metcalf, A., King County GIS Implementation and Funding Plan. Frankfort, KY: PlanGraphics, Inc. 1992.
DiBiase, D., DeMers, M., Johnson, A., Kemp, K., Luck, A. T., Plewe, B., and Wentz, E. Geographic Information Science and Technology
Body of Knowledge. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Geographers, 2006.*
Eagan, P., Program Director. Managing the Risks and Recovering the Costs of Geographic and Facilities Management Systems. Madison:
University of Wisconsin, 1990.*
Bibliography
Furness, L. and Bowie, D. “Organizational Structuring and Charging for Geographic Information System Services” in Proceedings of the
Annual Conference of the Australian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Queensland, Australia. 1992. Vol I, pp
173-182.
Horning, G. “How GIS Works in King County.” ArcNews. Spring 2007.
Huxhold, W. E. An Introduction to Urban Geographic Information Systems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.*
Huxhold, W. E. and Levinsohn, A. G. Managing Geographic Information System Projects. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.*
Joffe, B. 10 Ways to Support Your GIS Without Selling Data. Oakland: Open Data Consortium, ND.
King County. King County Coordinated Geographic Information System Scoping Project. Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle, August
1993.
King County. Production Operations and Maintenance Plan. King County Geographic Information System, Seattle, April 14, 1997.
Korte, G. B. The GIS Book. Albany: OnWord Press, 2001.*
Lawrence, J. “Pricing GIS Participation and Products” in Proceedings of the 1995 Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional
Information Systems Association. San Antonio, TX: pp. 165-172.
Lerner, N., Ancel, S., Stewart, M. A, and DiSera. D. Building a Business Case for Geospatial Technology: A Practitioner’s Guide to
Financial and Strategic Analysis. Geospatial Information Technology Association and AWWA Research Foundation, 2007.*
Longley, P. A., Goodchild, M. F., Maguire, D. J., and Rhind, D. W., eds. Geographic Information Systems (2 vols). New York: John Wiley
& sons, Inc. 1999.*
Maguire, D., Kouyoumjian, V., and Smith, R. The Business Benefits of GIS: An ROI Approach. Redlands: ESRI Press, 2008.*
Mayer, B., GIS Cost Allocation Model. Internal memo from KC GIS Coordinator dated July 6, 1992.
Obermeyer, N. J. and Pinto, J. K. Managing Geographic Information Systems. New York: The Guilford Press, 1994.*
Seeley, A. “Pierce County GIS Online Budget System.” 2010 URISA Exemplary Systems in Government – Distinguished Single System
Award Winner.
Thum, P. “GIS Service Bureau Operations: Implementing a Service Bureau in a Local Government Setting.” in Proceedings of the 2002
Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association. Chicago.
Tomlinson, R. Thinking About GIS: Geographic Information System Planning for Managers. ESRI Press, 2003.*
A Final Thought
The application of GIS usually addresses issues of scarcity

that affect society:
 Space itself is finite: Space is the essential dimension of
geography
 Resources are mostly finite: The geographic distribution
of resources and the communities that need them are a
key dimension of geographic thought
 Time is finite: Time considerations impact spatial
organization and planning decisions
 Money is ultimately finite: Financial considerations are a
key element of geographic analysis.
 And a budget is the means to allocate society’s scarce
resources.
Call for volunteers
Are you interested in joining me to develop the

formal URISA GMI Best Practice for Financial
Management of GIS Operations?
Greg Babinski, MA, GISP
URISA Past-President
URISA GMI Committee Chair
COGO Secretary
Finance & Marketing Manager

King County GIS Center
201 South Jackson Street
MS: KSC-IT-0706
Seattle, WA 98104 USA
P: 206-263-3753
F: 206-263-3145
E: greg.babinski@kingcounty.gov
T: @gbabinski
W: www.kingcounty.gov/gis

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Best Practices for Financial

Greg Babinski, MA, GISP

Finance & Marketing Manager

 Why develop GIS best practices?

 We all have ‘practices’ for the work we have to

 We all have ‘practices’ for the work we have to

 Developing best practices is the mark of a maturing

 Financial management is the efficient and effective

One of 18 competency clusters in the URISA GMI Geospatial

Seven individual competencies in the URISA GMI Geospatial

Three designated components of the URISA GMI GIS Capability

Prepare and document budgets:

Manage expenditures and income:

Identify funding sources and obtain funding, including collaborative

Identify funding sources and obtain funding, including collaborative

Develop and maintain a long term financial plan:

Conduct regular financial analysis:

Implement standard financial accounting procedures and controls:

Assure accountability by periodic independent audits:

AcD: AcD: PPD: UI ED: CD:

GMI Local GMI URISA GISCI

GMI: GIS Management Institute

The application of GIS usually addresses issues of scarcity

Are you interested in joining me to develop the

Finance & Marketing Manager

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