The Role of GIS in Reengineering Local Government: Integration Paves the Way for a Coordinated Enterprise

The Cincinnati Geographic Information System(CAGIS)today serves 1000+ employees of the City of Cincinnati, Hamilton County, and CINERGY. CAGIS Cincinnati participants are; City Planning, Transportation and Engineering, Buildings and Inspections, Metropolitan Sewer District, Water Works, Economic Development, Mayor's Office, Cincinnati Public Schools, Council Clerk's Office, City Fire Department, City 911, Office of Environmental Management, Health Department and City Real Estate. Hamilton County participants are; Regional Planning, Building Inspections, Hamilton County Engineer's Office, Hamilton County Auditor's Office, Hamilton County General Health District, Emergency Response, Parks, Hamilton County Communications (911), Department of Environmental Services, Sheriff and Township Fire. The private utilities of CINERGY and Cincinnati Bell are also served.CAGIS has been successfully managing the implementation of a major effort to redefine how local government coordinates to deliver services across nearly all the functions of City and County local government. This effort has focused on reengineering the permit, capital improvement and complaint/work order work flows in tandem with deploying integrated technologies. The result has been improved communication and data sharing and coordination among those utility and other department personnel that must coordinate to efficiently and effectively deliver services. ESRI GIS technology integrated with work flow management software and a range of other technologies has been fundamental to the transformation that is occurring. Many work flows have either been completely redesigned with embedded GIS technology or are in the process of being redesigned.. The system has grown from 25 users in 1995 to over 1,000 in 2001..Many work flows have either been completely redesigned with embedded GIS and workflow technologies or are in the process of being redesigned. This paper will discuss the organizational vision, identify coordination problems in standalone department manual and PC systems, strategies and lessons learned in deploying automation as a catalyst for change enterprise wide to improve process coordination.