Author: Barbara Gole Quinn
The Role of GIS in Reengineering Local Government: Integration Paves the Way for a Coordinated Enterprise
Abstract: In Cincinnati, a major effort has been successfully redefining how local government coordinates to deliver services across nearly all the functions of Cincinnati's local government. This effort has focused on reengineering the work flows in tandem with deploying integrated technologies. The result has been improved communication and data sharing and coordination among those 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. This paper will discuss the organizational vision, proven change management strategies, and lessons learned, showcasing how GIS technology is being used as the catalyst for change enterprise wide.
The Cincinnati Geographic Information System(CAGIS)today serves 900+ 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.
Other Cities and Townships within Hamilton County have also joined CAGIS. These are Delhi and Springfield Townships and the cities of Indian Hill and Forest Park. Other community users include builders, architects and developers, the business community such as Proctor and Gamble and the Chamber of Commerce, area universities and schools, and the walk-public of which there are 20-30 a day.
CAGIS - THE BEGINNING
CAGIS began as a regional consortium to share the cost of an automated mapping project in 1986 as recommended by the infrastructure committee, the Smale Commission. Initial data conversion was completed in 1993. In 1993 there was also a vision reassessment. Originally a Synercom site, the first migration to the Esri technology occurred in 1994. There were 25 workstation users in 1995.
FUNDING
Funding for the consortium is allocated as follows: 42.5% to the City of Cincinnati, 42.5% to Hamilton County, 10% to CINERGY and 5% to Cincinnati Bell. Each new City, Township, and Village participant adds $10,000 or more depending on type of membership.
VISION
In 1993 CAGIS held visioning sessions to reassess the Consortium's mission. From this series of visioning sessions, important changes occurred; first that the Consortium was building something that was more than a map and secondly that the implementation approach needed to encompass more than a technical vision. The vision provided from the top was stated by the City Manager, John Shirey, as "When I point to a location out there I want to know everything that we are doing there and everything we have done. David Krings, County Administrator, stated "I want a technology that ensures that no one drops the ball. I want my departments to coordinate their behavior." The result was a an organizational vision for technology that would develop an organization that was adept at using technology for promoting continuous improvement in providing customer service.
All local government agencies must share information and communicate to coordinate activities and service delivery. No department could be an island.
TECHNICAL FOUNDATION
The CAGIS technical foundation for integration and coordination is based upon the following; a base of enterprise connectivity through the wide area network (WAN), enterprise GIS technology is provided through the use of Esri technology throughout the City and the County. The enterprise database is ORACLE and enterprise event or workflow tracking is provided through use of the Permits Plus* from Accela. Enterprise document management is provided through DOCSOpen. The common desktop interface for GIS is GENX from MAGIC. Other vertical components are added to this system such as GANTT chart technology as needed by specific applications.
THE IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH IS WORKFLOW ORIENTED
The implementation approach used is workflow oriented. An example workflow is the process supporting development. There are development permits for subdivisions, planned unit developments, or condos impacting multiple parcels and providing primary community infrastructure. These multi-parcel projects enter the parcel build out phase when the contractor purchases the building permit. The building permit in turn gives rise to trades permits for plumbing, heating, electric, sewer, water, gas and storm water. The final stage of the development process is the commitment of the project to the community map as an as-built and the addition of the structure to the utility billing and auditor's tax role.
STUDY HOW WORK IS PERFORMED
The first step in embedding GIS and technology in the workflow is to assess how work is performed. With regards to CAGIS this occurred enterprise-wide as over 400 workflows were studied in the participating departments listed above. The analysis was looking specifically for instances where there was no coordination between the workflows. "No coordination" is defined as a "dropping of the information ball" requiring an employee in a downstream workflow having to stop and do specific research to uncover and re-enter information developed during an earlier process. The goal is to have work proceed smoothly with no customer service time lost in seeking data created in earlier processes. When identified, these cross process "dropped information" balls were quite expensive.
WORKFLOW COORDINATION ISSUES IDENTIFIED-ADDRESS
For example, parcel addresses are assigned during the development process but were often not available to the building departments at the start of the parcel build out phase. This resulted in multiple instances of employees in every section involved in review of the building permit researching the parcel under discussion with hours of delay, and often error. Critical cross department errors where the address on the building permit did not match the address on the water tap permit, for example. resulted in "out of sync" records for the same property. This was a primary contributor to the "silo" service approach where the customer called for information on his/her property and could not obtain a consistent response across departments. The analysis contrasted this inability to link service requests by address to the consistent customer number used by department stores. The consistent customer number enabled the store to provide information on customer transactions with the store instantly even though its individual departments sold products that differed dramatically as did the services provided by local government departments. The department store ability to access organizational customer service information became a service model for the project.
When research into why the address was not available to the building permit process was conducted it was identified that the address was linked with the parcel in the paper workflow only at point of record plat. Contractors were allowed to proceed to parcel build out for an increasing number of model homes prior the filing of the record plat and the linking of the address with the parcel. The solution is enterprise GIS and the ability to track addresses by unique project name and lot number. This allows a business rule to be implemented that no service delivery was to be initiated in any department without the entry of the address. That in turn resulted in a massive multi-year project to add all addresses, official, posted, permit, post office, etc. into the GIS. Addresses are now selected from pick lists by intake personnel to avoid spelling errors, etc.
The key role of GIS in address maintenance enabled the local government version of the "customer number used by department stores" that would allow local government information to be sharable and usable, ie; the key to the easy sharing of information. It was the sharing of information that would spur communication between the departments about potential service conflicts and enable the improved coordination being sought.
A geographic integration framework was developed linking organization-wide spatial identifiers such as address and parcel id. An inventory of spatial identifiers was made and standards developed. Cross reference and translation tables were created identifying the key relationships of GIS features. Geocode aliases and source tracking was implemented. Primary keys and attributes of integrative features were inter-linked into a fabric of foreign keys managed by the GIS. The integration framework allowed department data with nothing in common other than it represented facilities occupying the same point on earth to become information.
OTHER CROSS WORKFLOW COORDINATION ISSUES
Other cross workflow coordination issues, such as the failure to consistently track new utility accounts that were linked the parcel build out have been corrected. In this case the integrated use of the GIS for addressing and the use of workflow software which links the certificate of occupancy release with a confirmation of system addition from utility billing were employed in tandem.
Finally the complaint, work order and capital improvement workflows generate permits. Permit activities have to consider these other service workflows as potential sources of conflict. Again the integrated use of the GIS for addressing allows for the identification of activities that could be in conflict. The use of the workflow software capabilities to link related permits accomplishes the linking of diverse but related projects that is missing in the paper world.
SEVEN OTHER INFORMATION RELATED PROBLEM AREAS
The workflow analysis also disclosed seven other information related problem areas. There were problems accessing information. The CAGIS solution was to use the GIS as the window to identify both the built environment and, by integration with the workflow software, the "transactions" that are in the status of applied, issued, in transition, etc. that could impact a construction area or project.
There were duplication in logging transactions which were able to be resolved through the use of the data entered one time at the source features of the workflow software, Accela's Permits Plus*. Use of the "copy down" feature allows key common data to be copied between different but linked workflows.
There were problems in routing information and documents. Many routing inaccuracies stemmed from the inability of the front counter intake staff to determine which areas are served by water and sewer, which properties are historic or part of a particular zoning district. The GIS now performs a spatial proximity analysis to compare the transaction address with the location of infrastructure and zones, accurately identifying the departments who should receive notice of the request. Scanning the documents make them instantly available for review.
There were problems in scheduling reviews and inspections. The GIS automatically assigns the permit/complaint to the proper inspection area and department for review. The workflow software's calendar feature allows scheduling for reviews and inspections and assignment when the review is linked to type of permit rather than area. Employees had problems seeking their own department's data regarding infrastructure for which their were responsible and they had problems seeking data about infrastructure and the planned activities of other departments with whom they needed to coordinate. The GIS software holds the built environment and is a window through which information about transactions pending in the area and their status may be accessed to identify conflicts.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
Once there was focus on the organizational performance improvements enabled with widespread automation the plan for implementation was developed. Dual paths were pursued. On one hand addressing and the development of the integration framework was pursued in parallel with automating the departments most ready and willing to implement the workflows under their control. In the case of Cincinnati and Hamilton County that was the parcel build out workflow managed by the building departments. Other workflows have been pursued as the departments managing those workflows show interest.
The mission of the implementation became to supply data to the enterprise that was needed by the workflows, when that data was needed, where it was needed, in the form needed, with the quality and accuracy required for any purpose. The implementation required managing the interlocking elements of change. Technology, procedures, workflows, knowledge, organization and information were all impacted. In sum, go for quick payoffs first, on-going payoffs second and long-term last. Think enterprise first, and department/agency second. Go with those ready and willing to implement. Only implement where data can be operationalized and maintained through technology embedded in the work process.
PROGRESS
1994-1995 CAGIS had 25 users. The project began with the first implementation of the GIS desktop interface GEN5 in 1996 growing to 100 GIS users. 1997 marked the first workflow automation with the system growing to 200 users,1998 saw the system grow to 400 users, 1999 to 700 and 1,000 in the year 2000. Workflow automation projects are currently being implemented in the following departments; Cincinnati Fire Department Field automation of permit and code compliance workflow involving 410 users, Cincinnati Building Department code enforcement field deployment 100 users, Cincinnati Health Department code enforcement field deployment 40 users, Metropolitan Sewer District capital project tracking 50 users, Cincinnati Real Estate easement acquisition and publicly owned property tracking workflows 50 users, development tracking in both the City of Cincinnati and Hamilton County involving 100 users.