Measuring Up: The Business Case for GIS (Paperback)

by Christopher Thomas (Author), Milton Ospina (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Featuring 75 case studies representing six industries and 22 sectors in business, this analysis measures the benefits of implementing geographic information systems (GIS). Thirteen ways that implementing GIS increases productivity and efficiency are outlined, including saving time and money, generating revenue, automating workflow, and increasing accuracy, communication, and collaboration. How to visualize and track the benefits of GIS is also addressed.

About the Author
Christopher Thomas is the government industry manager for the federal, state, and local market space at ESRI. He has been an advanced planner for the county of Riverside, California, and a demographic (urban) planner for the city of Ontario, California, where he was the GIS manager. Milton Ospina is ESRI's urban and regional planning and economic development solutions manager. He has worked for the University of New Mexico Earth Data Analysis Center. They both live in Redlands, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Esri Press; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589480880
• ISBN-13: 978-1589480889
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #503,650 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #48 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Technical Support
  #81 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Graphics & Multimedia > GIS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Managers, The best book on how to use GIS now! , November 5, 2004

By	Mike Gritz "GIS Guy" (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA) - See all my reviews

This is an outstanding resource for increasing the return on your GIS investment as well as to get new comers up to speed in understanding the benefits to GIS. As a GIS veteran who has trained new users as well as managers new to GIS in the public, private and non-profit sectors, this is the best book that I have come across to expose them to the importance of GIS and how it has specifically reduced costs, streamlined and improved service as well as perform analysis not feasible in the past. I gave five books to a world class City Planning, Info Tech, Neighborhood Services & Law Enforcement department managers (and kept one for me).

What I specifically enjoyed is that this is a "non-technical" book that focuses on several real world examples of how GIS technology has been used by real people, in the real world, in modern times and budgets and how they benefited as well as how much "$" it saved them. Full of color images and very easy to read. By seeing case studies of what others have done, I am now implementing some of the same uses. So even a GIS dinosaur like myself has been able to steal some wonderful ideas that make my bosses look great. Making them happy keeps me happy. A lifesaver for the new GIS person (especially management) and a resource for the GIS Veteran. Well done & highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource, December 27, 2005

By	ageonerd (Honolulu, HI) - See all my reviews

I picked up this book at an ESRI User Group meeting. I had seen it advertised and asked the local ESRI rep about it. He gave me the book!

It is an excellent resource. It cites specific studies of GIS use to illustrate how GIS can pay for itself several times over. There are plenty of examples to cover a broad spectrum of GIS uses. There are several government examples, as well as some less known uses.

There is also a slide show / outline based on the book that can be downloaded from the ESRI website.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chapters show how to save money and time, February 5, 2005

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

GIS, intelligent digital geographic information systems - are turning geography into a business science, and Measuring Up: The Business Case for GISprovides case studies about companies and government agencies which have implemented GIS solutions in their business goals and plans. Chapters show how to save money and time using GIS-based systems, how to use GIS to generate revenue and help budgets, and how to manage the resources and information bases resulting from GIS systems. The inclusion of over seventy articles from over twenty business sectors span the globe in experience and setting, creating a very specific, detailed set of insights on new GIS-driven business processes. Highly recommended.