Hamilton City Council and CityView: GIS as a strategic asset
Customer Quote: “Eagle has proven that they are capable of engaging with us on a variety of levels, from a number of locations, and in a way that has been quite seamless from our perspective. We found that they were able to work across their organisation to give us what we need, when we needed it, and use their experience and foresight to fill in the blanks and guide us through some of the areas where we lacked internal knowledge. Eagle’s staff went out of their way to ensure that the project was able to meet expectations and we are hugely thankful for the commitment they showed.”
Chris Mardon, Senior Project Manager in the Phoenix Programme Office at Hamilton City Council
CityView
Abstract
Hamilton City Council (HCC) has reinvented their GIS profile as part of a major restructuring of their entire IT infrastructure. HCC migrated their GIS platform from Genamap to Esri’s ArcGIS solution, significantly cleaned up and upgraded their geodatabases and has increased access to HCC staff via web-based mapping. This initiative, undertaken in partnership with Eagle Technology, came in under budget and in line with HCC’s timetable. GIS is now seen as an enabling technology and will underpin operations and planning for a wide variety of City services in the years to come.
“Until recently,” says Chris Mardon, Senior Project Manager in the Phoenix Programme Office at HCC, “GIS was not regarded as a strategic application within the Council. The GIS team consisted of one specialist and only one ‘power user’. Our geo-data was limited in scope and coverage was incomplete. We relied on CAD applications and outsourcing to create specialised maps – for instance maps for the District Plan - and users had limited access to the technology.
“At the same time,” continues Mardon, “the Council was involved with a total re-engineering of their IT infrastructure. Called the Phoenix Programme, the initiative was designed to standardise Council enterprise applications, consolidate data within a centralised data warehouse and ensure that Council staff could access a ‘single version of the truth’ in respect to Council activities. HCC made the decision to significantly upgrade their GIS capabilities within the framework of Phoenix.”
The selection process
Ironically, the preferred bid for the overall Phoenix initiative didn’t initially include Esri or Eagle Technology within the GIS offering. “Having previously reviewed Esri and Eagle as part of the evaluation process,” says Mardon, “the clear preference was to negotiate their inclusion as an outcome. We were very impressed with the quality of the software, Eagle’s commitment to the market and their track record of successful implementations around the country. So securing Eagle as our technology partner was strategically important to us.”
HCC had very specific requirements for their GIS initiative. “We were not just looking for a vendor to sell us software licenses,” explains Mardon. “We really needed a partner that would invest the time and energy required to help us raise awareness of GIS and how it could help us achieve our goals. And we wanted to ensure that we made the most of the learning and development opportunities along the way so that we could incrementally take more and more control of the initiative. From the outset we knew that timing would also be a challenge. The vendor would have to slow down when we needed to accommodate internal activities and speed up when we needed to meet expectations and hit deadlines.
“As you can imagine,” he continues, “this is not an easy boat for a vendor to be in. It requires a bit of sacrifice, it requires that they commit to a longer term view and see the work as not just the immediate project but as part of something bigger.
“In that regard we cannot speak highly enough of the staff at Eagle and the approach they have taken,” says Mardon. “Eagle has proven that they are capable of engaging with us on a variety of levels, from a number of locations and in a way that has been really quite seamless for our perspective. We found that they were able to work across their organisation to give us what we need, when we needed it, and use their experience and foresight to fill in the blanks and guide us through some of the areas where we lacked internal knowledge.
“Eagle’s staff really went out of their way to ensure that the project was able to meet expectations and we are hugely thankful for the commitment they showed.”
Transition phase under budget
The first phase of HCC’s Phoenix initiative, called Transition, has resulted in the installation of ArcGIS Server for database development and maintenance, ArcGIS Desktop for applications in City Waters and City Planning and a significant upgrade to HCC’s geo-spatial databases. In addition, Eagle has helped HCC develop CityView, a browser-based GIS application that will provide access to HCC staff in all departments. “A noteworthy point to keep in mind,” says Mardon, “is that the Transition phase for GIS came in on time and under budget. In the overall context of the Phoenix Programme, this was a tremendous accomplishment and gave the GIS project a high-profile and a positive start.”
“CityView already provides access to the corporate GIS database across the HCC enterprise,” says Bonita Gestro, Eagle Technology’s Account Manager for HCC. “We developed CityView using Dekho, a desktop mapping application created by Esri Australia. The advantage of Dekho is that it is fully supported which means that improvements are always being delivered.. The other advantage of CityView / Dekho is that non-specialists can use it for everyday mapping applications, queries and updates. Currently users can access six base maps with approximately 200 layers of information.”
Positive about the future
“Now that we have all the tools in place – CityView, ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Desktop, and an initial set of applications – we can really start to move forward,” concludes Mardon. “We will be working on improving, adding to, and validating our spatial data, and continuing to promote GIS as a strategic application. We have made a good start but still have a long way to go. By involving Eagle as our technology partner we have reduced our risk, and have benefited from fresh ideas and Eagles proven capability and approach. Most importantly, GIS is now seen as a major contributor for HCC’s success and we are excited about the future.”
Benefits for Hamilton City Council
- All the components are in place to fully utilise GIS as a strategic asset;
- Transition phase of GIS initiative came in on time and under budget;
- CityView now provides access to maps and spatial data for staff across the enterprise;
- Risk reduced due to Eagle’s proven methodologies for GIS implementations at the Council level.
Why Hamilton City Council selected Eagle Technology and Esri’s ArcGIS
- Eagle’s impressive proposal in spite of the fact that Eagle had submitted their bid in conjunction with a non-selected prime contractor;
- More than three decades of success in providing IT solutions to local and regional government;
- Eagle’s willingness to adjust their delivery schedule to fit within HCC’s overall Phoenix Programme.
