The Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand has 2 levels of government responsible for various functions and duties promulgated under a number of legislative frameworks. These levels are regional and territorial governments. The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council concentrates on management of the ‘natural environment’. That is, sustainability and management of resources across the region that include water, air, land and the coast. The Territorial local authorities, including Hastings, Wairoa, Central Hawke’s Bay & Napier City councils, concentrate on management of the ’built environment’ and associated service delivery for the local community. These services cover sewerage, roads and parks, and the district councils also have responsibility for environmental care as well.

The Challenge
Because each organisation has its own infrastructure and resources as well as different GIS software, it was considered by the Councils that a review would be useful to identify any areas in which resources could be shared and quantify any savings that could be achieved.

Informal interviews were held with management and staff at each of the councils to enumerate the activities undertaken, the methods used and to finally identify areas where “sharing” was possible. Several different scenarios were considered and costed with several recommendations made where productivity improvements and/or cost savings could be achieved.

The Solution
Much of the GIS strategic management and a combined data management plan can be shared and this can facilitate access to common data elements and mechanisms to view or get data, possibly through Internet portals. Co-ordination of standards for data collection and data models could lead to cost savings. By having a combined data management plan, sharing data can avoid expensive duplication of data capture and management. Data specifications and standards can provide consistency of delivery and preservation of integrity of the data.

There is significant investment in their GIS technologies and personnel and there is a large knowledge base across the groups. Regular meetings, with the GIS committee, environment and project specific teams will enable greater cross fertilisation of ideas and knowledge sharing to occur. Competency based training for both power and casual users will ensure on-going productivity gains.

By sharing resources, implementing Metadata/Portals, increasing the use of mobile field mapping and standardising hard copy preparation, productivity gains can be made. Upgrading and creating new shared GIS applications using simpler GUIs, generic query facilities and presentation materials are another way. Finally there is an opportunity to extend the shared model with other organisations outside of this immediate collective, for example, power & telecommunication companies with the region.

OMNILINK provides services that allow business users to integrate, interact and be informed about their data through a visual approach. Such services provide the link between “internal” and “external” information that delivers business value aimed at improving the bottom line of an organisation.