GITA Awarded Grant from Iowa Geographic Information Council

The Iowa Geographic Information Council (IGIC) has awarded the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) a "Business Planning Services for a State Spatial Data Infrastructure in Iowa" grant. With guidance from the Federal Geographic Data Committee's (FGDC) Fifty States Initiative, GITA will help provide a return on investment business case for the Iowa Geospatial Infrastructure — the state's contribution to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).

GITA had substantial experience with return on investment (ROI) business case strategies prior to applying for this grant. The organization published a workbook titled, "Building a Business Case for Geospatial Information Technology: A Practitioner's Guide to Financial Strategic Analysis," in March of this year. In April 2007, the GITA Research Division delivered a multi-agency financial and strategic analyses methodology to FGDC for use in the Fifty States Initiative.

"Determining geospatial ROI can be quite involved, especially on a state level, so we are honored that IGIC has chosen GITA to work with them on this important project," said Bob Samborski, GITA's Executive Director. "The successful completion of this project will contribute a great deal to the growing body of knowledge GITA is developing. And the business plan the IGIC will develop using our ROI process will demonstrate to state leaders why Iowa's GIS infrastructure is a good investment worthy of financial support."

The methodology that GITA's Research Division created for its previous ROI work stems from three year's worth of comprehensive research, analysis, and case studies. The GITA ROI Team plans to adapt that methodology for IGIC's needs.

"IGIC is very excited to be working with GITA on establishing a business plan for the development of Iowa's statewide spatial data infrastructure," said Ann Packard, IGIC Representative. "GITA was selected because of their strong skills in determining return on investment and cost/benefit analysis to help quantify the benefits of investing in GIS."