GCS conducted a thorough Enterprise GIS Needs Assessment for the Fort Peck Reservation, home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes in northeast Montana, covering 3,200 square miles. This assessment evaluated every business unit within the tribal government, aiming to optimize business processes, improve resource management, and demonstrate a significant return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) over a five-year period.
Key Focus Areas:
- GIS Survey and Analysis: GCS developed a comprehensive GIS survey similar to one used for the Montana National Guard, examining workflows and business processes related to allotment management, water rights, oil, gas, and mineral exploration, health services, and more. It also assessed the IT infrastructure’s integration with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).
- Technology and Bandwidth Assessment: The survey examined the state of technology and bandwidth availability across the Fort Peck Reservation, identifying areas where GIS could enhance productivity and where current systems were underutilized.
- Key Findings and Recommendations: After collecting surveys and conducting interviews, GCS provided a report with actionable recommendations, including the implementation of ArcGIS Server for federated use, transitioning to a web services architecture (SOA), and adopting a unified enterprise database to address data redundancy, accuracy, and interoperability issues.
- Personnel Training and Optimization: GCS highlighted the importance of personnel training and central authority to ensure long-term success and sustainability of the GIS system.
- Cost Analysis and ROI: The final report included a detailed cost analysis, showing that by reducing inefficiencies, eliminating duplication of effort, and leveraging federally funded software licenses, the tribal GIS framework and custom applications would pay for themselves in under six years, followed by significant cost savings.
Despite approval from the tribal council, the implementation was ultimately postponed due to political and personal dynamics within the organization.
You must be logged in to post a comment.