WebGIS the evolution of ArcGIS

For several years now, MSIS has helped support the space planning activities of the School in partnership with facilities and the space planning & analysis office. The application suite that was used was ArcGIS which is more or less a gold standard for GIS work.  It involved a bit of a clunky support setup of a hand loaded application and a file service to be manually mounted in order to use the maps and embedded information. UMMS WebGIS looks to replace that function and bring it to a web platform instead which will be in many ways an easier and more accessible way to manage the capability.  Thanks go out to Sue Boucher for helping get this project completed. It does raise a question as to how we support this capability in an ongoing way. As it stands we do not really have a formal Business Administration Portfolio owner, service manager, or product & application manager. I have been focusing more on the research and learning domains with our managed service delivery model . However with WebGIS and our ongoing development of MSpace (another application that supports the space planning & analysis capabilities) it is something that has to be addressed. I only mention it since it could be helpful to you to know where we have purposefully implemented the managed delivery model as well as where we have yet to.

What it does: It provides space information on the buildings of the School and NCRC to different authorized user groups across the Health System. This information is used for productivity calculations and physical space planning.

Who is it for: The user base for this capability is growing beyond just department administrators and facilities staff, but traditionally it is used by staff who have regular need to review physical space attributes.

Where did it come from: The UMMS Space Information, Analysis & Planning Support unit  (part of the Office of the UMMS Chief Administrative Officer) requested this product be implemented as a replacement to the traditionally deployment of ArcGIS which is supported by Solutions Center Support Delivery. This increases the system administration and service delivery effort but should in turn reduce the device support effort required as it is web based rather than a fat-app with file server dependencies.

How does it fit in with us: You know... I'm not entirely sure yet. This is a matter that I will look into, but it is a seemingly wise tactical improvement opportunity even though I have yet to determine the way to best manage the investment within services delivery.

Why oh Why?: This was one of those rare situations where technology improvements alone really helped the accountable product owner and the customers. With this web application the School can now deliver this capability with fewer single points of technology failure and reduce the support burden to the device support agents.