Geography is a serious discipline with multibillion dollar implications for businesses and governments. Choosing sites, targeting market segments, planning distribution networks, responding to emergencies, allocating resources, or redrawing country boundaries‚ all of these problems involve questions of geography.

With a geographic information system (GIS), you can link information (attributes) to location data, such as people to addresses, buildings to parcels, or streets within a network. You can then layer that information to give you a better understanding of how it all works together. You choose what layers to combine based on what questions you need to answer.

The recent growth in GIS technologies and applications, have prompted many organizations to consider how to design and actually implement an effective GIS Strategy in their organizations. Implementing GIS presents a unique set of challenges. Even the well-funded projects can fail because of poor planning. This workshop will take delegates through the theoretical background of GIS to developing an effective strategy for successful deployment of GIS.

Course Objectives:

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 The objective of the three-day course will be to guide participants to through a systematic process understand:

• The information and knowledge environment organizations and business operate in;
• An introduction to Geographical Information Systems (GIS);
• An introduction to organizational and business strategy;
• The link between and organizational strategy and a GIS strategy;
• GIS standards and frameworks; and
• Success stories of where GIS Strategies have successfully been implemented.

Each day will also end with a discussion session, where participants share their own experience and comments on the topics covered that particular day. The course will further culminate in a final day presentation by participants on a personalised GIS strategy for their own particular business or strategy.

Who should attend?

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Delegates from organizations or businesses that already, or intend to, make use of GIS technologies in their organization or business. These will be planners and analysts in:

• Business: Financials and Banking, Insurance, Logistics, Media and Real Estate, Manufacturers
• Government: Central Government, Local Government, Internal Security, Defense, Fire/Medical Emergence Response/Disaster, Law Enforcement, Health, Education, Transport, Public Utilities, Enviromentalist
• NGOs: Relief Services, Health, Education, Resettlement, Logistics

The course is not aimed at a specific GIS software application, and would present GIS Strategy as a process towards the successful implementation of Geographical Information Systems.

By the end of the course participants will be able to:

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• Analyse the Knowledge Economy
• Understand the basics of Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Understand the GIS Strategy as a process
• Understand GIS Frameworks and be familiar with GIS Standards
• Develop and implement an organisational GIS Strategy

Upcoming Courses

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