GIS Integration

http://www.govtech.com/pcio/125490 This push toward greater integration resulted from CIOs moving beyond viewing GIS simply as a mapping tool, said Chris Thomas, state and local government manager for ESRI, a GIS vendor. "They started to realize they need a central repository so that the GIS data isn't sitting in silos, and so they don't have duplicative GIS efforts in different departments."As more municipalities create enterprise GIS departments, Thomas said, the level of interest in combining GIS data with other systems is getting stronger. He gave the example of Philadelphia's creation of executive dashboards that combine GIS data and legacy financial systems. "It's exciting to see," he added. "The kinds of things we were expecting to see a few years ago are happening now."