I thought Adam Carnow’s recent LinkedIn post was terrific: Why hasn’t my GIS Manager showed me this?. Adam and I share similar thoughts when it comes to spreading the word about GIS. We should all now be actively involved in outreach; showing colleagues and customers the power of cloud based GIS (WebGIS).

I’m going to advance Adam’s discussion a little more here. There is a theme in the comments on his article: “Lack of understanding (platform components, concepts, benefits)”. To put this a different way: now you have discovered you have more tools in your toolbox than you knew, what should you do next?

I’ve found the only way to understand and share benefits, is by doing. Finding a problem to solve with WebGIS. Narrow your focus. Forget the complexity. Is there an organizational problem you can solve using GIS? A project which will help pull the pieces together for you? A solution which would get the attention of management? Start there.

We’ve found from experience GIS success requires 4 key elements:

1) Defining and understanding a problem which can be solved by GIS.
2) Evolving the story or what might a solution look like?
3) Applying the technology
4) Evangelizing, advancing, evolving the solution.

Too often we have seen the focus remain on the technology. Begin with the problem, worry about the technology later.

When you do finally get to the technology don’t be scared to reach out for help. Time is money. Poor use of your time, or less than optimum use of GIS will not provide the best launchpad for wider enterprise adoption of GIS technology.