"Enterprise GIS" Drive to Excellence Initiative

Until 2009, there had been no state agency assigned the responsibility for coordinating GIS across state government. This project focused on implementing an enterprise GIS organizational and governance framework. Anticipated benefits included improved state GIS coordination and accountability, opportunities for consolidated data, software and equipment investments, standardization and more.

Drive to Excellence was a state-government reform initiative that focused on serving citizens better. The Drive to Excellence Sub-Cabinet provided leadership and guidance to all projects; the Enterprise GIS project steering committee and working groups included members of the Governor's Council on Geographic Information Strategic Planning Committee.
 

The Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo) was created May 18, 2009. See an extract from the legislation, which included MnGeo language in several places. The transition from the Land Management Information Center to MnGeo took place over several months.

David Arbeit was named Minnesota's first Chief Geospatial Information Officer on June 24, 2009 at a "Point of Beginning" public meeting to introduce MnGeo.

• Meeting invitation
• Launching Minnesota's Geospatial Information Office, David Arbeit (42 slides, 5 MB, PPT)
• MnGeo: Summary of the Drive to Excellence Functional Transformation Project, Michael Terner (16 slides, 1.2 MB, PPT)

Final reports:

• Program Design and Implementation Plan (89 p., 3.2 MB, PDF)
  • Appendix: All Agency Interviews (102 p., 2.6 MB, PDF)
• MGIO [MnGeo] Geospatial Advisory Body Guidelines, recommended by the Governor's Council (4 p., 38K, PDF)
• Measuring Progress of the Fifty States Initiative, September 2009. See pp. 28-30 for Minnesota case study (62 p., 573K, PDF)

Detailed Reports

• Overviews
  • Handout describing the proposed Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (2 p., 181K, PDF)
  • Project charter, January 8, 2008
    A concise overview of the project's context; potential benefits; deliverables; steering team organization and roles and responsibilities.
    • Summary (1 p., 50K, PDF)
    • Complete document (10 p., 74K, PDF)
       
• Comprehensive analysis process (functional analysis)
  Applied Geographics, a firm that has successfully worked on similar projects across the nation, will work with us to identify State agencies' GIS needs and capabilities and to recommend strategies for improved efficiencies, effectiveness, responsiveness and reliability.
   
  • Final Report
    • Program Design and Implementation Plan (89 p., 3.2 MB, PDF)
    • Appendix: All Agency Interviews (102 p., 2.6 MB, PDF)
    • MGIO Geospatial Advisory Body Guidelines, recommended by the Governor's Council (4 p., 38K, PDF)
  • Final Opportunity Assessment report
    • Enterprise GIS Opportunity Assessment (10 p., 178K, PDF)
  • State Agency GIS stakeholder workshop was held August 19, 2008
    • Workshop slides, David Arbeit and Michael Terner (52 slides, 1.2 MB, PDF). Includes initial findings from state agency interviews and an initial outline of the opportunity assessment.
    • Turnaround workshop summary (23 p., 2.3MB, PDF)
  • Non-State GIS stakeholder workshop was held June 24, 2008
    • Turnaround workshop summary (7 p., 53K, PDF)
  • Web survey complete. The results were used by Applied Geographics to prepare for the two stakeholder workshops and State agency interviews.
    • Survey results (16 p., 75K, PDF). Summary of all respondents.
  • Kick-off meeting was held May 13, 2008
    • Meeting overview and "Our Journey to Here", David Arbeit (25 slides, 725K, PDF)
    • Project overview, Michael Terner and Andy Buck, Applied Geographics (23 slides, 576K, PDF)
       
• Background information
  • 50 States Initiative strategic planning grant: As part of the Federal Geographic Data Committee's 2006 Cooperative Agreements Program, the MN Governor's Council on Geographic Information received a grant to further Minnesota's GIS strategic planning efforts.
    • Final report: Implementing an enterprise strategy for Minnesota's Spatial Data Infrastructure, Nov. 15, 2007. (17 p., 120K, PDF)  See the next two reports listed below for the attachments referred to on p. 16.
    • More info on CAP program
       
  • Compass Points Retreat, June 25, 2007. The facilitator's report from the Governor's Council strategic plan retreat. (33 p., 309K, PDF)
     
  • A Foundation for Coordinated GIS, Minnesota's Spatial Data Infrastructure, October 2004. A strategic plan for statewide GIS to help Minnesota organizations more effectively achieve their business goals. (52 p., 863K., PDF)
     
  • Minnesota State GIS Enterprise Conceptual Architecture Design, March 2005. This document defines a high-level architecture for information technology and web-mapping interoperability in support of the goals outlined in the state’s strategic plan for GIS: the Minnesota Spatial Data Infrastructure. The structural design proposed would promote interoperability among GIS data and application providers, increasing efficiencies and reducing long-term costs in data resource and software application development. (22 p., 178K., PDF)
    • The Case for a Minnesota State GIS Enterprise  A non-technical introduction to the Conceptual Architecture Design document, including an example of the benefits that such an architecture would provide. (8 p., 67K, PDF)
       
  • The Future of GIS: Minnesota GIS 2006, 2007 and Beyond, slides from the committee-sponsored panel discussion at the Minnesota GIS/LIS Consortium conference, October 6, 2006.
    • PowerPoint slideshow format (13.7 MB, PPS)
    • Adobe Acrobat format (10.1 MB, PDF)
       
• Project contact
  • MnGeo
    gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
    651-201-2499

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