Christchurch City Council, New Zealand

Christchurch City Council uses Geomedia technology to make spatial data available to employees enterprisewide

The Challenge:

Making data easily accessible to more than 2,000 employees presented quite a challenge for Geodata Services, a business unit of Christchurch City Council in New Zealand. Geodata Services manages a variety of spatial data sets, from asset management to land information systems.

There are 20 distinct business units operating within the Council, which previously managed their own data and data systems in a variety of ways.

Geodata Services was created to manage these data more effectively, making it more accessible enterprisewide. With such a large staff, getting spatial data quickly into the hands of those who needed it was a crucial challenge.

Geodata Services manages a vast variety of spatial data sets, encompassing asset management such as water and sewer networks, park furniture, protected trees and historic buildings, to land information such as property boundaries, building outlines, planning zones, and hazard areas.

The Project Objectives:

Make spatial data available enterprisewide through a well-designed client interface
Provide and increase operational efficiencies within the 20 distinct business units within the Council
Provide easy access to current and timely data, enabling employees to better manage the customer requirements of their business units

The Solution:

Christchurch City Council chose GeoMedia’s Web-enabled technology to make spatial data available to employees enterprisewide. The implementation of GeoMedia WebMap Publisher as a spatial Web publishing tool enabled the Council to leverage its investment in spatial data, improving the delivery of information throughout the organization.

GeoMedia WebMap Publisher has given the Council the ability to better manage its customers’ requirements. Geodata Services employees can now update existing maps on demand, tailoring the design, usability, and functionality of the map around the specific needs of individual business units – rather than the previously used “one-map-fits-all” approach.

The GeoMedia-based solution is designed to be a user-friendly Web tool for delivering spatial data– a simple GUI interface allows an administrator to set even the most advanced map features easily, with no need for Web programming skills. This easy-to-use interface has resulted in significant reduction in development time and cost – time that Geodata Services staff can now use to provide greater services to their customers.

Providing easy access to current and timely data is one of the keys of Geodata Services’ success within the Council. With GeoMedia WebMap Publisher as part of the new solution, anyone can access the same mapping data easily and quickly through a well-designed client interface – ensuring informed and consistent business decisions.

The proof of Geodata Services’ success is evident in its usage statistics. Since GeoMedia WebMap Publisher went live in September 2002, approximately 1,000 users from the Council’s business units have logged in regularly to access mapping data related to their work processes. Usage increased 35 percent within three months of implementation, reflecting the increased functionality and mapping data made accessible by the system. And, since June 2002, Geodata Services has averaged an incredible 32,000 requests per month. As a direct result of this success, the American based magazine, Governing, rated Christchurch City Council “The Best Run City in the World” in September 2001.

Future Plans:

The GeoMedia WebMap Publisher-based solution will enable the Council to expand on the success it is now enjoying. Already more than half of the Council’s employees are using the intranet to generate maps, but the ultimate goal is to have all staff members adopt GeoMedia WebMap Publisher. In addition, there is interest in rolling the solution out externally to provide the citizens of Christchurch with access to mapping information, helping improve their everyday lives and business interactions with the Council.

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