Many times I’ve wondered why so many utilities and municipalities around the country aren’t taking full advantage of their GIS – then it hit me:  maybe Miss South Carolina was right after all.

Funny thing about this video is she’s right (well sort of) – about having the maps at least. Oddly enough, in our experience implementing GIS-centric work management software around the country we’ve found that many ‘U.S. Americans’ actually do have maps (GIS) – they just don’t have access to the maps (because the GIS is only used in the engineering department) – and they certainly don’t have their work management software associated with their maps.

In order for any utility system or municipality to get the most out of their work order and asset management software, maps and GIS play a key role. The ability to visualize work and asset management data on GIS maps is changing the way governments and utilities operate – utilities and public works crews are getting more work done in less time, spending less money researching problems, and management is better allocating capital improvement funds.

GIS map showing locations of Service Requests.

In past years, GIS-based work management systems have been extremely complicated and difficult to figure out (almost as difficult to figure out as Miss South Carolina’s answer, in fact). However, GIS-centric work order and asset management software has come a long way in recent years – software development teams have made great strides with GIS integration and work management software has become much more user-friendly.

In summary, GIS-based work management software is much simpler than Miss South Carolina would lead you to believe. By giving maps to ‘U.S. Americans’ (via integrating GIS with their work management software), utilities and government are beginning to see improvements in their daily operations and improvements in their annual budgets.

…like such as South Africa and the Iraq – everywhere like such as…