Using a Map Application Template in a GIS Enterprise Environment

John Higuchi
BEI Consultants, Honolulu, HI
Jon Hodge
City & County of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI

Application Development
Tuesday March 6, 2012 - 3:15 to 4:30 pm

Problem: How do you deliver streamlined and efficient map services on a limited GIS development budget?

Approach: Reuse a single map application template that has common elements but delivers focused information and functionality tailored to each stakeholder. The approach involved keeping the user interface simple-to-use to increase adoption rates - think cellphone interface not a 747 instrumentation panel. This significantly reduces the development time and cost. A reusable map template can be configured & implemented under a month.

Solution: Four (4) separate mapping applications: Parcel, Parks, Refuse Collection Sites, and Public Safety were developed using ESRI ArcGIS Server and the Silverlight platform. They all use a common template, share the same basemaps and deliver focused information in a homogenous user-friendly format.

Conclusion: In an enterprise environment, a map application template can be used successfully to solve all 4 stakeholders within budget while maintaining feature rich functionality and meeting various users' objectives. Development time was significantly reduced from 6 - 8 months to 1 - 2 months which allowed the City to offer services economically and sooner rather than later. Since 2009, the 4 maps in the ‘Fastmaps' series are all publicly available to Internet users along with the original ‘Advanced' map.