Wake County - NC GIS Conference

iMAPS
Using Collaboration and Technology to
Color Outside The Organizational Lines
2011 G. Herbert Stout Award Application
City of Raleigh GIS
Wake County GIS
Colleen Sharpe, GISP, Raleigh GIS Manager
Anne Payne, GISP, Wake County GIS Database Administrator
Charles Friddle, GISP, Wake County GIS Director
City of Raleigh GIS / Wake County GIS
PURPOSE
The iMAPS application interface represents the most recent in a long series of cooperative
efforts by the City of Raleigh and Wake County GIS organizations. The purpose of the
application interface is to provide the citizens of Wake County a wide variety of geospatial and
other land-records information in an easy-to-use, intuitive web portal. Although the system is
technically elegant, two other factors make it exemplary: 1) the collaboration used during the
development process and 2) the true enterprise nature of the system, effectively combining
access to data from multiple County, City, and Town databases in a single application.
BACKGROUND AND HISTORY
The Wake County/City of Raleigh cooperative GIS effort began in 1989 and has continued to
the present. By sharing resources and cost, the two organizations have been able to achieve
much more than if each worked alone. In addition to joint development of three different
versions of iMAPS, the City and County have collaborated on many other efforts:

Data sharing for internal users: Since 1991, users in the City and County have been
seamlessly viewing the GIS layers in various applications from both jurisdictions in real
time. Data are not duplicated between the GIS databases.

Joint database development: The units have worked together to develop several data
layers including a County-wide zoning layer, a street centerline layer, and a continuous
layer of County-wide topographic information.

Orthophotography: In both 1999 and 2005, the City and County split the cost of new
County-wide orthophotography. The City hosts the 1999 imagery and the County hosts
the 2005 imagery.

Joint application development: Wake and Raleigh shared resources (cost and staff) in
the development of MAPS, the desktop GIS viewing and analysis application used by
approximately 200 City and County users.

Technology transfer and training: Individuals frequently collaborate with their
counterparts at the other agency on strategic planning, troubleshooting, standards, and
user training.
In 2010, the entire iMAPS site was redesigned and rewritten as an ArcGIS Server application
using Adobe Flex. The implementation of an online viewer was not the focus of our efforts as
we already had this in place; the purpose was to take advantage of new technologies in order to
expand the viewer into a true land records web portal. The collaborative development process
used to create the newest version of iMAPS and the enterprise implementation of GIS is the
focus of this entry.
IMPLEMENTATION
Functional / Technology Scoping
As the release of ArcGIS Server and the understanding of its capabilities became clearer, the
City and County decided it was time to upgrade iMAPS. As has often been the case for our joint
efforts, the development and implementation of iMAPS was a collaborative and iterative process
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grounded in strong project management fundamentals. Joint meetings of the GIS teams were
held to discuss desired outcomes and possible options. The group studied the latest available
technologies through ESRI sponsored seminars, online training, and soliciting advice from
trusted vendors. We met and exchanged notes, brainstormed ideas, conducted user surveys,
and held functional needs scoping sessions with subsets of users.
In conjunction with all this activity, we reviewed as many existing non-ArcIMS online
applications as possible, noting our likes and dislikes. As a group we reviewed each site and
gained consensus on the inclusion of features and interface functionality. The result was a
hand-drawn conceptual design. Our next big challenge was determining how to proceed.
Iterative Development / Rollout Approach
At that point in time, existing staff with the City and County had little to no experience with
ArcGIS Server and weren’t sure if the design could even be executed. With little or no funding
available for consulting assistance, staff began exploring options. During this timeframe, the
City had an opening for a GIS Programmer Analyst position. The focus of the search turned to
someone with ArcGIS Server experience. A selection was made and on the new programmer’s
first day, he was handed the conceptual design and asked “Do you think you can make this
happen?” Within days the ArcGIS Server infrastructure environment was fully operational and
application prototypes began appearing.
Over the course of several months, we went through a cycle of prototypes, review,
programming, testing, and revisions until we had a robust application which was ready for a
gradual rollout. The first rollout was to selected users of iMAPS in both organizations who would
provide constructive feedback. The first set of comments offered suggestions for improvements
with little negative feedback. The rave reviews indicated that we were on to something big. The
next rollout was to the broad City and County internal user population and to internal users at
the other municipalities. Again, positive reviews and more suggestions were received. After a
couple of months of internal use and scrutiny, it was time to begin a rollout to citizens.
The citizen rollout was gradual as well. We notified selected users, provided the link, and
solicited feedback. We strove to accommodate all feasible requests for functionality and
respond to all reports of defects. The next step in the implementation was to put a link on the
old iMAPS site to the “Beta” version. This provided users with the opportunity to give the
application a try on their own terms within their own timeframe.
We received many comments and realized just flipping the switch from old to new, all at once,
was not the appropriate approach. Instead, we kept the Beta link up for several months and
then switched the links on the iMAPS jump page so the new version was the primary
application. Users could still access the old version if they chose. Additional training and
documentation for some external users was conducted so they could learn how to use the new
application to accomplish their business purposes. Once this training was completed, all iMAPS
links from City and County sites were pointed to the new application.
The total implementation process from the first meeting until final go live took approximately 15
months, with the largest amount of time devoted to the slow roll out and adoption. The primary
private sector users of the application are developers, real estate professionals, surveyors,
attorneys, and insurance professionals. The application is also used extensively by internal
staff at the City and County and staff in several of Wake County’s municipalities. We believe
this purposeful, slow rollout has led to the successful adoption by these users.
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Data and Technology Integration
The diversity of our users speaks to a second reason for the application’s success. The
application has proven to be easy to use and there is a large and diverse amount of information
which can be accessed. Over ten different City and County databases (see table below) and
applications are integrated into iMAPS as well as data from other municipalities and Google
Street View. Additional applications and data are in the process of being integrated as the
application continues to grow.
Integrated Systems and Databases
Wake County
City of Raleigh
Other Municipalities
Vector and raster geospatial data
Real Estate / CAMA System
Register of Deeds Imaged
Documents
House Photos Database
Scanned Septic Permits
Link to Data Download Site
Vector and raster geospatial data
Land Development Database
Zoning
Solid Waste
Permits & Inspections System
Police Records
Pictometry (In development)
Points of Interest
Other
Google Street View
Note: The City and County geospatial databases both include Zoning, Solid Waste and Points of Interest data in addition to a
total of over 700 other layers of data
The use of web services and API’s eased the integration between disparate systems located
within different organizations. The use of standardized tools and methodologies to access the
backend databases also simplified development. With the plethora of data which could be
displayed or presented, the need to determine what layers were to be included in the base map
was critical. We also needed to determine what information should be represented graphically
and what could be presented non-graphically. These were all important design and usability
issues which were resolved jointly and with the desire to make the application as intuitive and
easy to use as possible.
Partnerships
The development of iMAPS also provided an opportunity to engage other municipalities within
Wake County in order to provide a primary application for citizens in all jurisdictions to access
similar information. An example includes solid waste collection information. This was initially
developed to provide collection schedule information for City of Raleigh citizens. Once other
towns saw the feature they asked to be included and provided the data. Citizens can now find
out when their garbage will be collected in a number of municipalities in Wake County through
one application. The towns also helped develop Points of Interest data for their community, all
of which were incorporated into a single countywide dataset.
Extensive collaboration was required to design, develop, and deploy new iMAPS. That
collaboration continues through the maintenance of the application and ongoing response to
issues. The City of Raleigh supports the application and servers while Wake County has taken
the lead in publicity, customer service, and training. The joint development staff continues to
meet regularly to evaluate and recommend new features and data that users request through a
survey linked to the site. City and County staff have been actively involved in joint outreach to
the community through presentations and demonstrations.
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http://maps.raleighnc.gov/iMAPSRaleigh
ORGANIZATIONAL IMPACT
Confidence in Data Integrity - The collaborative environment fostered by Raleigh’s and Wake
County’s GIS staff continues to have major positive impacts on both the public and
governmental agencies that rely on the common iMAPS viewer. One of the characteristics seen
as beneficial to County, City, and town staff, is the access to real-time data from multiple
agencies and sources while performing a task (permitting, street addressing, subdivision plan
review, providing information, etc.). The information is considered reliable and is used
confidently because users know the geographic information is being served up by the
responsible jurisdiction after being updated by the responsible agency.
Organizational Trust and Understanding - The close working relationships which have
developed over time between Wake County and Raleigh GIS staff, and which were renewed
with new staff through the iMAPS effort, have also fostered trust and understanding between the
jurisdictions. Raleigh GIS is able to explain Wake County’s business rules for maintaining
property information to City staff, as well as relay problems that those business rules generate
for Raleigh agencies back to Wake County GIS. This has opened the door, on numerous
occasions, for understanding of, and changes to, operating procedures that benefited both
jurisdictions. As another example of cooperation, Raleigh GIS has also included Wake County
GIS in plans to develop a master address database for the City.
Cost and Resource Sharing - By sharing data through hardware, database, application, and
network integration, both jurisdictions have been able to better control costs of data storage and
database and application development. The two agencies have worked to minimize, wherever
possible, redundant data storage. This has eliminated problems caused when databases are
out of synch, increased reliability and confidence, and reduced overall program costs. Joint
database and application development, maintenance, and support have resulted in programs
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and tools used commonly across both organizations resulting in additional cost savings through
cost-sharing, reduced resource needs, and broad acceptance by users. iMAPS is just one of
many joint ventures and is the culmination of a joint vision of greater access to information for
staff and citizens alike.
Impact on Citizens - The use of iMAPS by citizens and customers continues to grow as they
take advantage of the ready availability of geographic information. The number of customers
personally visiting or contacting Raleigh and Wake County GIS offices for information has
dramatically decreased over the last few years. Customers are able to get more geographic
information using iMAPS and related internet applications at their convenience, very often after
business hours and on the weekends. This has freed up Wake County GIS’s Customer Service
staff to assume Helpdesk responsibilities for the iMAPS application as well as help other teams,
more effectively, utilizing existing staff and avoiding requests for new positions.
Changes in Perceptions - iMAPS has done much to dispel a perception commonly held by
citizens that governments do not talk, much less work together. iMAPS has given citizens who
need to work with both the City and County, the benefit of discussing their issues with the
appropriate agencies using information presented consistently through the common iMAPS
interface. This has reassured customers that various governmental agencies can, and do, look
at the same geographic data presented in the same way in an effort to make coordinated
decisions. iMAPS has also given governmental agencies the ability to look at information
across jurisdictional lines. Seldom do the impacts of a decision stop at the jurisdictional
boundary. Therefore using the same interface and data for decision making and visualization
has helped with coordination and implementation of policies.
SUMMARY
Technologically, iMAPS is sophisticated; taking advantage of the latest advances in network,
database, and server capabilities to deliver a robust, reliable system. However, the technology
is not what makes the system special. The collaborative relationship between the Wake County
and City of Raleigh GIS programs and the common desire to provide easy access to geospatial
data for citizens and staff is unique. Through ongoing coordination and collaboration, a culture
of cooperation has grown. The results provide real benefits to the citizens and taxpayers.
iMAPS is truly an enterprise land records portal, providing access to data and applications from
multiple agencies and jurisdictions to citizens who often do not know or care who actually
provides their services. iMAPS is an excellent example of what can be accomplished when
organizations work together.
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Attachment 1
iMAPS: Raleigh Crime Map Tool
City of Raleigh GIS / Wake County GIS
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Attachment 2
iMAPS: Link to Wake County Environmental Services Scanned Septic Permit
City of Raleigh GIS / Wake County GIS
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Attachment 3
iMAPS: Link to Wake County Register of Deeds Scanned Subdivision Map
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