Technology and case studies
Software, shared systems and the work of implementing GIS in New Zealand organisations.
Technology
Esri was founded in Redlands, California, in 1969 by Jack and Laura Dangermond. It released ARC/INFO in 1982. New Zealand organisations were already working with computer cartography, land-resource inventories, remote sensing and commercial graphics systems when the software entered the local market. By the later 1980s ARC/INFO was being used in institutional GIS, including the Water and Soil land-resource lineage. Intergraph, ERDAS, MapInfo, Smallworld and locally developed systems formed part of the same technical environment.
Technology
Enterprise GIS combines authoritative shared data, databases, server or hosted services, business-system integration, identity and permissions, support and lifecycle management. Its users can include specialists maintaining the data and staff who reach it through a browser or a field application. A geographic record may also connect to an asset register, consent system, inspection record or financial application. Those relationships require dependable identifiers and agreed responsibility for the information.
Case study
Department of Conservation began developing the Biodiversity Information Platform during 2000/01 to make biodiversity and other conservation information available more widely. Its annual report recorded a planned Bay of Plenty pilot in August 2001. By 2003 the work had become a National Enterprise GIS, with DOCgis as the intranet and extranet application lineage. The departmental spatial-information, information-management, database and application teams assembled the service for a national organisation with staff working in widely separated offices.
Case study
Auckland Council began operating on 1 November 2010, inheriting geospatial systems, data and working practices from the former Auckland authorities. Its four-year Geospatial Future Mode of Operation programme consolidated that estate into a council-wide service. The work covered applications, schemas, datasets, integrations, processes and responsibilities. The new organisation needed geographic information for property records, civil defence, resource planning, building consents and other services while the migration proceeded.
Case study
Downer began discussions with Eagle Technology in 2011 about introducing GIS into its telecommunications design and delivery work. Eagle’s customer account names Graeme Henderson as the account manager who recommended an ArcGIS configuration and records Ryan MacVeigh on the Downer side. It describes GRAIL as Downer’s first GIS system. The implementation brought spatial tools into an existing contracting business with its own design records, delivery teams and operational responsibilities.
Case study
From 2021 NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and Eagle developed a proof of concept and implementation of ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes. The published case describes limitations in a heavily centralised GIS environment and a move towards a hub-and-spoke spatial-service model. Peter Willoughby is named on the NZTA side and Jithen Singh on the Eagle side. A central capability maintained authoritative data and platform governance while business teams developed applications and workflows around shared services.