3 Reasons Why Businesses Would – and Would Not – Learn ArcGIS

As a GIS consulting firm, we often work with companies as their project management department or their engineering department or their permitting department and so on. Very often there is no need for a company to make the significant investment in the tools and talent needed to handle these aspects of their projects in house. On the other hand, there are times when it makes business sense for a company to train their employees to handle some or all of their GIS needs in house. Although this may sound counterintuitive – we’ve heard Why would you train your competition? more times than we can count – we welcome the opportunity to train our clients to utilize ArcGIS in house when it makes sense for our client. Here are 3 reasons why a business would – and would not – want to invest in learning ArcGIS in house:

Would #1: A business seeking control over timelines.

All aspects of Broadband are slammed right now. Sometimes a business would like to handle engineering and project management in house in an attempt to control when the work gets done. While this is easier said than done, it’s a worthy reason to consider handling GIS in house.

Would #2: A business that would like to be prepared to maintain their network on their own.

There is a beginning, middle, and end to fiber broadband projects. Furthermore, the definition of “end” is not “the end” – there is ongoing maintenance of the network required long term. Sometimes a business works with their GIS consultant for the beginning and the middle and then they handle the “end” in house.

Would #3: A business that is required to grow in new directions.

Businesses looking to make themselves more

Would Not #1: Thinking “How hard can it be?”

Would Not #2: Thinking in-house GIS will create cost savings.

Would Not #3: Thinking in-house GIS will