About MetroGIS > Business Planning

In December 1995, five initial strategic initiatives were identified that needed to be addressed for MetroGIS to successfully achieve its mission. One of them was a need to secure sustained long-term financial support from essential stakeholders.

In June 1996, the Metropolitan Council of the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area agreed to finance and support the work needed to define the form and function of MetroGIS. Acceptance of this role was in accordance with its overarching mission to provide leadership to collaboratively resolve issues of significance to the Metropolitan Area. (The Metropolitan Council is the regional planning agency serving the seven-county Minneapolis-St Paul Metropolitan Area. More about the relationship between MetroGIS and the Metropolitan Council can be found on the MetroGIS Affiliations page and the Metropolitan Council website.)

The last of the five initial strategic initiatives to be addressed, business planning to secure long-term support, was not initiated until September 1998. The thinking was that work on this strategic issue was premature until the MetroGIS community had: 1) agreed upon its common business information needs, 2) defined guidelines for regional solutions to its common business information needs that could be converted to cost estimates, 3) completed implementation of an Internet-based data discovery and retrieval mechanism, which became known as MetroGIS DataFinder, and 4) agreed upon the functions (also referred to as "products and services") that MetroGIS should support. These prerequisites were effectively complete by mid-1998, setting the stage to begin work on the final of the five initial strategic issues: securing long-term financial support for the MetroGIS vision.

The concept for the Fair-Share Financial Model and Organizational Structure project, the first of MetroGIS's business planning-related projects, was conceived by Randall Johnson, MetroGIS Staff Coordinator, while participating in a January 1998 NSDI (National Spatial Data Infrastructure) Institutional Workshop held in Annapolis, Maryland. In late 1997, MetroGIS had begun to investigate appropriate legal organizational structures and options to secure long-term financing. Mr. Johnson was invited to attend the Annapolis NSDI Workshop to share MetroGIS's experience. After two days of dialogue it became obvious that MetroGIS was heading into generally uncharted territory; that the results of MetroGIS's efforts would most likely have relevance to the broader NSDI community; and the subject matter was worthy of consideration for a NSDI Framework Demonstration Grant. Subsequently, an application was submitted in March 1998 for a $100,000 grant from NSDI. Mr. Johnson and David Arbeit, Director of the Minnesota Land Management Information Center (LMIC) and member of the MetroGIS Coordinating Committee, co-authored the application.

In June 1998 notification was received that MetroGIS's grant application had been selected for funding, launching the first component of MetroGIS's business planning efforts. With the aid of the $100,000 received in grant funding, a multi-disciplinary consultant team was retained to assist with this project. The Request for Proposals was published July 20, 1998. Over fifty firms from across the nation were invited to submit a proposal. A consultant team was retained in September 1998 and the project officially began on October 1.

The principal objectives of the project were to:

1. Identify the roles and responsibilities necessary to support multiple-participant data sharing in a regional environment which exceeds the internal business needs of the individual stakeholder organizations,
2. Estimate the costs of supporting these roles and responsibilities,
3. Define a means to equitably share these costs among the beneficiaries,
4. Identify an appropriate legal organizational structure for MetroGIS,
5. Identify the roles and responsibilities necessary to support multiple participant data sharing in a regional environment which exceed the internal business needs of the individual stakeholder organizations,
6. Estimate the costs of supporting these roles and responsibilities,
7. Define a means to equitably share these costs among the beneficiaries,
8. Identify an appropriate legal organizational structure for MetroGIS.

The consultant team's conclusions are documented in their final report and accompanying appendices. The conclusions were shared for comment at a Peer Review Forum held on September 16, 1999. Comments received from the forum participants were documented in the Forum Summary. Subsequently, the Policy Advisory Team and Coordinating Committee modified the preliminary study recommendations to address issues and concerns raised at the forum.

The modified recommendations were presented to the Policy Board on October 27, 1999. The findings of the companion 1999 MetroGIS Benefits Study conducted by William Craig and his graduate assistant David Bittner were also presented to the Board at this meeting. The Board concurred with the modified recommendations, as set forth in the agenda materials, and unanimously found that the public purpose would be served by moving MetroGIS to the next phase - preparation of a detailed Business Plan to guide implementation of MetroGIS to maturity. (See the section above, entitled "MetroGIS Business Plan - Version 1")

A final Project Report was prepared by the MetroGIS Staff Coordinator. It summarized the assumptions that drove the work to identify an equitable cost allocation model and an appropriate organizational structure for MetroGIS; conclusions of the consultant team; modifications to the preliminary recommendations to address concerns raised at the Peer Review Forum; relevance of the findings for MetroGIS to NSDI; and the final study conclusions.

Although the Policy Board found that achieving MetroGIS's vision would be in the public interest, it also found that it was not feasible for MetroGIS at that time or in the foreseeable future to implement a funding model based upon contributions from organizations receiving benefit from MetroGIS. The Metropolitan Council subsequently agreed to continue its role as primary sponsor of MetroGIS through 2003, with the understanding that the concept of a fair-share contribution model would be revisited for the 2004 budget. The concepts that underpin the fair share model developed in 1998-1999 were revisited as a part of the 2003-2005 Business Planning initiative. No changes were made to the governance or funding structures that had been in effect.

Associated Links:

• Application for NSDI Framework & Demonstration Grant (March 1998)
• Project Quality Assurance Plan (October 1998)
• Consolidated Detailed Project Work Plan (October 1998)
• Stakeholder Comment Forum Final Report (September 1999)
• Consultant Report to MetroGIS (October 1999)
• Consultant Report Appendices (October 1999) [This document includes the actual fair share financial allocation model that was found premature.]
• MetroGIS Project Manager's Final Report to NSDI (November 1999)

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