Modernizing through Disruption and Adaptation

Drones, Imagery, and GIS: A Perfect Combination for Your Enterprise

By Steve Snow

The arrival of new technology disrupts normal business processes and introduces new complexities to existing workflows. Currently, we are witnessing a massive shift in sources of information as well as the speed with which we can access data. These changes are driven by commercial and consumer drones, low-cost sensors, and more powerful GIS technologies.

Drones have fundamentally changed the characteristics of imagery workflows within organizations, driving the need for an adaptable enterprise solution. Pairing GIS and drones offers obvious benefits such as the ability to deliver timely and responsive data, produce authoritative information, and provide a cost-effective source of imagery and raw data for consumers. Drones with GIS capabilities provide the flexibility to explore data and gain insights that, in the past, were too expensive or not technically feasible for many organizations. 

To realize the full advantage of collecting data using drones, organizations need to be able to deal effectively with the abundance of data they collect. The volume and quality of incoming data present challenges to the management and analysis of your organization's imagery holdings. At the same time, the use of drones has created a great opportunity for governments to collect, produce, and share information quickly and cost-effectively.

Adapting to business disruption from new technologies like drones has always been a challenge for organizations that use multiple systems. Leaders are driven by the need to deliver better products faster and at reduced costs—challenges that Esri is helping customers meet every day through its system of systems, a complete GIS platform that streamlines the collection, management, and use of vast quantities of data.

There are three basic systems that comprise the ArcGIS platform, each helping to streamline processes and give organizations the flexibility to respond to disruptions and advances in technology. These systems can help deliver information cost-efficiently for your enterprise:

• System of Record—A system of record allows you to manage data, store information, and provide authoritative information to create further products and support decision-making. GIS as a system of record can manage the information either centrally or from multiple systems. Ultimately, the system of record is vital to data dissemination through a system of engagement for organizations.
• System of Engagement—A system of engagement allows more people to share and understand complex data and ideas. GIS applies the benefits of geography—of maps—everywhere, across organizations and communities, in a way that invites participation from everyone: employees, customers, partners, and citizens.
• System of Insight—GIS helps provide context to your data, enabling various types of visualization and in-depth analysis that enable you to make timely, data-driven decisions. The variety and volume of your data as well as the speed with which you can access data dictate the type of analytics you want to perform, and GIS unlocks the value of that data to provide the answers you are looking for.

In my next post, I will explore the system of record and share more ideas on how organizations can better automate the collection and management of drone data using GIS.

Visit the Imagery for ArcGIS page to learn more about Esri's solutions for imagery management and analysis.

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LINK TO SYSTEM OF RECORD 2nd part