Scoping the Business Case for SDI Development
Study Commissioned by the GSDI Steering Committee

Outline of presentation

• Background to the study
• The structure of the business case

• Defining the product
• Determining demand
• Describing the benefits
• Implementation phases

• Feasibility of the business case
• Recommendations
• Where to next?

Background to the study

• Decision taken at GSDI3 Canberra 1998
• Aim - gain political & financial support
• Managed by Australia/USA/France taskforce of GSDI steering committee
• Funded jointly by AUSLIG and FGDC
• CIE is private economic research agency (not from GIS community)
• Interviews, literature, desk research
• Report available at www.gsdi.org

Structure of the business case

• Identify stakeholders in GSDI
• Define the GSDI product & how it relates to other initiatives
• Identify demand for the product including decision processes
• Define roles of private and public sector
• Estimate the costs of the product
• Justify the case for investment
• Define an implementation plan

• A forum where nations come together to compare notes and give each other assistance
• A coordination issue, ensuring the compatibility and consistency of various SDI efforts in different countries
• A particular product or a particular instance of different regional data coming together
• Good governance in general - having information and management systems in place allowing governments to better and more efficiently undertake their roles

Challenge ...

• "... The essence of the task facing those raising funds for further SDI development is that they must sell an abstract information product. They must demonstrate how the data supported by the infrastructure they propose can effectively be turned into information and how that information can be used to solve useful problems. They must do this in the context of many other claims (bogus and genuine) on information budgets ..."

Undertake the major report in phases

• Phase I. Analyse the demand side for GSDI including identifying the major decision processes that lead to demand for GSDI. Refine the definition of GSDI
• Phase II. Undertake case studies of successful and unsuccessful GSDI development. Target case studies to particular end users. Be careful to quantify benefits and costs for each case study
• Phase III. Develop targets and strategies for GSDI development

Feasibility of the business case

• If feasibility is judged in terms of the business case itself actually achieving financial support, then feasibility is extremely low
• If however, feasibility is judged in terms of laying a sound foundation for continued development of GSDI, then the prospects are good

Key Recommendations

• Major initial focus needs to be on the demand side, evaluating the need for GSDI. Following this, significant effort needs to be devoted to clarifying the nature of the GSDI product
• The major study should be undertaken in phases, allowing time for feedback between phases. While this may involve some cost duplication, it will help minimise the risks of the study not resulting in a good outcome
• The task of quantifying benefits should be seriously attempted. While recognising that this is a difficult task, and that a precise estimate is not possible, we consider that the framework of quantification provides an essential discipline to the analytical process.
• The major elements of the study should proceed from case studies

• The resulting final report should be modular, allowing different version to be targeted to the situation of particular potential investorsThe major elements of the study should proceed from case studies
• The GIS community should see the study as not only being essential for them to sell their case, but also for them to better understand it themselves

Where to next?

• GSDI4 conference delegates need to consider

• The conclusions drawn, and recommendations made, by CIE in the report
• Whether a resolution on next steps should be made at GSDI4, and the form it should take

• Subsequently, the GSDI Steering Committee needs to implement any conference resolution