Wilkin County, located in rural Minnesota with a population of just over 6,000, recognized the potential that GIS held for serving the public and achieving maximum value for their investments. Working with Pro-West, the County deployed easy-to-use web GIS apps across 10 departments and created a central hub for all GIS services.

Having secured funding for new Pictometry imagery in December 2016, Assessor and GIS champion Cheryl Wall knew the time was right to explore ways to upgrade Wilkin County’s GIS even further. Needing to “strike while the iron was hot”, she set about igniting excitement and buy-in amongst the county board and departments across the organization about where a revitalized GIS could take them. It held the possibilities of cutting steps from business processes, getting informa-tion to the public more easily, publishing accurate data, and providing access to the very latest location technology.

However, the county faced a major hurdle: to achieve the modern, mobile-friendly, easy-to-use GIS they envisioned would take considerable time and comprehensive GIS expertise. On its own, the county had neither. So, with internal recognition of the value of harnessing new GIS capabilities sooner rather than later, the County opted for Pro-West’s “End-to-End GIS Service” – a fixed-period package incorporating on-site time by Pro-West staff for discovery and deployment of the GIS activities that would be most valuable for Wilkin’s unique needs.

Cheryl Wall, Assessor, commented: “I learned that Pro-West offered on-site services which could encompass all GIS tasks and called them right away. I knew this would be a good fit for us because we don’t have a designated GIS department. The timing was really good in making this happen in 2017 because our new imagery is the perfect complement to the applications. I wanted to see more county departments get involved and make the most of what the imagery and our GIS programs could offer.”

GETTING TO WORK

Essential to a modern, mobile, and accessible GIS was cross-depart-mental involvement. At the outset of the project, Pro-West provided “GIS 101” education to staff and teams across the organization who were previously uninvolved with GIS. These sessions let them know how a new-look GIS related to their work and the potential it offered for integrating into their processes to make their jobs easier and more

efficient.

WILKIN COUNTY, MN: NO GIS DEPARTMENT, NO PROBLEM

8239 State 371 NW PO Box 812 Walker, MN 56484PH 218.547.3374 FX 218.547.3375www.prowestgis.com consult@prowestgis.com

“I knew this would be a good fit for us because we don’t have a designated GIS department.”

Cheryl Wall, Assessor, Wilkin County

Mini needs assessments were conducted with 10 county departments ranging from Emergency Management to Family Service to discover where GIS could ease or enhance business processes or improve pub-lic service. All identified areas where easy-to-use GIS web applications could help them work faster and smarter.

In all, 23 applications – 16 public and 7 internal – were pinpointed for deployment, in addition to a rounded package of GIS support – “end-to-end”, as the Pro-West service suggests:

Web-based, mobile-friendly GIS apps including a GIS Hub, Tax Parcel Viewer, Open Data Portal, Tax Forfeit Sales, Emergency Assistance Request, and Road Closures

18 data sets including school districts, law enforcement stations, medical facilities, ditch benefit zones, and property sales

Configuration of ArcGIS Online organization - set-up, home page configuration, adding users, creation of featured content and gallery

Wilkin County Locator - address locator view for Wilkin County

Imagery caching in Esri scales for use in ArcGIS Online apps

Online imagery services

Map and app metadata

Set-up of Google Analytics on Open Data Portal to track usage statistics

Update county website with links to GIS apps

Tax database downloads

GIS training

FOCUSED SOLUTIONS FOR FOCUSED NEEDS

Each of the 23 solutions deployed serves a very specific purpose and performs a single task. Additionally, since all are based on ArcGIS Online templates, they work in the same way with the same interface, thus eliminating any learning curve. The new GIS applications are free of the multitude of tools that older GIS applications typically dis-played, which were difficult or impossible for the non-technical user to decipher and find the information they needed. Instead, modern, intuitive apps are designed for use on mobile devices, allowing users to easily find what they need when they need it.

Assessor Cheryl Wall commented: “We are very excited to offer this new resource to members of our public and thrilled to see it working within our county and city offices for improved workflow efficiencies. It’s a valuable tool and we’re very pleased with what the technology has enabled us to achieve. We hope it will become a useful tool for many.”

GIS Hub All of Wilkin County’s new GIS applications are available via this central hub, directly linked from the County’s website home page at www.co.wilkin.mn.us.

Assessor Forms

Citizens can find forms required by the Assessor’s office for a range of purposes - Special Homestead Classification, Homestead Application, Property Tax Exemption, and more - available in one location with this app.

Elected Officials

The public can, in a single click, see their representatives in roles ranging from State House Representative to County Treasurer based on their location.

Open Data Portal Wilkin’s Open Data Portal allows the public and business users to access the data they need easily, on any device and at no charge. Data includes school districts, municipal boundaries, tax parcels, and road right-of-ways.

Emergency Assistance Request

This app allows citizens to register with Public Health for special assistance during an emergency event.

Key to the success of the new GIS applications was the presence of a GIS expert on-site at critical points in the project. A Pro-West team member ensured that valuable solutions were identified and provided direct, focused support to help county staff move forward with GIS. On-site personnel with a sole focus on GIS also ensured that the proj-ect was accomplished efficiently – in 9 months, to be exact – rather than taking many months or years of part-time work from a county staff member for whom GIS was a secondary responsibility.

SEEING REAL RESULTS

Wilkin County’s GIS solutions are already having a positive impact in a number of ways.

1. Better customer service• Wilkin County’s Assessor has not had incoming requests for

data since the launch of the Open Data Portal two months ago, demonstrating the enhanced service it is providing to the public. Previously, customers had to pay for data but the elimination of the multi-step process for handling requests has more than compensated for the provision of data to the public for free.

• Members of the public and business users have an easy way to access, find, and quickly understand the information they need and know that that information is up to date. They also no longer have to pay for parcel data

• County staff alert constituents to the new GIS solutions when they call or visit the offices. For in-person visitors, a ter-minal at the counter provides access to the GIS hub, so staff

can introduce and assist them with using the applications• Adding the GIS hub to the county’s website home page,

as well as specific apps to the relevant departmental web pages, has alerted customers to the solutions

• Consumer expectations have grown to include the use of maps on mobile devices and the ability to visualize infor-mation. Using GIS apps to communicate information meets these expectations.

2. Time savings• With GIS applications integrated into business processes,

staff are saving time with the ability to view and analyze meaningful information more efficiently

• The GIS hub and applications have replaced several pages on the county’s website, reducing maintenance time for the site. The data consumed by each application is updated au-tomatically every night via publishing scripts, meaning the information remains accurate with no maintenance time

3. Generated additional value from existing investments• The deployment of new GIS applications, the GIS hub, and all

services provided as part of the Pro-West package are based on Esri ArcGIS software, in which the county had already invested; the county is now making much more of this investment than ever

• The new 2017 imagery has been incorporated into the appli-cations and services and has been an important component in revitalization internal and public enthusiasm for GIS

• In tandem with the GIS project, Wilkin County’s website has been undergoing a redesign, which will deliberately compli-ment the GIS hub and individual applications

4. Moved the county forward with GIS in a meaningful and tangible way

• Prior to the project, keeping up with GIS was onerous and inefficient. Having it integrated into all departments has made the county more efficient and created momentum for long term growth and success.

• Working with a knowledgeable partner has enabled the county to “catch up” with modern GIS tools and techniques and achieve results that are unusual for a county Wilkin’s size

Wilkin County’s Open Data Portal

“We already had a great GIS foundation; I wanted to take what we had and build on that with new imagery and online applications knowing that it could be the tool that really moves us forward. The public was ready for it and more of our county and city departments are utilizing the benefits now that we established a more comprehensive GIS service with Pro-West.”

Cheryl Wall, Assessor