Normal looking to change GIS licensing

Posted on September 21, 2015

By Adam Studzinski

NORMAL – The Normal Town Council plans to vote Monday night on a slight change to how the town licenses its Geographic Information Service.

Deputy City Manager Pamela Reece said the town currently licenses the GIS service based on individual departments. This has been putting a limit on the software as they’ve expanded its use.

“We’ve learned that we can get an organization wide license agreement,” she said.

The net cost of the service will go up from about $48,000 a year to roughly $55,000. Reece believed the extra cost is worth it.

“We’re finding that the more we use it, the more we’re finding opportunities just to expand what we can keep track of out in the field,” said Reece. “It can be used for our facilities department. We’re learning that inspections has been using it.”

Reece added make the service organization wide will make the town more efficient in the future.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].

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