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GIS Consultants is an independent consulting firm that helps organizations implement and use Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The firm was founded by Bruce Joffe, a consultant whose GIS experience spans 25 years of service to government agencies and utility companies, both on the West Coast and internationally. GIS Consultants provides strategic planning, implementation management, organizational therapy, and instructional services for Geographic Information Systems, Automated Mapping, and Infrastructure Management. Our clients are successfully using GIS technologies to improve their internal operations and to provide information services to the marketplace.

GIS Consultants is uniquely qualified to advise clients on GIS, as we have both developed and used many types of systems, for a myriad of purposes. We understand the need for accurate and accessible map-related information, and see GIS as a means to better management: it is not an end in itself. We have successfully designed automated mapping tools that are useful to our clients, because we share the experience and understanding of the purposes for which computers should be used, and the methods for integrating them into an organizational framework.

To maintain our objectivity and broad base of experience, GIS Consultants does not sell GIS equipment, software, or conversion services. We offer the planning and management necessary to apply GIS technology to our client's specific needs. Our hands-on experience with Atlas*GIS, AutoCAD, ESRI, GDS, Genasys, Generation/5, Intergraph, and MapInfo provides broad-based objectivity as well as considerable technical depth for such implementation services as:

o orientation seminars and education workshops

o strategic planning

o user needs analysis and feasibility studies

o system conceptual design

o database construction strategies

o cost/benefit analysis

o implementation planning

o financial planning

o system evaluation and testing

o system procurement services

o system integration

o database design

o pilot project development

o database construction management

o custom applications programming

o workflow re-engineering

o recruitment and staff training

o operation management services

o data distribution policy

o contract arbitration

o legislative and regulatory assistance

o marketing strategy for database and geoprocessing services

o organizational therapy and management support

o AM/FM and GIS industry support

In our experience, developing geographic information systems is a complex process that requires systematic planning and careful management. Successful development depends on three related skills: understanding the information needs of management decision makers, experience with automated mapping and information systems, and the ability to facilitate inter-departmental cooperation and communication. GIS Consultants' planning and implementation services help build agency-wide management support for GIS, and facilitate cooperation between participating agencies.

Our recent clients include the counties of San Mateo, Solano, Monterey, Alameda, and Sonoma, NASA-Ames Research Center, East Bay Municipal Utilities District, SACGIS Consortium (City of Fremont/Alameda County Water District/Union Sanitary District), Barclay Mapworks, Open Data Systems, and the cities of Palo Alto, San Francisco, Milpitas, and Oakland.

GIS Consultants maintains access to several technical consulting companies, when the demands of a project require a highly specialized professional skill. Through these special relationships, and Mr. Joffe's membership on the board of directors of the Bay Area Automated Mapping Association (BAAMA), the California Geographic Information Coordinating Committee, and Urban & Regional Information Systems Association (URISA), GIS Consultants can provide its clients the appropriate technical expertise when it is needed, without carrying a large firm's overhead cost.

We believe that GIS technology provides a unique opportunity for an organization to examine and improve the way it conducts its business, through automating the management of its map-related information.

Recent GIS Consulting services include advising on public policy issues relating to GIS. Such issues include:

o Data Distribution by Public Agencies

o Creating and Maintaining Metadata

o Responsibilities of GIS Professionals and Surveyors