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What you should consider when deciding for a specific GIS?Before you buy or even decide for a specific GIS take a look at the notes below, since they express some experience with the handling of a GIS - and the limitations and surprises you may face when you are new to this topic. Digital maps: Since digital maps are the key factor for using a GIS, always take care that your GIS supports the most common formats of digital maps, or - provides a special converting tool between different formats. Before you decide for GIS, cross-check the cost for the digital maps in this particular GIS-format. Sometimes savings for the GIS vanish due to higher cost for the digital maps. Database-Interface (SQL): Since the GIS itself is only handling the display of digital maps and data linked to them, you still have to get your data from a database into the GIS. Some of the GIS can already dynamically read data from a database-system by ad-hoc querying it, without the necessity to store it in a GIS-related format. If your GIS cannot handle this, you still should try to get at least a SQL-interface to the database-system you use within your company, to prevent the necessity to explicitly download and re-import the data into the GIS. Programming: The GIS itself is good for ad-hoc querying the data and geographic information. When it comes down to i.e. creating a monthly set of reports you might have to do this manually - every month! So looking for a tool that also offers a programing language can be important. Using this progamming language (like MapBasic for MapInfo) can help to produce a set of reports or perform a set of tasks. Additionally can you develop user-defined GUI screens and data-interaction forms, or even setup a specific menu-bar as an assistant for the user |
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