How North Dakota's GIS Hub Streamlines State-Wide GIS Bob Nutsch, GIS Coordinator, State of North Dakota Bob Nutsch, GIS Coordinator, State of North Dakota The North Dakota State Government has used GIS since the early 1990s. Since its first application, the technology behind and uses of GIS have continued to grow. It has now become an essential tool and an increasingly integral part of agency business processes. "The GIS Hub has helped reduce the cost, encourage collaboration among state agencies, and create a solid foundation for current GIS initiatives" History In 2000 the state hired a consulting firm to provide insight about the future of GIS for North Dakota. The goal of the review was to develop a statewide GIS program that established clear goals and a way to achieve those goals. We had data stored in multiple locations and formats, data currency issues (i.e. difficulty finding the most current data), and lack of metadata used to contextualize data. The report identified a number of obstacles that needed to be overcome, such as declining agency budgets and a shortage of GIS resources. The bottom line was that GIS was expensive to implement, and without a cost effective strategy, it didn’t make business sense.