Competence management within organisations as an approach to enhancing GIS maturity

The national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) and GIS maturity of user organisations are mutually dependent. Only when the GIS maturity of user organisations is at a high level can they direct their needs to the development of an NSDI and the benefits of the NSDI come true to their full extent. To raise their GIS maturity to a level where user organisations can both utilise spatial data comprehensively in their businesses and contribute to the development of the NSDI, we propose a GIS maturity enhancement model in which competence management is the fundamental theme. The model suggests the means to improve the GIS maturity of an organisation. The model was motivated by user interviews in Finland, where the technical standard of GIS is not a hindrance to further development, but better exploitation of human competence seems to be the way forward.