The community-based focus on customer needs that was completed for a
state GIS project is a demonstration of the principles of pairing GIS technical
capabilities to local community needs. The methods described in this paper,
previously demonstrated in other CoBITS contexts (Caldwell & Robertson,
1996; Caldwell et al., 1995), highlight the general principles of gathering
broad user data that can be used to create a defensible policy for initial
technology implementation efforts. The customer-focused data collection
strategies have a history of use in industrial engineering contexts of improving
product designs to meet consumer priorities.