‘Maxxing’ means going all in on improvement. For example, ‘sleepmaxxing’ is about getting the best possible sleep, and ‘runmaxxing’ is about making every mile count. In our field, ‘GISmaxxing’ means getting the most out of your utility GIS.

Your GIS keeps operations safe, maintains compliance, and helps deliver reliable service. But most utilities use only a small part of their capabilities. GISmaxxing helps you get more value from the system you already have.

You invested in a tool built to solve problems, but right now, you’re mostly using it for maps.

Utilities have invested heavily in GIS through migrations, upgrades, integrations, and dedicated staff. Yet for most, the day-to-day use is similar: GIS shows asset locations, tracks some information, and creates maps for work orders. Too often, the focus is on keeping the network map up to date rather than solving real issues.

GISmaxxing helps close the gap between what you’ve invested and the value you get back.

What GIS Does Best

Utilities that get real value from their GIS ask different questions:

• Which assets are most likely to fail, based on age, load, and environment?
• What happens to the network if we add distributed generation at this point?
• Which infrastructure upgrades will have the biggest reliability impact?
• Are ADMS, gas integrity management, and other operational systems getting current, accurate network data at the right level of granularity?

These are the kinds of business questions that depend on more than location. Providing accurate network data to systems such as ADMS, EAM, and work management is one of the most valuable things your GIS can do. Your outage model is only as strong as the GIS behind it.

Having a fast and stable GIS matters, but that’s just the beginning. The real opportunity is using GIS to drive operations and support the systems that depend on it.

How You Get There

Outsource routine work to industry experts. Much of utility GIS work is a repetitive cycle of as-built posting, data cleanup, and quality control. The work matters and takes real skill, but it rarely holds talented staff for long. When specialists with utility and engineering backgrounds handle the routine updates, your data stays current no matter who comes or goes. The bigger win is what your team does with the time: network analysis, system integration, and the strategic projects that make GIS matter across the utility. People who own the GIS, instead of feeding it, tend to stay.

Let experts manage the platform. Upgrades, tuning, security, monitoring, and integration maintenance are each full-time jobs, but most utilities rely on just one or two administrators for all of them. Giving platform operations to a team of specialists keeps your system running smoothly and prevents staff burnout. Cloud hosting can also handle spikes in demand during storms. This way, strategic projects don’t get delayed by server problems, and your GIS team can focus on helping the business instead of just keeping systems running.

Do more with your Utility Network. If you have completed a migration, the platform can do far more than most utilities realize. Building subnetworks and using advanced tracing can help with outage response and integrity management. Dashboards give your team live insights, and mobile tools put up-to-date network data in the hands of field crews. Often, the biggest barrier to maxxing is simply not knowing what’s possible. An expert-led session or a maturity assessment that compares your current GIS use to the platform’s full capabilities can turn hidden features into a clear plan.

The order doesn’t matter; what’s important is having a plan that helps GIS solve real problems, not just keep up appearances.

Start GISmaxxing

No one plans to run just a mapping department. The GIS teams we work with are full of talented people who want their work to make a difference. After working on over 800 projects with more than 180 electric and gas utilities, we’ve learned that getting unstuck usually starts with small steps. Sometimes it means handing off the data backlog, letting someone else manage the servers, or it’s just discovering what your Utility Network can do that you haven’t seen before.

If you’d like to talk it over, book a Power Session—two hours with our experts, free of charge, with no sales pitch, just answers. Or check out the Five Strategic Moves for Utility GIS guide to see which step fits your utility best.