I was also interested in what Rob was saying about different software for different users – coz that ain’t whats happening here, but I think it should be at least considered.
Corporately it has been realised that to save money, there needs to be less licences used, and the solution is to give people who just view and print maps access to GIS over the INTRANET in a web browser.
But if you do anything other than that you get pretty much the full GIS package – with loads of things most people won’t use. As an example theres almost 40 toolbars in ARCMAP 10 I can have (and from what I can tell they don’t overlap much) and I use less than a quarter of them, and I am almost certainly using more than other colleagues in my section who have exactly the same software.
Its an excellent example, to me , of why what might be the best software, isn’t necessarily the best solution to user needs.
Best wishes
Nick Boldrini
Historic Environment Record Officer
Ext 267008