Three years ago, to detain pace wi...

Three years ago, to detain pace with increasing growth and disentanglement Winnebago, Minn., decided to install a novel digital land information system and convinced six nearby cities and towns to puddle their information and financial resources for the shoot forward

Now, departments within the participating guidances are capturing, storing, retrieving and sharing land information more efficiently than always before. And the system is look fored to pay for itself in seven years.

"The payback arises by eliminating duplication of services," says David Schmidt, Winnebago's director of planning and zoning. "To acquire a building permit, a body used to file forms at three different departments, which took the time of three saleswomans Now the permit is filed one time and [the GIS] distributes copies to all the relevant departments automatically."

A tough network is crucial for providing data access to offices spread across a 578-square-mile area. Because the distances exceled standard Ethernet capability, ...