Problem or Identified Need In 1991, Georgia Power's Economic Development group unveiled the world’s first site-selection facility, known as the Georgia Resource Center (GRC), offering prospects a virtual tour of the state. The GRC was the first to deploy technology of this kind for economic development, making analysis of where to locate a business easier and faster for the prospect. The problem was that this technology was only available at this location and not available to all the state’s economic development organizations. In summary, the legacy system: Was a custom built application that became difficult to maintain and upgrade The supporting databases became unsupportable Hardware became obsolete Software and basemap data expensive to maintain Data quality not meeting expectations System only available in center or on desktop In response to these issues, a cross-functional team of members from the organization worked to determine what the new system should offer. The goal of the new application was to give the state of Georgia a competitive advantage in economic development by making information on available sites and buildings, communities, taxes, labor and demographics easily available to prospects, consultants, brokers Georgia Power’s partners. Specifically, the new system was to: Move to web-based application that would be available to anybody Offer information and functionality not seen on other economic development websites Ensure greater data quality by having the information easily and constantly reviewed by communities, developers, and partners Use technology to streamline the processes, therefore saving budget dollars, cutting down on the possibility of human error, and decreasing staff resources needed to maintain the system Results Georgia Power’s Economic Development group chose Rolta International to help develop it’s new web application. Rolta’s OnPoint web tool provides a full suite of GIS tools including access to GIS and external databases, measuring, redlining, spatial searches, and reporting. The new web application created, called SelectGeorgia, is used by both internal project managers and external prospects and consultants in their site selection process. Communities in the state are able to keep their data up-to-date, and brokers, developers and our other partners use the site to find data on sites and buildings as well as detailed community information including demographics, taxes, incentives, and available workforce. The implementation of SelectGeorgia has enabled Georgia Power to gain operational efficiencies through streamlined processes and costs savings through reduction in maintenance costs. Specifically, it has resulted in a 75 percent reduction in related software maintenance and a 70 percent reduction in C&ED’s maintenance labor. Since its release to the public in 2008, SelectGeorgia has also been used to support projects resulting in more than $5.6 billion in new capital investment and the creation of over 27,500 new jobs.

Analysis Georgia Power’s SelectGeorgia GIS web application allows users to search for available land and buildings throughout the entire state by features or by location, overlay supporting GIS data to further evaluate location, and generate detailed reports that include property information, taxes, demographics, and nearby transportation. Users can also overlay many GIS layers including transportation, environmental, and utility information to further evaluate an available property. SelectGeorgia allows users to search for available properties throughout the state using many different types of search criteria. Jeff DeWitt GIS Administrator Georgia Power Economic Development 75 Fifth Street NW, Suite 150 Atlanta, GA Several detailed professional reports are available for all available industrial properties, commercial properties and communities in the state.