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Marion County details GIS modernization, ArcGIS Pro migration and local workforce pipeline
Summary
County GIS staff told commissioners the department is migrating to ArcGIS Pro, modernizing infrastructure, automating routine work and building a local talent pipeline in partnership with the College of Central Florida.
Marion County GIS staff outlined a multi-part modernization plan on Sept. 3 that will move the county to ArcGIS Pro, redesign public and internal mapping applications, expand automation to cut after-hours work and build a local pipeline of trained GIS workers through the College of Central Florida.
The presentation, given by Natasha Thompson, Marion County GIS coordinator, said the county’s public mapping portal received roughly 167,000 views in the past year and that the Citizen Solutions Center has handled about 1,400 nonemergency service requests over two years. Thompson summarized the work as “not just maps. It's a system of tools, data, and people working together to transform location based information into intelligence that supports smarter decisions.”
Thompson told the board the county’s plans include: migrating staff to ArcGIS Pro to gain faster performance and new features (including an upcoming AI assistant for routine mapping tasks); modernizing a hybrid architecture that uses both on-premises servers and cloud services; redesigning internal and public web applications; and expanding automation to replace repetitive, manual tasks. She said one automation script alone replaced a biweekly, after-hours process and has saved an estimated 260 hours of labor over 2½ years.
The GIS team also emphasized workforce development. The county helped develop a 21-credit certificate in GIS at the College of Central Florida and continues to host internships; Thompson said several current county GIS employees started as interns. She said the county has coordinated with Esri, the county property appraiser and the City of Ocala on technical and user needs assessments and that findings guided the five strategic initiatives presented to the commission.
Commissioners praised the work and asked about interagency coordination and public benefits. Commissioner Alec Zalick said the automation and scripting work “enables people to work at a higher efficiency,” and Commissioner Curry commended the presentation as “a job well done.” County Administrator Moneer Boyonez noted the team’s career pipeline had strong local benefit. No formal vote was required for the presentation (item 9.1 was an informational update).
Why it matters: County GIS underpins permitting, emergency response and public-facing maps. The migration and automation steps aim to improve response times, reduce manual errors and make more current data available to residents and county departments.
What happens next: Staff will proceed with the ArcGIS Pro migration, architecture upgrades and ongoing collaboration with Esri and College of Central Florida partners. The commission did not take a formal vote on the initiatives; the presentation was accepted as an update.
