The idea behind Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has been around for many years but only with recent explosions of computer processing power, the internet and mobile technologies have they become the force behind the next technical revolution. GIS technology allows organisations to manage their geographically referenced data in an efficient and scalable manner. Applications for GIS exist in scientific investigations, asset or resource management, development planning, cartography and route planning and are capable of a wide range of tasks such as mapping of assets of a certain type in a given location or calculating emergency response times in the event of a natural disaster.

GIS put simply is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, displaying and analysing geographically-referenced information i.e. data with a spatial or location component (eg. coordinates on the earth's surface). Spatially enabled databases used in GIS supersede traditional databases in their ability to provide efficient manipulation, storage and querying of spatial data. The type of data that can be stored is limitless, however some examples may include, roads, municipal boundaries, population or crime rates. GIS uses this information in combination with an organisation's domain specific data to provide highly detailed visualisations or statistical analyses which are invaluable aids for decision making.