Embedded GIS support
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Embedded GIS support

A Fractional GIS Lead (GIL): senior GIS and PostGIS capacity, on your tools and at your standard

Your GIS function is one or two people deep and the work keeps coming. Peaks you can't hire fast enough for. A specialist gap in PostGIS or Esri. We slot in as senior capacity, on your tools and at your standard, so delivery never stalls on one person being away.

For Head of GIS, GIS Manager, Head of Digital, Head of Data.

How we work together

GIL retainer

Embedded GIS Support

Part-time GIS capacity on a monthly basis. Defined scope, predictable cost, quarterly review.

Commitment
From 3 days/month
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Also under embedded gis support

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GIL
Fractional GIS Lead

Senior GIS support, on a schedule that matches how often the problem actually shows up. Not five days a week because that is how a job description gets written. What is a GIL? →

Commitment tiers

  • GIL Starter 3 days/month Occasional senior sign-off
  • GIL Growth 6 days/month Regular embedded support
  • GIL Embedded 10+ days/month Near-full senior cover
Detail from an 18th-century engraved map of Rome

Why a small GIS team hits a ceiling

A GIS function of one or two people works until it doesn't. Demand arrives in peaks that don't match headcount. A project needs PostGIS depth or an Esri specialism nobody in the team has. Someone takes leave and delivery pauses, because the knowledge sits with them and nowhere else. None of that is a performance problem. It is what happens when the workload is lumpy and the team is small.

The two obvious fixes both cost something. Hiring adds a permanent commitment against a workload that fluctuates, and the recruitment cycle for a good spatial data engineer runs to months. Bringing in a contractor per project means explaining your data, your conventions and your platform again every time, and the understanding leaves when they do.

Delivery shouldn't stall because one person is on leave.

How embedded support works

We work on your platform, in your conventions, to your standards. Not our tooling, not a parallel environment handed over at the end. The output is usable by your team the day it lands, and the person reviewing it recognises what they are looking at.

Scope is agreed upfront and reviewed quarterly rather than billed against a running clock. You know what capacity you have each month and where it is going. When a peak arrives the capacity is already in place, instead of starting with a procurement conversation.

We work unsupervised. Briefing us is a conversation rather than a specification, and you are not checking our output before it goes anywhere. That matters, because the time cost of managing outside help is usually the reason people stop using it. We also document as we go, so what we work out lands in your systems instead of ours. If we stopped tomorrow, your team would still have the reasoning.

Where we've done this

For a national property consultancy, we mapped workflows across every rural team, compiled a Master Data Register spanning internal and third-party datasets, and produced a phased migration roadmap into a central PostGIS environment. The client came away with a realistic, low-risk path to consolidation, plus training materials and a champion network to drive adoption.

Every
rural team mapped, not a sample
1
Master Data Register across internal and third-party sources
Read the full case study →
Migration scoping output: workflows and datasets mapped across the rural teams of a national property consultancy
Not quite you? You have no GIS team Own the outcome See that path →

Start with a conversation

A one-hour call gets us from "we're not sure where to start" to a clear scope. Free, no obligation.