Moderator &
Lead Speaker
Nigel Edmead
Director of Training
Thomson Reuters
UK

Biography
Nigel Edmead is Director of Training and Documentation at Thomson Reuters where he leads learning for Aumentum, a flagship solution for property registration, valuation and taxation. He has a track record in delivering tailored learning for land administration technologies including pro poor land tools and has been a guest lecturer at ITC in Enschede and TUM in Munich. He has also worked as a business analyst and project manager on land administration projects in Nigeria, Uganda and Zambia. He holds an MSc in Land Resource Management and is based in London.

Abstract
A New Return on Investment Methodology: A Case Study from the City of Cape Town Valuation Office

The UNECE statement on Smarter Cities envisages well formulated land information systems enabling local authorities to generate revenue for urban development. In this paper a return on investment (ROI) methodology is presented so that city administrations can make better informed decisions about adopting land information systems by quantifying the benefits realized. The ROI methodology was developed and conducted by KPMG, a leading international consulting firm and commissioned by Thomson Reuters to examine the benefits seen by the City of Cape Town in South Africa after modernizing its property valuation system. Since the late 1990s the City of Cape Town has embraced property tax as a vital part of its overall revenue policy and in 2008/9 contracted Thomson Reuters to upgrade its existing CAMA system. The ROI methodology identifies the impact of the system at the jurisdictional, agency and societal level. There were some notable impacts including a reduction in the number of citizen objections to assessed property values as well as increased revenue amounts. The ROI methodology, which measures the results of investing in land information systems is seen as helping city administrators assess the costs and benefits of introducing LIS technology as they strive to develop smarter cities.