Client Success Story

Client Success Story:

Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA)

CLIENT OVERVIEW

The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) is the state’s lead nonprofit organization driving economic growth. Operating statewide and funded by the private sector, EDPA provides critical research, data, and resources to Alabama’s local and regional economic development organizations (EDOs).

SITUATION

EDPA’s Alabama Business Intelligence Center (AL Intel) was inundated with research requests, RFIs, supplier searches, and custom data pulls, from communities and existing industries.

Before adopting GURU Ecosystem, staff relied on spreadsheets, manual data cleaning, and hours of repetitive work to identify businesses within specific radii or sectors. Each new request meant starting from scratch.

TASK

EDPA needed a centralized, accurate, and user-friendly database to:

Maintain clean, verified company data.
Enable location-based searches (drive times, radii, etc.).
Empower local EDOs to self-serve, reducing EDPA’s workload.
Keep data current through shared responsibility.

“We were searching through spreadsheet after spreadsheet every time we got a new request. It was like starting from scratch every time.”

Lauren Hyde

Executive Director EDPA Alabama Business Intelligence Center

ACTIONS

EDPA partnered with GIS WebTech to adapt its GURU solution, originally built for sites and buildings, into an Industrial Directory tailored to company data.

Key steps included:

Collaborative design with GIS WebTech’s product team.
Migration of verified company lists into GURU’s mapping engine.
Feature enhancement, such as drivetime analysis and intuitive filters.
Training and onboarding for local economic developers statewide.

“What used to take me several days, I can now do in minutes. And other users can self-serve—no more one-offs.”

Sean Lytle

Senior Research Analyst EDPA Alabama Business Intelligence Center

RESULTS

80–90% time savings: Research tasks that once took 1–2 days now take minutes.
Significantly improved accuracy in RFIs and supplier mapping.
Decentralized data upkeep: Local users now help maintain and verify records.
Faster RFI turnaround, supporting Alabama’s competitiveness for new projects.
Seamless adoption thanks to GURU’s familiar interface.

USER EXPERIENCE

Both state and local users cite the intuitive design, flexible filters, and drive-time mapping within GURU Ecosystem as transformative:

“We went from solving an immediate problem to unlocking a whole new level of capability,” said Hyde.

“It’s simple, intuitive, and spatial searches make life easier,” added Lytle.

QUANTIFIABLE IMPACT

Metric	Before	After GURU Ecosystem
Average Supplier Search	1-2 days	Minutes
Data Accuracy	~70% (third-party sources)	95%+ Verified by Users
Local EDO Participation	Limited	Statewide Collaboration
RFI Completion Speed	Slow and Inconsistent	Up to 3× Faster, Standardized and Consistent

WHY GURU ECOSYSTEM WORKS FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPERS

Built on GIS WebTech’s proven mapping engine, designed for non-technical users.
Shared data ownership model keeps information current.
Configurable filters meet the unique needs of EDOs, chambers, and regional alliances.
Cost-effective scalability avoids the expense and delays of custom development.

THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS

Centralized intelligence = faster, better answers.
Collaboration drives data accuracy.
User-friendly tech accelerates adoption and ROI.

BOTTOM LINE

With GURU Ecosystem, EDPA transformed its research workflow and empowered economic developers statewide. The partnership with
GIS WebTech demonstrates how smart, configurable GIS tools can revolutionize how EDOs manage data, respond to opportunities, and drive growth.

“Partnering with GIS WebTech removes the worry about keeping up with technology,” said Hyde. “They’re continuously improving the GURU platform, which frees our team to focus on what we do best—economic development.”