From Confusion to Clarity: Navigating Collaboration in ArcGIS – Part 2
Collaborating with external stakeholders shouldn't be complicated. In this second part of a two-part series, I'll share effective strategies for working with individuals and teams outside your organization. My previous post delved into ArcGIS Enterprise workflows, providing you with practical insights and tools to enhance your collaborative efforts. In this second part, we explore options exclusive to ArcGIS Online, offering additional methods to extend your external partnerships.
ArcGIS Online-based Collaboration and Sharing
The five patterns, explored in my previous post, are supported collaboration methods using ArcGIS Enterprise. Did you know there are three other ways to facilitate working with and sharing content to external stakeholders exclusively, using ArcGIS Online? They are:
- Partnered collaboration
- Group-based sharing
- ArcGIS Hub-based participation
Partnered Collaboration
Different ArcGIS Online organizations can share content with up to 10 partnered collaborations, enabling users from one ArcGIS Online account to collaborate with users from another ArcGIS Online account.

This approach offers flexibility to meet sharing requirements where a highly available, robust and scalable cloud platform is needed. It is often used in conjunction with an ArcGIS Online already participating in a Distributed Collaboration with an ArcGIS Enterprise, further extending the reach of the content.
Group-based Sharing
Host organizations with ArcGIS Online can create group-based sharing, allowing members from different organizations to join and participate in a group owned by the host.

By inviting individual members from external organizations to join a group, a more robust and ad-hoc team-based approach is enabled. While previous collaboration methods may be more suitable for larger projects involving a few organizations, this method allows one group to contain members from many different organizations.
I've seen this approach used by a regional-level Emergency Operational Centre, which published a Rapid Damage Assessment survey into a group with field workers from various member municipalities, engineering firms, aid-to-civil-service, police, fire, SAR and more. Because this type of participation can exist outside of a formal collaboration, setup and maintenance overhead is reduced. To be invited into a group to participate, the member profile must be publicly searchable.
ArcGIS Hub-based participation
The final form of collaboration leverages an application exclusive to ArcGIS Online: ArcGIS Hub. While many consider ArcGIS Hub an open data platform due to its specialization in the discovery, analysis and visualization of authoritative data, content, maps and apps made available by the organization, it is much more than that. ArcGIS Hub offers tools and capabilities for both public (basic level) and stakeholder (premium level) engagement. It enables interaction not only with internal (core) members of the organization but also with external (supporting) team members.

With a premium ArcGIS Hub license, the host organization can invite external members as supporting team members. These members can either use their own organizational identity or leverage a community identity provided by the host organization. This approach is recommended for stakeholder-level engagement on initiatives, allowing members to view and comment on information.
Final Thoughts & Considerations
In this two-part series on clarifying the different patterns of collaborating we explored five scenarios involving distributed collaboration. We then looked at leveraging ArcGIS Online capabilities to further extend our sharing and collaboration capabilities.
The core of effective collaboration in ArcGIS lies in the user identity model. By ensuring that all participants - whether staff, agents, consultants or contractors - use ArcGIS named-user identities, your organization can maintain robust security and privacy standards. This approach aligns with industry IT protocols. This foundational requirement also applies to external participants in the collaboration providing their own named user. The exception is when using ArcGIS Hub Premium for collaborating with supporting team members, where the host can provide Community named-user identities for initiative participants.
Remember, participation in ArcGIS collaboration is limited to organizational subscriptions and community identities; public accounts won't work.
While I haven't delved into content governance here, it's crucial for ensuring the timeliness, accuracy and accessibility of data, maps and apps, all while maintaining security and privacy.
To determine the best collaboration configuration, consider the following:
- Will there be frequent schema or app configuration changes?
- Are there only additions, updates, and deletions of records and geometry?
- Is the content view-only?
- What is the update cycle for the content—ad-hoc or scheduled, and how often?
- How many people or organizations will be involved, and for how long?
Additional Considerations
- Content Governance: Establish clear policies and procedures to ensure data integrity and security.
- Training and Support: Provide adequate training and support to all participants to enhance collaboration effectiveness.
- Scalability: Ensure the collaboration model can scale as more participants join or the project scope expands without compromising performance or security.
- Feedback Mechanisms: Implement feedback mechanisms to continuously improve the collaboration process. Regular input from participants can help identify areas for improvement.
By addressing these considerations, you can create a resilient and effective collaboration environment. If you have any specific questions or need further assistance, feel free to ask!