IMPLAN Quick Start Guides

Michael Nealy

November 09, 2023 16:23

INTRODUCTION

For decades, IMPLAN has been the tool that economists and researchers turn to when they want to measure the impact of an economic event on a region. IMPLAN has long been trusted to deliver easy to use impact modeling, and extensive economic analytics.

Now, IMPLAN has developed Quick Start Guides, which make it possible for those without an economics background to perform economic impact analysis quickly and easily by following a series of prompts that appear on the screen inside the application.

OVERVIEW

Quick Start Guides are designed to make IMPLAN more accessible and intuitive for users that may not have much experience in completing economic impact analyses. Quick Start Guides provide a template for some of the most common IMPLAN use cases, with step-by-step prompts to guide users through all phases of setting up and running the Project. While additional use cases will be added to the Guide Library in the near future, the first iteration includes a single Guide: Construction & Operations.

HOW TO ACCESS QUICK START GUIDES

To begin using the Construction and Operations Guide, start by clicking the Guides button underneath the get started widget on the IMPLAN Dashboard.

This will bring users to the Guides Library, which currently contains the Construction & Operation Guide for a single year construction project and a single year of operations. Click on the guide you would like to use in order to begin the Project. After doing this, IMPLAN will prompt users to give the Project a name and specify the folder where the Project will be stored. After doing this, clicking Save will progress users to the Regions Page to begin setting up the guided Project.

USING THE QUICK START GUIDE

REGIONS

Upon landing on the Regions Page, click Open In-App Guide button to turn on the Guide prompts. The prompts will provide more clarity on the next steps for the Project, which on this page would include selecting the Region where your Event is taking place. After this step is completed, click Create Impact to navigate to the Impacts Page.

IMPACTS

To continue using the prompts on the Impacts Page, click the Open In-App Guide button again. The prompts that will be present on the Impacts Page are designed for the selected Quick Start Guide. Use the Next or Back button to progress through the relevant slides in the In-App Guide.

Each of these prompts will provide users with a more detailed description of considerations and best practices for completing each step on the Impacts Page. After running the Project, users will need to click Dismiss Guide to be able to view the Results Page of the analysis.

RESULTS

After clicking View Results, users will be taken to the Summary Report Dashboard. This page will split out the Results of the construction and operations Events, with various high level values such as the Cost of Construction and Tax Revenue. Both the construction and operations reports will also include a brief summary of the Results for the Events that were modeled, which will be helpful in communicating the Results of the analysis to key stakeholders.