ESRI Small Government ELA News

11 February 2008, 11:30am

Redlands, California - Small governments across the United States are signing up for ESRI's new Small Municipal and County Government Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) program. The City of Auburn, Alabama, and San Juan County, Washington, recently joined other small governments taking advantage of a program that allows them to expand geographic information system (GIS) technology across the enterprise while adhering to budget constraints.

The City of Auburn, a college town with approximately 48,000 full-time residents, saw the ELA as a way to save money, eliminate software license management, and improve the current organization-wide GIS.

"Having the ELA is going to give us a lot of freedom to develop our GIS in ways that better serve the city’s staff and citizens. We can utilize Web-based ArcGIS products, ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Engine, and ArcGIS extensions," says Christopher Graff, GIS coordinator, City of Auburn. "It's pretty amazing to not be constrained by cost considerations. Really the only thing that could slow us down now is our imagination."

With a population of around 16,000 people, San Juan County also qualified for this unique ELA. This small community, made up of 136 islands in northwest Washington State, is currently using ArcGIS Desktop and ArcIMS software. The ELA will allow the county to start implementing ArcGIS Server and deliver ArcGIS Desktop software to more users. Melissa Crane, the county's GIS coordinator, looks forward to spatially enabling business applications across the county including tax assessments, road management, and permitting systems. Additionally, she wants the county's field crews to have access to GIS so they can collect timely, accurate data and upload it into the county's database.

"GIS is somewhat contagious, so more people are getting interested in it and want to learn more about it. With the ELA, we can provide the software they want without any additional cost," says Crane. "It gives people the tools they need to do their jobs and makes it easier for them to get the information they need."

Crane continues, "The ELA will also make it easier to deliver information to the public. We are public servants and we need to serve our community; I think this will better enable us to do that."

ESRI's Small Municipal and County Government ELA program allows unlimited deployments of ESRI ArcGIS software and is available to municipalities and counties in the United States with populations of 100,000 or less. The program provides access to ESRI GIS technology with a straightforward, tiered pricing schedule. Other advantages include updated versions of GIS software for a consistent platform; flexible deployments to desktops, servers, and mobile devices; and the ability to incorporate GIS into mission-critical applications and workflows.

ESRI's ArcGIS software is an open and interoperable technology platform that provides advanced visualization and cartographic capabilities, spatial analysis, geographic data management, and more. ArcGIS software is a complete system to author, serve, and use geographic information. The technology gets geographic information to those who need it including analysts, decision makers, field staff, and the public.

For more information, contact your ESRI United States regional office (contact information is available at www.esri.com/usalocations), call 800-447-9778, or visit www.esri.com/smallgovela

www.esri.com/smallgovela

Geo: International