More US cities sign up for ESRI ELA

16 April 2008, 4:18pm

City of Aspen/Pitkin County, City of Midland, and City of Albany Sign Up for New ESRI ELA
With Populations of Fewer Than 50,000, They Join Other Small Cities Taking Advantage of This Specialized Licensing Program

Redlands, California¯Governments of cities or counties with 100,000 residents or less continue to enter the new ESRI Small Municipal and County Government Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) program to support their visions for strong, organization-wide geographic information systems (GIS). The City of Aspen/Pitkin County, Colorado; the City of Midland, Michigan; and the City of Albany, Oregon, are a few of the latest to join the program.

The benefits of this ELA include

* Easier GIS software administration
* Delivery of unlimited ArcGIS software and specified extensions including Spatial Analyst and 3D Analyst
* Access to the most updated versions of ArcGIS software
* Ability to shift focus from GIS software procurement to GIS implementations* Opportunity to develop mobile GIS for improved support of departments such as fire, police, and building

City of Midland

With a population of 42,000, the City of Midland, Michigan, is in the last year of a three-year implementation plan for building its GIS from scratch. The first and second years involved data development and deploying custom intranet applications for city staff. Now, the city is working to deploy GIS across the Internet and better serve the public.

"Over the last several months, our user base has grown so rapidly that I had to start asking people who were not using ArcGIS for critical operational purposes to please close out and free up the license for someone else," related Tony Foisy, GIS manager, City of Midland. "When I saw this ELA, I knew it would be a really good time for us to get into it. The cost-benefit analysis made it a no-brainer."

In times where budgets are being cut, this will allow the city to do more with less, Foisy noted, adding that the ELA will also allow the city to meet the GIS goals in its implementation plans, better allocate resources, keep the capital budget low, increase the accessibility of GIS to staff in the field, and leverage new technologies.

City of Aspen/Pitkin County

The approval process was especially rapid for the City of Aspen/Pitkin County, with a population of 13,000. Decision makers clearly recognized the flexibility the program provides and the benefit of delivering more GIS tools to users.

"Now we can get everyone on the same version of ArcGIS software, making administration and support easier; that's a big advantage," said Mary Lackner, GIS manager for the City of Aspen/Pitkin County. "Traditionally, determining a budget for the upgrades, getting everyone on maintenance, and getting all of the departments to individually invoice and pay for it required a lot of time and administration."

City of Albany

In the City of Albany, Oregon, with a population of 47,000, data systems manager Pete Brandstetter also noted the benefit of removing GIS software administration from their workflows. "Whatever we decide we want to pursue, we are able to do that now," he said. "I think this will be really conducive to allowing new people to come to the table and take off on application development and data creation without any kind of roadblocks in their way."

ESRI's Small Municipal and County Government ELA program provides access to ESRI GIS technology with a straightforward, tiered pricing schedule. 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/usa), call 800-447-9778, or visit www.esri.com/smallgovela.

www.esri.com

Geo: International