Esri Canada

Last updated
Esri Canada
Company typePrivate
Industry Software
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Information management
Spatial analytics
Mapping
Founded Toronto, (1984)
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario, Canada 43°43′48.6804″N79°19′42.74″W / 43.730189000°N 79.3285389°W / 43.730189000; -79.3285389
Key people
Alex Miller, Founder/President
Products ArcGIS
Number of employees
400
Website esri.ca

Esri Canada is the Canadian provider of enterprise geographic information system (GIS) software from Esri. GIS allows multiple layers of information to be displayed on a single map. [1] A third of its offerings are professional services. [2]

Contents

In 2010, the company was first named into the Branham300, a listing of key players in the Canadian information technology industry by revenue, compiled annually by the analyst firm Branham Group. Esri Canada ranked #67 in the Top 250 Canadian IT Companies list and was named one of the Top 25 IT Professional Services Providers in Canada. [3] The company is a Platinum Winner among Canada's Best Managed Companies [4] and has also been named one of Canada's Most Admired Corporate Cultures in the mid-market category. [5]

History and expansion

Esri Canada was founded in 1984 by Alex Miller and Mary-Charlotte Miller, the company’s president and vice president of corporate policy respectively. The company is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. Early users of Esri technology in Canada include forestry giant J.D. Irving, Limited [6] and Oxford County, Ontario [7]

Esri Canada helped design the County of Oxford’s pioneering GIS model in 1985, called the Land Related Information System (LRIS), which integrated information such as property and infrastructure data from various government systems. The LRIS received the prestigious Exemplary Systems in Government Award from the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) in 1988. [8] The system continues to be used by the County today and has been expanded to support numerous business processes including administering building permits, civic addressing and emergency preparedness planning. [9]

Advancements in GIS technology fuelled the growth of Esri Canada. The use of GIS for digital mapping or electronic cartography, geographic analysis and data management expanded into other industries including business, government, education, defence, public safety, public works, transportation, telecommunications, utilities and health care.

GIS applications across industries

Rona (company), Canada’s largest home renovation products retailer, uses Esri technology to plan flyer distribution. They incorporate data from loyalty programs with other socio-economic data to obtain a picture of customer spending around each store. The same data now helps the retailer in locating new stores. [10]

Utilities Kingston, which provides water, wastewater, gas, electrical and networking services in Kingston, Ontario, eliminated paper trail in its operations, such as surveys and field visits for repairs and maintenance, by using mobile GIS applications. [11]

St. Michael’s Hospital (Toronto) used Esri technology integrated with other systems to create [BIO.DIASPORA] which predicts the global spread of infectious diseases by analyzing commercial air travel. [12] The system was used to accurately predict the spread of the H1N1 virus around the world in early 2009, [13] and also analyzed potential health threats during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. [14] BIO.DIASPORA was named a Laureate winner in the 2011 Computerworld Honors program, which recognizes outstanding use of information technology to benefit society. [15]

The company’s workforce had grown to 300 employees by 2010, serving more than 10,000 customers.

Community maps program

Esri Canada launched its Community Maps Program in June 2010. It intends to facilitate sharing of geographic data between governments and the public and provides free access to online community base maps that governments, businesses, and the public can use to develop GIS applications. Natural Resources Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada contributed national base maps, while the City of Toronto government was the first municipality to contribute its geographic data through the program. [16]

Local governments can augment their initiatives promoting Open Data in Canada by contributing their geographic data and community maps through the program, to be integrated into a World Topographic Map in Esri's ArcGIS Online portal. Other Canadian municipalities that have joined the program include St. Albert, Alberta; Nanaimo, British Columbia; Kamloops, British Columbia; Surrey, British Columbia; District of Oak Bay, British Columbia; Township of Langley, British Columbia; Moncton, New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick; and St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, among others. [17]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geographic information system</span> System to capture, manage and present geographic data

A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database, however, this is not essential to meet the definition of a GIS. In a broader sense, one may consider such a system also to include human users and support staff, procedures and workflows, the body of knowledge of relevant concepts and methods, and institutional organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Esri</span> Geospatial software & SaaS company

Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., doing business as Esri, is an American multinational geographic information system (GIS) software company headquartered in Redlands, California. It is best known for its ArcGIS products. With a 40% market share, Esri is the world's leading supplier of GIS software, web GIS and geodatabase management applications.

A GIS file format is a standard for encoding geographical information into a computer file, as a specialized type of file format for use in geographic information systems (GIS) and other geospatial applications. Since the 1970s, dozens of formats have been created based on various data models for various purposes. They have been created by government mapping agencies, GIS software vendors, standards bodies such as the Open Geospatial Consortium, informal user communities, and even individual developers.

A GIS software program is a computer program to support the use of a geographic information system, providing the ability to create, store, manage, query, analyze, and visualize geographic data, that is, data representing phenomena for which location is important. The GIS software industry encompasses a broad range of commercial and open-source products that provide some or all of these capabilities within various information technology architectures.

ArcSDE is a server-software sub-system that aims to enable the usage of Relational Database Management Systems for spatial data. The spatial data may then be used as part of a geodatabase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ArcGIS</span> Geographic information system maintained by Esri

ArcGIS is a family of client, server and online geographic information system (GIS) software developed and maintained by Esri.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Tomlinson</span> English-Canadian geographer

Roger Frank Tomlinson was an English-Canadian geographer and the primary originator of modern geographic information systems (GIS), and has been acknowledged as the "father of GIS."

ArcInfo is a full-featured geographic information system produced by Esri, and is the highest level of licensing in the ArcGIS Desktop product line. It was originally a command-line based system. The command-line processing abilities are now available through the GUI of the ArcGIS Desktop product.

Mark Stephen Monmonier is a Distinguished Professor of Geography and the Environment at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. He specializes in toponymy, geography, and geographic information systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Web mapping</span> Process of using the maps delivered by geographic information systems (GIS) in World Wide Web

Web mapping or an online mapping is the process of using, creating, and distributing maps on the World Wide Web, usually through the use of Web geographic information systems. A web map or an online map is both served and consumed, thus, web mapping is more than just web cartography, it is a service where consumers may choose what the map will show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society for Conservation GIS</span>

The Society for Conservation Geographic Information Systems (SCGIS) is an international non-profit society with around 1000 members in 80 countries.

TOXMAP was a geographic information system (GIS) from the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM) that was deprecated on December 16, 2019. The application used maps of the United States to help users explore data from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and Superfund programs with visual projections and maps.

Distributed GIS refers to GI Systems that do not have all of the system components in the same physical location. This could be the processing, the database, the rendering or the user interface. It represents a special case of distributed computing, with examples of distributed systems including Internet GIS, Web GIS, and Mobile GIS. Distribution of resources provides corporate and enterprise-based models for GIS. Distributed GIS permits a shared services model, including data fusion based on Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services. Distributed GIS technology enables modern online mapping systems, Location-based services (LBS), web-based GIS and numerous map-enabled applications. Other applications include transportation, logistics, utilities, farm / agricultural information systems, real-time environmental information systems and the analysis of the movement of people. In terms of data, the concept has been extended to include volunteered geographical information. Distributed processing allows improvements to the performance of spatial analysis through the use of techniques such as parallel processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GIS and aquatic science</span> Implementation of Geographic Information System

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has become an integral part of aquatic science and limnology. Water by its very nature is dynamic. Features associated with water are thus ever-changing. To be able to keep up with these changes, technological advancements have given scientists methods to enhance all aspects of scientific investigation, from satellite tracking of wildlife to computer mapping of habitats. Agencies like the US Geological Survey, US Fish and Wildlife Service as well as other federal and state agencies are utilizing GIS to aid in their conservation efforts.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an increasingly important component of business, healthcare, security, government, trade, media, transportation and tourism industries and operations in China. GIS software is playing an increasing role in the way Chinese companies analyze and manage business operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CityEngine</span> 3D modelling software

ArcGIS CityEngine is a commercial three-dimensional (3D) modeling program developed by Esri R&D Center Zurich and specialises in the generation of 3D urban environments. Using a procedural modeling approach, it supports the creation of detailed large-scale 3D city models. CityEngine works with architectural object placement and arrangement in the same manner that software like VUE manages terrain, ecosystems and atmosphere mapping. Unlike the traditional 3D modeling methodology which uses Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools and techniques, CityEngine takes a different approach to shape generation via a rule-based system. It can also use Geographic Information System (GIS) datasets due to its integration with the wider Esri/ArcGIS platform. Due to this unique feature set, CityEngine has been used in academic research and built environment professions, e.g., urban planning, architecture, visualization, game development, entertainment, archeology, military and cultural heritage. CityEngine can be used within Building Information Model (BIM) workflows as well as visualizing the data of buildings in a larger urban context, enhancing its working scenario toward real construction projects.

Geographic information systems (GIS) play a constantly evolving role in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) and United States national security. These technologies allow a user to efficiently manage, analyze, and produce geospatial data, to combine GEOINT with other forms of intelligence collection, and to perform highly developed analysis and visual production of geospatial data. Therefore, GIS produces up-to-date and more reliable GEOINT to reduce uncertainty for a decisionmaker. Since GIS programs are Web-enabled, a user can constantly work with a decision maker to solve their GEOINT and national security related problems from anywhere in the world. There are many types of GIS software used in GEOINT and national security, such as Google Earth, ERDAS IMAGINE, GeoNetwork opensource, and Esri ArcGIS.

GeoTime is geospatial analysis software that allows the visual analysis of events over time. It adds time as the third dimension to a two-dimensional map, allowing users to see changes within time series data. Users can view real-time animated playback of data and use automated analysis tools within the software to identify location patterns, connections between events, and trends.

The Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) is a non-profit association of professionals using geographic information systems (GIS) and other information technologies to solve challenges at all levels of government. URISA promotes the effective and ethical use of spatial information and technology for the understanding and management of urban and regional systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet GIS</span> Internet technologies regarding spatial data

Internet GIS, or Internet geographic information system (GIS), is a term that refers to a broad set of technologies and applications that employ the Internet to access, analyze, visualize, and distribute spatial data. Internet GIS is an outgrowth of traditional GIS, and represents a shift from conducting GIS on an individual computer to working with remotely distributed data and functions. Two major issues in GIS are accessing and distributing spatial data and GIS outputs. Internet GIS helps to solve that problem by allowing users to access vast databases impossible to store on a single desktop computer, and by allowing rapid dissemination of both maps and raw data to others. These methods include both file sharing and email. This has enabled the general public to participate in map creation and make use of GIS technology.

References

  1. ↑ "GIS (geographic information system)". National Geographic Society. 2017-06-21. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  2. ↑ "Winners | Best Managed | Executive | Financial Post". www.financialpost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-18.
  3. ↑ Anderson, Darren and O'Shea, Christina. "Branham300 2010 - Top Canadian Technology Companies: The year of opportunity and hardship" ( "Branham300 - 2010 | Backbone Magazine". Archived from the original on 2010-11-19. Retrieved 2010-11-11.) Backbone Magazine, April 1, 2010
  4. ↑ "Canada's Best Managed Companies: Platinum Winners 2019". www.canadianbusiness.com. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  5. ↑ "The 2016 winners of the Canada's 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures demonstrate the importance of culture and how it impacts organizational performance" (PDF). Waterstone Human Capital. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  6. ↑ "J.D. Irving recognized for enhancing forest management" (http://www.workingforest.com/jd-irving-recognized-enhancing-forest-management/ Archived 2011-10-09 at the Wayback Machine ) The Working Forest Newspaper, November 4, 2010
  7. ↑ Kelly, Barry. "County of Oxford, Ontario – Integration Saves Time, Money, and Effort" (https://www.esri.ca/downloads/InPrintJuly10_OxfordCounty.pdf%5B%5D ) Cityworks InPrint, July 2010
  8. ↑ "More than 20 Years of ESIG Award Winners" (http://www.urisa.org/awards/esig/previous Archived 2010-11-29 at the Wayback Machine ) URISA
  9. ↑ Rodrigues, Hugo. "County recognized for use of GIS software" (http://www.woodstocksentinelreview.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=2114230 ) Oxford Sentinel-Review, October 13, 2009
  10. ↑ Blackwell, Richard. "Digital age mapping delivers productivity gains" (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/growth/digital-age-mapping-delivers-productivity-gains/article1691975/) Globe and Mail, August 31, 2010
  11. ↑ "Canadian Utility Goes Real Time with Mobile GIS". Esri. 2019-02-01. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  12. ↑ Graff, Amanda. "Predicting the Spread of Infectious Disease in a Globalized World" http://www.esri.ca/en_resources/files/Predicting_the_Spread_of_Infectious_Disease_in_a_Globalized_World.pdf Archived 2012-06-06 at the Wayback Machine
  13. ↑ CTV.ca News Staff. "Air traffic patterns used to predict H1N1 spread" ( http://www.ctvnews.ca/air-traffic-patterns-used-to-predict-h1n1-spread-1.412357) CTV.ca, June 29, 2009
  14. ↑ Agrell, Siri. "Olympic visitors bring lots to BC – including disease" (http://www.stockhouse.com/Bullboards/MessageDetailThread.aspx?sv=2&p=0&m=27963358&r=3&s=BCRX&t=LIST ) Stockhouse.com (Originally published in The Globe and Mail), February 25, 2010
  15. ↑ CanHealth.com News staff, "St. Michael’s Hospital wins award for GIS application"(http://www.canhealth.com/News1673.html) Canadian Healthcare Technology, May 5, 2011
  16. ↑ "Esri Canada's Community Maps Program Promotes Broad Sharing of Geographic Information" (http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2010/jun/17/news5.html) GeoCommunity’s Spatial News, June 17, 2010
  17. ↑ Contributors, World Topographic Map (http://resources.arcgis.com/content/community-maps/world-topographic-map ) Esri ArcGIS Resource Center
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