ESRI Canada

Source: Exec Digital Canada

Date :4/11/2008 4:51:49 AM

GIS is a powerful technology that is changing the way our world is viewed and analyzed. President and founder, Alex Miller and Vice President, John Kitchen talked to Roxanne Ridge about how ESRI Canada is contributing to these changes.

Written by Roxanne Ridge and Produced by Richard Gentile

Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is the Canadian distributor for ESRI’s (Environmental Systems Research Institute) GIS software. GIS – or Geographic Information Systems – has been developing over the last forty years. It is a computer-based tool for mapping and analyzing things that exist and events that happen in our world.

The software is used by a variety of industries from agriculture, healthcare and oil and gas to education, defence and public safety. Geography plays a role in nearly every decision we make. Choosing sites, targeting market segments, planning distribution networks, responding to emergencies, or exploring for mineral deposits - all of these problems involve questions and answers related to geography. GIS allows organizations to leverage the geographic approach and integrate systems and business applications to save valuable resources, visualize their assets and streamline workflows.

Providing solutions

ESRI Canada has headquarters in Toronto, where it operates its central management systems and corporate services. The company has 15 regional offices across Canada with 300 employees. Annual company revenues for last year exceeded $55 million.

ESRI Canada believes that it will continue to grow faster than the market – at around 15 percent each year.

So, what is it about the business that has made it such a success? And how is ESRI Canada contributing to the changes in the way GIS is being used?

Rather than just distributing GIS software, ESRI Canada works hard to ensure that clients achieve the most from their investment in ESRI technology. However, this is no easy task. ESRI Canada’s clients come from a variety of industries with many complex challenges. ESRI Canada’s clients are a part of the largest GIS user community in the world – there are more than one million users in more than 300,000 organizations.

“More and more we are being asked to bring domain knowledge to the application of GIS in specific areas,” explains Alex Miller, President of ESRI Canada. “And this can be difficult. Our consulting staff are given hands-on GIS project experience so they can deal with the specific requirements of the clients, while the sales team uses their expertise and deep understanding of the client organizations, and their GIS and domain knowledge to support the users.”

“We also offer a great deal of education and training services to help our users enhance their use of GIS technology. ESRI Canada offers 38 certified training courses for new and advanced users, developers, system architects, database administrators, and managers.”

To help ESRI Canada provide specialized services and industry-specific solutions, the company has established an extensive Business Partner Program. The company currently has over 130 business partners in Canada that are part of a global network of over 2000 ESRI business partners worldwide. This is a competitive advantage that provides extensive services, data, complimentary technology and business solutions in almost every industry based on the ESRI technology platform. “Our network of business partners means that we’re able to assist clients in a multitude of industries that are interested in using GIS software,” adds Alex.

Strategic locations

“In addition to this, all our Canadian offices are strategically located,” adds Vice President, John Kitchen. “And this means that we are closer to our customers who are using the GIS technology, which in turn means that all users of GIS can be educated on applications of the technology through our local staff and training programs.”

In a similar fashion, the company has been quick to recognize and meet the demands of the different types of people who use GIS. “There has been a huge demand for location analysis systems, which has been very much due to the awareness and use of consumer applications like Google Earth and Virtual Earth,” Alex continues.

“Home users want to use GIS to look at parts of the world and ask simple questions like where is the closest location of a hotel or service and perhaps what is the best way to get there. Professional organizations see the opportunities for using GIS to do extensive analysis – finding for example information on a particular area to provide health services that match the demographic make up of the community.”

Talented workers

None of this would be possible however, if it wasn’t for ESRI Canada’s employees. The company has a number of attractive benefits that ensure that staff develop their skills within the company. And for this reason, the company has a relatively low turnover rate.

“We promote from within,” explains John. “When jobs open within the company, ESRI Canada’s employees are encouraged to apply first. ESRI Canada also spends a lot of time training staff in a number of different ways – we look at their marketing, technical and sales skills, and host annual training retreats where staff are encouraged to build up their skills.”

“There is also the benefit that staff can relocate within the company – our employees always have the opportunities to move around ESRI Canada’s 15 offices. And when staff do leave the company, we always conduct an exit interview – this enables us to gain useful feedback which we can then plug back into the company.

“We are just in the process of setting up a graduate training program and we are due to have three people start in the spring,” he adds.

Giving something back

The graduate training program is just one example of how ESRI Canada keeps strong links with the community. The company is continually working to give something back to the local area – work that has recently led to a nomination for United Way’s Spirit Award –an award that recognizes commitment, leadership and creativity within the local community.

“We offer scholarships to a number of universities and community colleges. Undergraduates are given between $1500 and $2500 each,” says Alex. “And we’ve provided extensive support to conservation organizations, like Ducks Unlimited, which led to us receiving the Diamond Teal Award in 2003. We do a lot of work with primary and secondary schools, encouraging students to learn about the world around them using GIS. ESRI Canada has a well established program for training teachers on our software and we invite schools to get involved with our user conferences and other events.

"Additionally, the professional users of our software are encouraged to adopt a school by providing support and mentoring to teachers and students in their communities. Essentially, kids are the future and they should be involved in technological changes and developments.”

The future

ESRI Canada is a forward thinking company and as the company develops, it is looking to concentrate on marketing at the executive level of businesses.

“Over the last few years there has been a large concentration on vertical marketing – and a focus on specific industries,” says Alex. “Geography matters to all industries and businesses and we want to continue to develop the applications and services we offer to support clients in as many ways as we can.”