ESRI received a Positive rating in a recent report from Gartner, Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry. The report, MarketScope for Energy and Utility Geographic Information Systems, 2H07, by Bradley Williams and Jeff Vining and published October 17, 2007, was created for energy and utility customers so they may have a better understanding of the most appropriate geographic information system (GIS) software products available on the market. This is the first publication of the report, which will be published annually.
Gartner, Inc., evaluated six worldwide GIS software vendors in this market report. Requirements included the software fulfill tasks specific to this industry including maintaining facility maps, designs, and a network topology/connectivity model as well as supported connectivity to other systems via client-side interfaces and enterprise applications.
States the report: "[U]tilities are realizing the value of spatial asset information in multiple applications to drive business performance . . . Utilities are finding that, as they depend more on IT solutions to drive business performance, data quality becomes critical to that success. Utilities have realized that managing accurate data in hundreds of stand-alone legacy applications is an impossible task. GIS is becoming the foundation for EIM [enterprise information management], combined with solid business processes that can be integrated with the EAM [enterprise asset management] workflow. Mobile and wireless applications are coming of age such that, when integrated with GIS or EAM, they further improve asset data quality and business performance."
ESRI president Jack Dangermond concurs, "Geospatial knowledge and functionality underpin the vast majority of business processes within companies that manage complex infrastructures. ESRI GIS software meets the needs of utility organizations of all sizes, as our technology makes for better engineering design, maintenance, and construction as well as customer care, billing, forecasting, and environmental management."
ESRI’s solutions for the energy and utility market include its ArcGIS Server family of products, which provides the power of GIS-enabled service-oriented architecture (SOA) to assist decision makers with the speed, agility, and tools to get better business results. Using ArcGIS Server, companies meet asset management challenges and operational needs, providing a streamlined method for integrating spatial knowledge into the IT mainstream.
As part of this solution, specialized applications such as ArcGIS Image Server and ArcGIS Mobile further enhance any company’s use and analysis of geospatial data. ArcGIS Image Server allows energy and utility companies to view and integrate high-quality imagery within hours of its creation, facilitating rapid response to power outages, emergencies, or natural disasters.
ArcGIS Mobile gives field-workers from these organizations access to the complete functionality of their enterprise GIS on lightweight, sometimes-connected field devices, including cell phones, PDAs, or Tablet PCs, significantly enhancing field decision making and productivity.