Redlands, California—October 19, 2009— National Grid Gas in the United Kingdom recently selected ESRI geographic information system (GIS) software for its gas distribution front-office transformation program. With ESRI GIS and other IT upgrades, National Grid plans to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer service. National Grid chose ESRI (UK) Ltd. from a global pool of all major GIS vendors.

"We ran a robust process to ensure we selected the best GIS product and supplier to deliver our requirements and also deliver the geospatial components into a wider business transformation program," said Corinne Lury, senior IT manager at National Grid. "From a technical perspective, integration is key, requiring close working between all our product vendors. We are pleased to be working with ESRI as we move forward on our exciting journey."

More than 80 percent of National Grid's operational and management decisions have a spatial context—from asset management, engineering analysis, and design to operations, marketing, and finance. ESRI GIS enables this information to be more effectively combined, analyzed, visualized, and shared throughout the company. National Grid Gas will take full advantage of GIS by integrating its asset and work management solutions with ESRI's ArcGIS Desktop, ArcGIS Server, and ArcGIS Mobile.

"We are delighted that National Grid has chosen ESRI to support such an important transformation project," said Richard Waite, managing director of ESRI (UK) Ltd. "We pride ourselves on our domain knowledge and our ability to work with our customers to understand their specific needs. GIS is now recognized as a critical enterprise capability. We look forward to helping National Grid ensure the success of this project and supporting their business in the long term."

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.



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Jessica Wyland
ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-3345
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