Canada's Capital Uses Services-Oriented Architecture Approach to Establish an Enterprise GIS to Support Municipal Operations

OTTAWA - November 3, 2009 - ESRI Canada has presented an Award of Excellence to the City of Ottawa for integrating geographic information system (GIS) technology with enterprise business systems to enhance municipal operations including public works, surveys and mapping, and urban forestry management. The ESRI enterprise GIS, which uses a services-oriented architecture (SOA) approach, will enable the City to more easily incorporate and adopt new technologies in the future. The award was presented at the 2009 ESRI Regional User Conference held on October 20, 2009 in Ottawa.

"The City of Ottawa's forward-thinking technology strategy effectively positions the municipality to drive continuous improvement in its operations and maximize return on its IT investment," said James Wickson, Vice President of Sales and Professional Services, ESRI Canada. "We are proud to provide the City with a world-class GIS solution that is open, scalable and SOA-enabled to help it develop more agile business processes."

The City of Ottawa has been using ESRI ArcGIS technology since 2002 and has extensively used GIS in its operations including urban mapping, land use and natural resource planning, and sewer, water and wastewater management. The City also uses GIS for health and public safety program planning and has leveraged the technology to monitor, track and develop appropriate action plans to protect its citizens from infectious diseases such as the West Nile virus in 2003. GIS is also applied in the City's urban tree preservation programs and is a key tool in managing and addressing the current emerald ash borer infestation in Ottawa and surrounding areas.

"This award is another example of the City's commitment to using technologies to deliver the best possible services to the citizens of Ottawa," said Mayor Larry O'Brien, City of Ottawa. "I'd like to congratulate staff on this tremendous achievement."

ESRI ArcGIS is an integrated suite of GIS software that enables users to capture, store, analyze and display geographic information. It conforms to open standards and enterprise IT frameworks so users can incorporate GIS in any application, on a variety of computing and mobile devices, and use geographic information accessed from databases and Web services. ArcGIS is SOA-enabled and will provide the City with full Web service integration capability, enabling it to combine GIS with other business systems, applications and interfaces. This significantly improves the value and return on GIS and IT investment.

"ESRI GIS provides a clear road forward for the City," said Laine Wyman, Program Manager, Geographic Information Systems at the City of Ottawa. "We intend to further build on our success in leveraging GIS by using ESRI ArcGIS and SOA to create further efficiencies in other areas of our operations and better position us for the future."

The City is currently undertaking a project to replace its infrastructure management system that will include integrating its GIS with other corporate systems.

For more information about ESRI ArcGIS technology, visit: www.esricanada.com/products/arcgis.

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About the City of Ottawa
The City of Ottawa is Canada's capital and fourth-largest city, with a population of 845,000. The City provides services residents and businesses count on each day. The City operates over 100 different business lines - everything from police, fire and paramedic services to efficient public transit; from planning city growth to stimulating the economy; from recreational programs to public health; from building roads, bridges and sewers to collecting garbage and recycling or delivering clean water; and so much more. For more information, visit http://www.ottawa.ca/.

About ESRI Canada
Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada provides enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions that empower businesses, governments, and educational institutions to make timely, informed and mission critical decisions by leveraging the power of geography. The company distributes the world's leading GIS software from ESRI, Telvent Miner & Miner, Azteca Systems, and other technology partners. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Information about ESRI Canada can be found at http://www.esricanada.com/.

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