Second Largest City in Manitoba Uses ESRI Technology to Streamline Information Management and Improve Engineering, Public Safety and Economic Development

WINNIPEG — June 04, 2010 — ESRI Canada today presented an Award of Excellence to the City of Brandon for using ESRI's enterprise geographic information systems (GIS) to improve data management and enhance municipal operations and services. The ESRI Canada Awards of Excellence recognize organizations and individuals for their outstanding achievements in the application of GIS technology. The award was presented at the 2010 ESRI Canada User Conference in Winnipeg.

"Municipalities need enterprise technologies that help them manage information effectively and make it easily accessible to both their employees and the public," said Alex Miller, President, ESRI Canada. "We recognize the City of Brandon for its forward-thinking technology strategy. In applying GIS throughout its operations, the City has established a platform for a more efficient, connected and collaborative government."

Brandon has been using ESRI technology to support numerous processes since 1998. GIS is used by the City's engineering department for asset and property management, building permits administration and map creation. The system increases efficiency by reducing time, effort and resources needed to gather data required for analysis and decision making. For example, the City recently realigned electoral ward boundaries as population increased more in some wards than in others. To ensure that wards have equal population as prescribed by law, the City delineated new ward boundaries. In the past, this would have required a door-to-door enumeration that would have taken weeks and several staff to conduct. Instead, the City used ESRI's ArcGIS solution to automatically pull census data to determine the number of people in each ward and adjust boundaries to make the wards more equitable.

GIS serves as an investment attraction tool for the City's economic development department, which uses the software to conduct site location and demographics analysis and present the information to potential investors. The system is also used to manage fire and police dispatch and supports crime analysis and public safety operations.

"ESRI technology has allowed us to break down silos, eliminate data duplication and effectively share data," said James Hart, Manager of Municipal Assets, Engineering, City of Brandon. "ESRI's ArcGIS integrates easily with other systems and provides rich functionality for leveraging the Internet to distribute information. This helps us to share data across our departments and the public, enhancing our services and the satisfaction of citizens."

In late 2009, the City launched a public interactive Web-based map service to improve decision making using municipal geographic information. The City used to produce and distribute 70 different print atlases every year. These have been replaced with the portal that provides numerous digital maps with information on road closures, tax and assessment, as well as cemeteries to support genealogical research. In the future, Brandon plans to distribute more data including information on the City's emergency planning and operations using Web maps.

To access the City of Brandon's interactive Web-based map service, visit: http://gis.brandon.ca/

For more information on ESRI's ArcGIS solution, visit: http://www.esricanada.com/products/arcgisserver

About the City of Brandon

The City of Brandon is the second largest city in Manitoba, with a population of 43,000 people and a trading area of 180,000 people. It is located west of Winnipeg, east of Regina and north of the United States border. Brandon has been nicknamed the "Wheat City" for its rich agricultural heritage and reputation as a prosperous farming community. For more information, visit www.city.brandon.mb.ca.

About ESRI Canada

Founded in 1984, ESRI Canada provides enterprise geographic information systems (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 and 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 www.esricanada.com.



Contact:

Joy Chan
PR Specialist
ESRI
Canada
Tel.: 416-386-6488
E-mail: Email Contact
Web: www.esricanada.com