REDLANDS, Calif., Aug. 13, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Baltimore County, Maryland, has signed an enterprise license agreement (ELA) with Esri that provides unlimited access to geographic information system (GIS) software for its rapidly growing user base of county employees. Baltimore County is one of the first large counties in the nation to shift to this beneficial and cost-effective type of usage agreement to enhance workflows with GIS.
"The county's strategic business plan shows that although we are getting a huge return on our GIS investment—the county saves $4.7 million annually—we will get much more by integrating GIS more closely into business processes," said county executive Jim Smith.
Baltimore County has close to 400 GIS users in agencies such as the Department of Social Services, the Department of Permits and Development Management, the Office of Budget and Finance, and the Office of the County Auditor. The ELA will provide GIS software for these users, including ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server, as well as Esri training.
"We're anticipating that agencies will really step up and improve efficiencies now that they have the tools they need to do more geospatial analysis, which is core to so much of our work," said Douglas Adams, GIS program manager, Baltimore County. "As GIS is more widely disseminated throughout our organization, we will be able to better allocate our resources, respond more quickly to citizen requests, and enhance stewardship of our land."
In addition to existing users, hundreds more will be able to easily access GIS software to improve their productivity, which will enhance service to the county's more than 800,000 citizens.
"This enterprise agreement will help us achieve our overall county strategic plan to make our county government more effective, efficient, and accountable through the use of technology," added Rob Stradling, director of the Baltimore County Office of Information Technology.
To learn more about Esri government ELAs, visit www.esri.com/ela.
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/news.
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