King County, Washington, Grows GIS with Esri ELA

Greater Access to Software Will Support Expanded Web Application Development

Redlands, California—November 28, 2011—King County, Washington, the nation’s fourteenth most-populous county and home to Microsoft, Amazon.com, Boeing, and Starbucks, has signed an enterprise license agreement (ELA) with Esri to better support the county’s geographic information system (GIS) programs and initiatives.

The majority of King County’s departments have used Esri’s ArcGIS software for many years to improve operations and the delivery of services, but increasing use has frequently strained resources. Staff have often had to wait for licenses to become available to continue with their work. Now, all employees throughout the organization will have unlimited access to the ArcGIS software they need.

The ELA will also provide the platform that developers need to accelerate web application development. "Having additional flexibility with more ArcGIS licenses available for testing and production will enhance our ability to develop additional applications that serve our various agencies and the general public," says Greg Stought, King County GIS Center enterprise services manager.

King County GIS Center manager George Horning adds that he is looking forward to creating mobile versions of popular web mapping applications such as ParkFinder and What Do I Do With. . . ? ParkFinder shows residents information on local parks and trails, while What Do I Do With. . . ? shows people where they can recycle or dispose of unwanted materials, such as carpet, appliances, batteries, and scrap wood.

"We have a very active community in King County, so putting information into the hands of residents and businesses is essential," notes Stought. "There is a great deal of effort from division staff and program managers to be aware of what people are interested in and educate them about our programs. Putting information out in mapping applications that are intuitive and easy to use has proven very popular."

County leaders also plan to deliver mobile GIS applications for staff members such as appraisers. "They will have access to all the information they need in the field to complete their appraisals instead of checking back in to the office before they can finish their work," says Horning.

To learn more about Esri ELAs for government, visit esri.com/ela.

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About Esri

Since 1969, Esri has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS technology, 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 esri.com/news.