TORONTO – July 18, 2011 – ESRI Canada congratulates the City of Calgary for receiving the  ESRI Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award for its Core Mapping Project.  The City was selected from more than 100,000 organizations worldwide for its outstanding use of geographic information system (GIS) technology to centralize municipal land information maintenance.  This enables the City to produce consistent basemaps to support numerous business processes.  The award was presented on July 13 at the 2011 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, California, which attracted 15,000 attendees.

“We applaud the City of Calgary for their innovative and forward-thinking use of GIS technology,” commented Alex Miller, president, ESRI Canada.  “Having a central source for municipal basemaps allows their staff to access these resources quickly and easily integrate business data to enable better decisions.  Whether it's designing intelligent utility networks, planning sustainable infrastructure or tracking the condition of assets, they've enhanced their ability to provide more efficient community services.  We're proud that their project is being shared with the global GIS community through this award.”     
 
The City migrated municipal land information maintenance from their previous computer-aided design (CAD) system to a GIS environment. Using ESRI's ArcGIS technology, they integrated legal surveys and land ownership data into a comprehensive geodatabase.  This has increased their efficiency in delivering high-quality, accurate and up-to-date geographic information and basemaps throughout their organization.  Since the basemaps and data are centrally maintained through the GIS, the City has eliminated redundant processes and improved data consistency across all systems.

“It's a great honour to be recognized among the best in the GIS industry,” says John Lethaby, project manager, Infrastructure & Information Services, City of Calgary.  “We've always been focused on maximizing the value of our information and technology resources to benefit the community.  GIS allows us to do this.  It provides us with a robust and richer platform for managing and sharing land information.  With the advanced analytical tools it provides, we look forward to further leveraging the technology to enhance planning and decision support across our organization.”

For more information about the ESRI SAG Awards, visit esri.com/sag.

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About the City of Calgary
The City of Calgary is the largest city in the Province of Alberta, with a population of more than one million.  It is the third-largest municipality in Canada and the largest Canadian metropolitan area between Toronto and Vancouver.  The City's economy is centred on the petroleum industry, as well as agriculture, tourism and high technology.  More information is available at calgary.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, Cityworks and other technology partners.  Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada and has been named as one of the top 250 Canadian IT companies and top 25 IT professional services providers in Canada by the Branham Group.  Information about ESRI Canada can be found at esricanada.com.