The answers provided are for general information purposes only. For specific information about Site Licenses, please e-mail ESRI's Higher Education Team at highered@esri.com.
Disclaimer: The information included in this FAQ is not meant to supersede or replace the licensing requirements and agreements set forth in a signed Master Site License Agreement.
A Site License grants an educational institution license to use a large collection of ESRI software products on an unlimited number of the institution's computers on one campus. The software may be used for teaching, research, and administrative purposes. Any form of commercial use is explicitly prohibited. Distribution of the software to licensed end users on campus and other administrative maintenance of the Site License are handled by a Site License Administrator or Coordinator designated by the educational institution.
A Site License is managed and controlled at the institution by a team or, in some cases, an individual designated by the educational institution as defined below.
The Site License Administrator is responsible for establishing and signing the Site License Agreement with ESRI and is the primary contact between the institution and ESRI. The Administrator is the only individual who can officially designate or change the name of a Coordinator, Technical Support Contact, or Virtual Campus Annual User License Administrator by sending written notice (e-mail) to the ESRI Customer Service Representative. If knowledgeable about GIS and ESRI, the Administrator may also act as the Site License Coordinator and is also eligible to contact Tech Support.
The Site License Coordinator (and designated staff) is responsible for protecting, managing, distributing, and creating copies of the software and distributing them to the departments on campus. The Site License Coordinator typically creates and distributes the software keycodes. In addition, the Site License Coordinator may also act as a Technical Support Contact. The Site License Coordinator is usually the main contact on the campus for faculty and staff who wish to participate in the Site License program. The Site License Coordinator must be knowledgeable in GIS and ESRI software.
The Technical Support Contact(s) is/(are) authorized to contact ESRI's Technical Support Department via fax, e-mail, or phone at 888-377-4575. Technical Support questions must be routed via the designated Technical Support Contact(s) who must be knowledgeable in GIS and ESRI software. The Technical Support Contacts are determined by the Site License Administrator at the time a Master Site License Agreement is signed. Information about specific Technical Support Contacts at a particular institution is maintained by the Site License Administrator. Only the Site License Administrator can change Technical Support contacts by sending written notice to the Site License Customer Service representative. This can be done as often as necessary to provide adequate coverage to the campus.
The Virtual Campus Annual User License Administrator is the main ESRI contact for Virtual Campus License issues. The Virtual Campus License Administrator maintains and protects the Master Code used to access the Virtual Campus Annual User License account and to generate and distribute the individual course access codes used to enroll in the Virtual Campus courses. The Virtual Campus License Administrator can designate up to 10 faculty or staff as License Representatives to assist in the distribution of Virtual Campus course access codes.
The Virtual Campus Annual User License Representative is a faculty or staff member designated to assist the Virtual Campus License Administrator in the creation and distribution of Virtual Campus course access codes.
Faculty and staff participate in the Site License by securing and maintaining the ESRI software in their individual departments. The main point of contact for faculty and staff will be the Site License Coordinator.
Note: Products may be added or discontinued at any time.
Please contact Ann Johnson, ESRI Education Solutions Manager or your local ESRI office for specific information about Campus-Wide Site Licenses.
Administration (e.g., campus mapping, facilities management, physical planning and land use, campus safety, alumni tracking, marketing activities, bus routing, pedestrian/bicycle trail design, regulatory compliance)
At no time is commercial use authorized. Commercial use is defined as use of the software, documentation, or data for any use relating to "for profit" purposes.
Note: Teaching and research uses may be in conjunction with a campus GIS center or similar campus programs in which students are exposed to real-world problem solving and internship opportunities that may be funded by grants from outside organizations.
The software may only be copied by the Site License Administrator in accordance with rules set forth in the Site License. Other licensed campus end users wishing to obtain a copy of software must contact the Site License Administrator or Coordinator.
Additional copies of media kits may be purchased by the Site License Coordinator at his/her discretion to help facilitate software distribution.
No. The software under the ESRI Site License Agreement is not intended to be installed and operated on student-owned computers. Students can obtain access to the 180-day time-out edition of ESRI software for use on their personal computers by purchasing Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop.
Note: Caution should be exercised when purchasing used books because the software included with the book may have already exceeded the 180-day license.
Students may also obtain individual educational licenses of ArcView and many of its extensions by calling ESRI TeleBusiness at 1-800-447-9778.
ArcView Business Analyst is a data-rich product that is gaining acceptance at business schools and at businesses in the United States. For access to these products, contact ESRI TeleBusiness at 1-800-447-9778.
In the case of Business Analyst, ESRI has been able to obtain large educational discounts from the data vendors. These licenses are limited to teaching, administrative, and research use and do not permit commercial use. There are various options by which ArcView Business Analyst can be obtained:
The Single Business Analyst (3.x or 9) Lab Kit includes one set of media, data CDs, documentation, and license at $3,500 due to royalty costs for data.
The Business Analyst 3.x Teaching Lab Pak provides a license to install Business Analyst on up to 25 computer stations in one lab location (cannot be used across the campus) for teaching purposes only for $995. Note: This option requires the purchase of a single Business Analyst Lab Kit at $3,500 as the data source for the Teaching Lab Kit Pak. Only extracted data sets may be used from the Business Analyst data sets. The data may be used for the exercises in the lab and must be removed after use. A separate letter agreement stipulating data use must be signed for this option.
The ArcGIS Business Analyst LAB KIT Pak accommodates the need to teach the software and business application concepts to an entire class of students. By providing a limited Texas-only data set, ESRI is now able to offer a 25-seat LAB Kit Pak for about 40 percent of the cost of one seat of the same product with a nationwide data set. This does not prevent users from adding their own local data to analyze. For more information, please contact the ESRI TeleBusiness Department at 800-447-9778.
In the case of ArcView Tracking Analyst or ArcGIS Tracking Analyst, ESRI has been able to negotiate a tiered fee per year (per version) to add ArcView Tracking Analyst or ArcGIS Tracking Analyst to site licenses. For specific pricing information, please contact your local account representative or and Education Industry Manager. Once a purchase order has been received by ESRI, the Customer Service Representative will request that a contract amendment be added to the Site License. A signed contract amendment is required before keycodes can be issued for these third party products.
The Site License program includes complimentary ESRI User Conference passes. The number of passes depends on the type of Site License. To obtain a complimentary pass, please contact your Site License Administrator. The Administrator tracks how many conference passes are available and determines how they are allocated. Unauthorized User Conference passes will be billed to the faculty or staff.
ESRI publishes the HigherEd Admin e-News periodically with information impacting the success and implementation of Site Licenses. The newsletter also announces new products, product updates, or educational resources that will benefit the growth of GIS at your institution.
Key codes, Hardware Keys, Additional Media, and Technical Support
Key codes must be generated by the Site License Administrator. New Site License Administrators must receive a login and password from ESRI Customer Service after the Master Site License Agreement has been finalized. If you are a Site License Administrator, please contact Customer Service if you have questions about keycodes or generating keycodes Once the Site License Administrator has access he/she will be able to
Obtain new keycodes for all ArcGIS 9 products and extensions and other products including ArcSDE, ArcIMS ArcMap Server 4.0, ARC/INFO 7.x and ArcInfo 9.x, ArcSDE 3.x, and ArcView 3.x for UNIX (if applicable).
Update existing key code files.
Reissue existing key code files.
Transfer licenses from one license server to another.
A hardware key is the common name for a sentinel key that is required to use software that is licensed for concurrent use. A concurrent use license, also known as a floating seat license, is controlled by a license manager operating on an organization's network. Concurrent use licenses can be used by many users, but the number of users at any given time is limited to the number of floating licenses available. ESRI hardware keys can be purchased for parallel ports or USB ports. The Site License includes a minimum of 10 hardware keys for license manager purposes. The Site License Administrator or educators at the Site License institution can purchase additional hardware keys at the educational price (i.e., $90 for a set of three keys) by contacting Customer Service.
If you are current on your Site License Maintenance, ESRI Customer Service will begin shipping product updates to the designated Ship-to Address for the Site License as soon as they become available. Many users qualify to receive these updates, and it may take two to three weeks for every customer to get the product updates.
Site License holders can purchase additional software media and documentation by contacting ESRI TeleBusiness at 1-800-447-9778. Have your Customer Number ready.
Campuses/universities that are part of a Statewide Site License, can have their own Ship-to Address for an additional fee of $3,000 annually. An additional Technical Support Contact will cost $1,500 annually and additional User Conference passes cost $500 each. Please contact your Site License Administrator and request that these options be added to the Site License for the additional yearly fee.
If you are the Site License Administrator or one of the designated Technical Support Contacts named in your Site License Agreement, you will be able to call ESRI Technical Support for help with your question. If you are not a designated Technical Support Contact, you must contact your Site License Administrator and get the contact information for the person designated to be your contact at your campus. If you are not one of these people, you can go to the online Knowledge Base to find answers to your technical questions.
Note: If your university is located outside the United States, please contact your ESRI distributor to find out how you can access Technical Support.
Technical Support for ArcIMS—Initial purchase of ArcIMS (or signing of a Site License) and subsequent annual maintenance fees cover support for the installation configuration and all out-of-the-box usage of the designed functionality, applications, wizards, utilities, the Servlet connector and use of ArcXML in creating and modifying map configurations and functionality.
Developer Support for ArcIMS is an optional add-on annual or pay-per-call fee for users who request support for advanced development work not covered by Technical Support as part of the standard maintenance fees. Some of the areas covered include modifying the client viewers using HTML, JavaScript, VB Script, ActiveX, and Java and building custom Web applications using ColdFusion, ASP, JSP, or any of the other released connectors. Functionality is documented in the "Customizing ArcIMS..." set of manuals.
Note: If your university is located outside the United States, please contact your international distributor to find out how you can access Technical Support.
The Site License Administrator is the single point of primary contact between the campus and ESRI. The Site License Administrator must notify ESRI when a new individual replaces the Site License Administrator, Coordinator, Technical Support Contact, or Virtual Campus Annual User License Administrator by sending a written notice (e-mail) to ESRI Customer Service.
Each professor or instructor at a college or university can order ESRI Press desktop copies themselves without having to ask the Site License Administrator for assistance. ESRI Press provides up to three desk copies every four months to qualified educators. These include all available ESRI Press titles plus and ESRI Software documentation for ArcGIS 9.
University and college departments can order software documentation by calling ESRI TeleBusiness at 1-800-447-9778.
College bookstores wishing to buy ESRI Press books in bulk must contact Independent Publisher's Group (IPG) at 1-800-888-4741.
Students and faculty can also purchase ESRI Press books (in some cases at a 30 percent discount) at Web-based booksellers such as Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble .
FAQs for the Site License Administrator can be found on the ESRI Training and Education Web site as well as a list of the Virtual Campus courses authored by third parties that are available at an educational discount.
Note: Site Licenses provide unlimited seat access to ESRI-authored Virtual Campus courses to faculty, staff, and students.
ESRI is happy to advise educators in curriculum development needs. ESRI also has collected some sample curricula from colleges and universities that can serve as samples of GIS-related higher education programs.
ESRI has also developed ArcLessons, a free resource for educators to share ready-made LessonPacks for using GIS in the classroom.
In the fall of 2002 ESRI published a white paper entitled Guidelines for Developing a Successful and Sustainable Higher Education GIS Program. [PDF-1.02 MB] This white paper provides guidelines that will support educators, researchers, and administrators at colleges and universities in developing a successful and sustainable GIS program. The paper defines fundamental GIS concepts, describes procedures and methods for planning and maintaining a GIS program (including hardware, software, faculty training, and laboratory needs), and provides links to funding and other resources helpful for long-term management and maintenance of a GIS program.
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