IDC's new white paper, Esri: Extending GIS to Enterprise Applications, by David Sonnen and Henry D. Morris, describes emerging geospatial markets and compares Esri's GIS products and capabilities against those markets. IDC is the premier global market intelligence and advisory firm in the information technology and telecommunications industries.

"In this paper, we evaluated Esri's strategies for reaching beyond traditional GIS," says Sonnen. "We concluded that the evolution of Esri's technology and the release of ArcGIS 9 track closely with major information technology trends, particularly the movement toward networked, service-oriented architectures."

Jack Dangermond, president of Esri, states, "This paper will help people understand Esri's two-pronged strategy for enterprise solutions. ArcGIS 9 supports geocentric work flows (e.g., for utilities and land records) as well as geospatial enabling technology (e.g., putting maps inside an enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management application). With ArcGIS 9, Esri offers a comprehensive solution for both GIS professionals and enterprise developers."

The paper outlines the drivers that are shaping geospatial markets, describes Esri's ArcGIS 9 technology, and talks about Esri's strategy for expanding its technology into broad enterprise markets. It also includes a case study that illustrates Esri's strategy and new technologies. In preparing this paper, IDC interviewed a number of Esri users and partners in depth.

The paper also addresses interoperability and IT standards. "Adherence to interoperability and IT standards, as well as compliance with a federated approach to information management, is critical to the extension of Esri's technologies to enterprise applications," says Sonnen. "By working with the operational requirements of an organization, Esri can integrate geospatial capabilities into operational applications."

To download the white paper, visit www.esri.com/IDCpaper.