{"id":1293,"date":"2012-09-25T09:07:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-25T16:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/?p=1293"},"modified":"2012-09-25T09:07:28","modified_gmt":"2012-09-25T16:07:28","slug":"solution-templates-rethinking-gis","status":"publish","type":"insider","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/insider\/solution-templates-rethinking-gis","title":{"rendered":"Solution Templates: Rethinking GIS"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong>GIS technology has evolved from a tool for specialized professionals to a platform that can be used \u201cby everyone.\u201d An important component of this more far-reaching platform is the development and release of Solution Templates that are designed to facilitate GIS throughout the organization.
\n\u201cOur goal is to provide things that help people be successful,\u201d said Damian Spangrud, Esri\u2019s new Director of Solutions. \u201cBut the landscape is changing\u2014the types of people we are serving, how they are using our technology, and even the definition of what is \u2018success\u2019\u2014 everything is changing. As we started to think about where GIS fits in this new landscape, the questions we started asking ourselves were: What kinds of things can we give people so that they can tailor their ArcGIS system to be more successful? And how can we help them share their GIS investment with everyone across the organization?\u201d
\nIn many organizations, GIS has long been an island\u2014in effect, an IT department separate from IT, because, as many have suggested, \u201cspatial<\/em> is special<\/em>.\u201d But that\u2019s all changing in the new geospatial landscape. \u201cGIS is no longer an island,\u201d says Damian. \u201cGIS is the bridge. Spatial<\/em> is increasingly being recognized as valuable<\/em>, and the GIS people are in the position of being heroes across the organization\u2026if they can just provide the maps and apps that the rest of the organization needs.\u201d
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Esri has released a number of successful Solution Templates such as these for local government, water utilities, and public safety.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe result of this rethinking of GIS is a new Esri initiative providing Solution Templates. This initiative has resulted in the creation of a series of communities where users can share best practices and focused maps and apps that add value to their community by illustrating how to best configure the ArcGIS system for specific applications. The intention is to reduce the time and effort users and partners need to invest to deploy GIS, and to make GIS more broadly accessible and useful.
\nA Growing Program<\/strong>
\nThough the initiative is still in its infancy, Esri has already released a number of successful Solution Templates. \u201cThe main areas we\u2019ve been focused on so far are local government, defense, and emergency management,\u201d Damian said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re looking at building templates in a number of additional areas.\u201d
\nThe suite of Solution Templates ranges from simple examples of best practices all the way to commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications. \u201cThe level of refinement of a specific template depends on who is going to be using it, and how they are going to be using it,\u201d Damian notes. \u201cIn some situations, people want\u2014even expect\u2014COTS. In other situations, it would be a waste of time to release a COTS app, because people would never use it as-is; they are just looking for examples of best practices, and code they can grab.\u201d
\nThese new Solutions Templates also offer unprecedented opportunities for partners. Being open source, all templates are available at no charge for use by systems integrators and developers in their own projects and products. \u201cBy providing partners with apps that show them the art of the possible, we hope to make their work easier,\u201d Damian said. \u201cAnd many partners are already leveraging our investment in Solutions Templates. It\u2019s gratifying to see such widespread adoption, given that the program has only been fully in place for less than a year.\u201d
\nLinks:<\/p>\n