TORONTO – March 16, 2016 – Esri Canada, the country’s leading enterprise geographic information system (GIS) solutions provider, has been named a Gold Standard winner among Canada’s Best Managed Companies, a prestigious national award program sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, Smith School of Business and MacKay CEO Forums. Esri Canada has maintained its Best Managed designation since 2012 and has enjoyed positive year-over-year growth since the company was founded in 1984.
“Best Managed companies are strong in strategy, capability, commitment and financial performance. They are all great Canadian business success stories,” said Peter Brown, partner, Deloitte and co-leader, Canada’s Best Managed Companies program. “I would like to recognize the efforts of Esri Canada. It takes a dedicated effort from an entire team to focus on a core vision, create stakeholder value and excel in the global economy to achieve this level of success.”
“This Best Managed Gold Standard recognition is testament to our unwavering focus on helping customers leverage GIS technology to become sustainable,” said Alex Miller, president and founder, Esri Canada. “We’ve embraced innovation and continue to develop groundbreaking geospatial solutions that increase operational efficiency, and more importantly, build community. We share this award with our customers, employees and partners, and thank them for their continued support.”
Promoting sustainability and innovation
Esri Canada continues to help organizations across industries leverage ArcGIS—the world’s leading platform for digital mapping and analysis—to improve their operations. The latest ArcGIS release (10.4) includes new capabilities for visualizing location-based information and quickly deploying GIS data and functionality across the enterprise, as well as powerful new apps that improve coordination between field and office. The platform supports improved asset management, planning and design, operational awareness and customer engagement, towards more sustainable communities.
The company is also providing more vertical solutions to meet the targeted needs of industries. In 2015, Esri Canada introduced ArcGIS for Outage Communications, a cloud-based GIS solution that allows electric utilities to deliver proactive outage communications to customers. It was named Best Cloud Solution at the 2015 CDN Channel Elite Awards by Computer Dealer News. Meanwhile, ArcGIS Open Data, another cloud-based application, enables governments to create interactive open data catalogues and portals within minutes and engage the public in using open data for community improvement. Esri Canada also continues to build momentum for Assessment Analyst, which helps optimize tax revenue through accurate and cost-effective property assessments from the desktop.
Building community
In 2015, Esri Canada became a founding member of GeoAlliance Canada, a new national umbrella organization that focuses on raising the profile of geo across the country. The non-profit organization brings together leaders and volunteers from all sectors to make Canada’s geospatial sector among the most innovative and competitive in the world. Esri Canada also continues to lead the creation of the Community Map of Canada, a detailed, up-to-date and authoritative online national basemap that is free for everyone to use for their own mapping applications. The map now includes detail at the municipal level for more than 70 per cent of the country’s population.
Through the Esri Canada GIS Centres of Excellence, the company supports $18 million in research and development in higher education. The Centres promote teaching excellence in spatial data management and analysis, as well as the collaborative and innovative use of GIS for research and learning. Since its launch in 2014, the network has grown to nine Centres in British Columbia, Ontario, Québec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. As well, Esri Canada continues to build community through giving. With an exceptional 2:1 matching program, employees donated more than $225,000 last year to local charities through the United Way. For its commitment to community, Esri Canada was recognized with the United Way Community Impact Award in 2015.
Read more about Esri Canada in the National Post.
About Canada’s Best Managed Companies
Canada’s Best Managed Companies continues to be the mark of excellence for Canadian-owned and managed companies with revenues over $10 million. Every year since the launch of the program in 1993, hundreds of entrepreneurial companies have competed for this designation in a rigorous and independent process that evaluates their management skills and practices. The awards are granted on five levels: 1) Best Managed winner (one of the new winners selected each year); 2) Requalified member (repeat winners retain the Best Managed designation for two additional years, subject to annual operational and financial review); 3) Gold Standard winner (After three consecutive years of maintaining their Best Managed status, these winners have demonstrated their commitment to the program and successfully reapplied for the designation); 4) Gold Requalified member (Gold Standard winners may requalify for two additional years, subject to annual operational and financial review); 5) Platinum Club member (winners that maintain Best Managed status for a minimum of six consecutive years). Program sponsors are Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, Smith School of Business and MacKay CEO Forums. For further information, visit bestmanagedcompanies.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, Schneider Electric, Cityworks–Azteca Systems, Inc. and other technology partners. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Esri Canada joined the elite rank of Canada’s Best Managed Companies in 2012 and became a Gold Standard winner in 2015. The company has also been named to the Branham300. More information can be found at esri.ca. Follow Esri Canada on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.
