Esri Canada today announced that the company has joined the elite rank of Canada’s Best Managed Companies. The company was selected over hundreds of Canadian private companies that applied to this prestigious national award program sponsored by Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, Queen’s School of Business and MacKay CEO Forums. Esri Canada has enjoyed steady year-over-year growth since its inception in 1984 by advancing the use of geographic information system (GIS) technology in numerous, diverse industries across the country.
“Over the past 20 years, Canada’s Best Managed Companies program has recognized the most innovative and Best Managed Companies in Canada. We’re delighted to celebrate the accomplishments of Esri Canada,” said John Hughes, Partner, Growth Enterprise Leader, Toronto, Deloitte.
“Innovation is critical to our success,” said Alex Miller, president and founder, Esri Canada. “We’re focused on helping customers apply location intelligence to transform the way they make decisions and solve problems. We do this by providing a broad range of solutions, support, training and services that enable our customers to succeed. Providing a supportive work environment for our employees is critical to ensuring we deliver the best possible service. This Best Managed distinction is testament to our commitment to business and service excellence, and we proudly share this achievement with our customers, employees and partners.”
Esri Canada’s solutions are based on the ArcGIS platform, which delivers powerful mapping, data management and analytical capabilities in virtually any environment – server, desktop, mobile, Web and cloud. Businesses, governments and educational institutions use ArcGIS to integrate key business and operational data with geographic data to produce location intelligence. Spatial analytics enhances traditional business intelligence by allowing users to easily see deviations, trends and patterns on dynamic, data-driven maps and inform decision-making. Leading organizations across Canada use the company’s solutions to improve productivity and efficiency:
RONA, Canada’s largest hardware retailer, maximized ROI from their promotional flyer delivery using GIS. Through location analytics, they zeroed in on profitable distribution areas and eliminated delivery to areas yielding poor results. They now distribute 10% less flyers and are able to justify every promotional move by directly linking sales results to specific geographic regions.
Guelph Hydro created a Web mapping application that provides a geographic view of trouble calls so they could effectively analyze outages and dispatch crews. The application eliminated the need to purchase a $500,000 outage management system. They also integrated their meter replacement process with the mapping system, improving their productivity in replacing meters with smart meters in their service area by 500%.
Service New Brunswick created GeoNB, a geospatial gateway to the province’s spatial data. Making this invaluable information readily available to businesses, government organizations and the public to support their own operations and inform decision-making has resulted in a significant spike in provincial data usage. Select datasets are also now updated weekly, rather than every 6 months.
Manitoba’s Office of Disaster Management developed an emergency management common operational picture to mitigate the risk of the Red River floods. This has accelerated critical decision-making from two hours to less than 10 minutes.
Through its Community Maps Program, Esri Canada facilitates the development of the Community Map of Canada. Partly funded by GeoConnections, the company is building the technology infrastructure that will enable governments across the country to easily contribute their geographic data in support of creating an up-to-date online national basemap of Canada. The basemap will be free for the public to use for their own mapping applications.
As well, Esri Canada demonstrates leadership by going above and beyond industry norm in fulfilling its corporate social responsibility. The company maintains an award-winning green roof in its Toronto headquarters to help reduce urban heat island effect. It has also been recognized with the United Way Spirit Award for its generous support of local charities through the company’s exceptional employee contribution matching program.
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 four levels: 1) Best Managed winner (one of the 50 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. Companies may requalify for two additional years, subject to annual operational and financial review; 4) Platinum Club member (winners that maintain Best Managed status for a minimum of six consecutive years).
Program sponsors are Deloitte, CIBC, National Post, Queen’s School of Business and MacKay CEO forums. For further information, visit bestmanagedcompanies.ca. Visit the online community for private companies the Best Managed channel on FP Executive: financialpost.com/bestmanaged.
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, along with a comprehensive portfolio of complementary GIS products and services. Headquartered in Toronto, the company serves over 10,000 customers from 16 regional offices across Canada. Esri Canada is a 2012 winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies program and has also been named to the Branham Group’s Top 250 Canadian IT Companies and Top 25 IT Professional Services Providers in Canada, as well as Computer Dealer News’ Top 100 IT Solution Providers in Canada lists. Information about Esri Canada can be found at esri.ca.
