2009 ESRI International User Conference

2009 SAG Award Winners

July 15, 2009

City of Greeley, Colorado

Redlands, California—The City of Greeley, Colorado received a Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award today at the 2009 ESRI International User Conference (ESRI UC) in San Diego, California. The city received this honor for its vision, leadership, and innovative use of ESRI's geographic information system (GIS) technology. The City of Greeley was selected from more than 300,000 organizations worldwide and recognized during today's SAG awards ceremony for making extraordinary contributions to our global society.  

The City of Greeley’s GIS has been in place for more than 20 years—beginning in the water and sewer department in 1989. Today, GIS is used in almost every department within the city including asset management for utilities, parks, forestry, and IT; working with capital improvement projects, transportation items, and all facets of planning; and monitoring the police, courts system, code enforcement, and building inspection. GIS has reduced staff time for many business functions around the city and has also become an important decision making tool for city leaders to aid in budget items and project management. 

By using Server GIS, the city is able to create rich, intuitive Web applications that allow the general public to quickly search for information. The city’s ORIGIN Property Information Map was developed to address the needs of the community development department, the planning division, and the general public. City planners were spending approximately three to four hours a day on the phone with community members answering questions related to general property information. Currently, the ORIGIN Property Information Map provides the public with direct access to parcel data without having to call a city planner. Based on current success, the city plans to expand its Web technologies and applications.  

"Our world is being challenged by rapid change," says Jack Dangermond, ESRI president. "GIS technology is increasingly being deployed as a way to understand the issues facing our society. At ESRI, we are always extremely impressed with the work of our users and want to recognize their efforts with our Special Achievement in GIS Award. Their work is a great example of using GIS to improve our world." 

GIS combines computer hardware, software, and data to collect, manage, and analyze geographic information. Virtually any information can be linked to a geographic location, helping people to see that information as part of a complete picture. With GIS, users can view relationships, processes, patterns, and trends in the form of maps, globes, reports, and charts. Whether they are selecting routes to transport ethanol, or studying landslides, GIS helps them see how the world works and changes.

More than one million people across the globe rely on GIS to solve problems and make better decisions by thinking and planning geographically. Other organizations being honored at the ESRI UC include Artesia Water Company, Montana State Library, NASA Langley Research Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Yosemite National Park, City of Madrid, DHL Express, Polytechnic of Namibia, Victoria Police in Australia, and the Grammar School at Leeds.

To learn more about the 2009 SAG Award winners and to view their photos and project descriptions and images, visit www.esri.com/sag.  More information about ESRI and its GIS solutions can be found at www.esri.com.

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About ESRI
Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit us at www.esri.com.

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Press Information:
Contact: Aly Lawson, ESRI
Tel.: 909-793-2853, extension 1-2337
E-mail: press@esri.com
Images Available upon Request