After a lot of feedback, I am going to switch these to weekly newsletters and keep them as short and information-packed as possible instead of a long newsletter lets be honest that nobody has time to read...
When you deploy a technology that is continually evolving there are always difficulties. GIS is a continually evolving technology that is evolving at an incredible speed.
How do you take advantage of the tech and get it deployed quickly and effectively, so it can begin benefiting your city or county as quickly as possible?
- Contact your Account Manager - Discussing where you would like to take your city or county with an account manager and a solution engineer is the best way to know what the tech can do for you, how to get there, and what it costs.
- Acquire the licensing. - You cant begin to train if you don't have access to the tech. Getting the consultation on what the tech can do for you and how it can benefit you will help you decide on what to purchase in what amount and how to activate it.
- Pick Deployment Plan - (Four options)?
- Self-Paced?- When you are current on maintenance you have access to a lot of free training on ArcGIS Learn. So you can learn as you go and access free training on ArcGIS Learn. You also have Esri documentation, or even through the numerous YouTube Videos posted online.
- Instructor-Led Training?- If you would like more in-depth training our Instructor-Led Training can be purchased and your best way to get started is to contact your account manager and ask to speak with a training consultant. Training consultancy is free your training consultant is an extension of your team who can put together a plan for getting you and your team the education they need.
- Professional Services?- Esri Professional Services Teams have numerous ways to help your organization. They offer dedicated packages where specific results are delivered like Enterprise Jumpstarts. The team can fully deploy an Enterprise Deployment and configure it to begin to migrate on your own or begin to use it as you see fit. You can also just purchase retainer packages in 20hr blocks where you get dedicated support from an Esri Engineer to help you with whatever tasks you want hour by hour. The Professional Services team also has time and material options. All of these options are not only do it for you, they do it with you helping you learn as they accomplish the goal.
- Business Partners - Esri has a wide network of business partners that can also help your organization. - ProWest - GIS Inc - Eagle Forestry Service - JEO - ROK -these just to name a few, are some of the ones I work with regularly to help serve our region. Again contact your account manager if you would like us to facilitate an introduction or you would like advice on who would be a good fit.
When you plan accordingly, you can effectively plan and budget for the future. I personally know how it is with government budgeting. The one thing I hated the most was having someone come to me mid-year and ask for tech that I didn't have the budget for. Then having to tell them I can ask for the money next Fiscal year.
Your GIS will grow when people see what you can do with the data and how you can make their jobs and day-to-day life better. As it grows and people adopt the technology be prepared to talk to your Account Manager about?Enterprise Agreements, and?Advantage Programs. These are Unlimited Licensing options and dedicated Professional Services Support. If you can convince your city or county of the benefit that having GIS access and the latest tech, can have on your city or county then the possibilities are endless.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and or topics you would like covered in the next newsletter.
