Esri Awards GIS Users for Innovation and Global Contribution

Esri, the global leader in location intelligence, today announced the recipients of the prestigious President's Award, Making a Difference Award, and Enterprise GIS Award. The announcement came during the 40th Esri User Conference, which this year switched to a completely virtual format.

"This year's awardees demonstrate how geospatial technology can be a powerful tool for governments and businesses to understand the world around them in order to make better decisions," said Jack Dangermond, Esri founder and president. "The organizations recognized today are using GIS to innovate data sharing, sustainable energy, and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. We are proud to showcase the ways they are improving their organizations, their communities, and the world."

Award winners included the following:

• President's Award
  
  The Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada, was recognized with the highest honor given to an organization for its commitment to continuous improvement and using trusted data to inform decisions. This recognition is the result of York's 25-year focus on employing GIS technology to work collaboratively with partners and using data to solve problems and make a difference in communities.

• Making a Difference Award
  
  Johns Hopkins University, Center for Systems Science and Engineering was recognized for its COVID-19 dashboard, which became the global reference for the pandemic. As the COVID-19 outbreak grew to an epidemic and fears of its global spread began to be considered seriously, a team led by Dr. Lauren Gardner, epidemiologist and codirector of the center, created the dashboard using Esri technology. The Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard is now a powerful real-time tool to monitor and respond to the pandemic.

• Enterprise GIS Awards
  (Two organizations were awarded in the category this year.)
  
  Enel Green Power North America, Inc. was recognized for enabling its entire organization with Web GIS through enterprise-wide portals, integrating systems to create efficient workflows, and using real-time and field collection capabilities for monitoring projects. With a staff of three, the GIS team at Enel developed a Spatial Hub infrastructure that functions much like a traditional intranet, modernizing business operations across the enterprise. This system delivers geospatial discovery, insight, and engagement to the organization, enabling others to create and use content, perform analysis, and communicate and share real-time information.
  
  Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development was recognized for bringing together information from many different systems to improve data sharing, increasing transparency, and growing awareness of available data to strengthen communication and collaboration between departments. Its system of engagement was built in 18 months, deploying over 40 apps across numerous business units that streamline workflows and decision-making processes. The department was able to share basic information about construction phases with the community to increase communication about projects and saved more than 3,000 labor hours with new automated processes.

The Special Achievement in GIS (SAG) Award winners will be recognized at the 2020 Esri User Conference during the Plenary Session. Esri will also honor individuals, groups, and institutions from across the globe in a dedicated awards section on esri.com.

To learn more about the Esri User Conference, visit go.esri.com/pr-UC2020.

About Esri

Esri, the global market leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, location intelligence, and mapping, offers the most powerful geospatial cloud available, to help customers unlock the full potential of data to improve operational and business results. Founded in 1969, Esri software is deployed in more than 350,000 organizations including 90 of the Fortune 100 companies, all 50 state governments, more than half of all counties (large and small), and 87 of the Forbes Top 100 Colleges in the U.S., as well as all 15 Executive Departments of the U.S. Government and dozens of independent agencies. With its pioneering commitment to geospatial information technology, Esri engineers the most advanced solutions for digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics. Visit us at esri.com.

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