Esri Partners Learn about ArcGIS 10.5 and Network with Federal Partner Community
This year, Esri offered something new for our partners working in the federal market. On October 27, we hosted an event designed to keep them abreast of GIS technology and trends and to connect with the federal partner community. Going forward, this will an annual event, to take place between the annual Esri User Conference in San Diego in July and the Esri Federal GIS (FedGIS) Conference, which is held every February.
The evening event, held at the Esri R&D office in Arlington, Virginia, featured geospatial thought leadership, insight into new technology, and collaboration.
Esri’s national government business development (BD) director and thought leader Jeff Peters highlighted recent GIS trends and areas of business that Esri will focus on in 2017. Additionally, partners MarkLogic and Vricon presented their technologies, which break traditional GIS barriers by integrating and delivering new and unconventional data formats to be consumed and analyzed by ArcGIS.
For me, the collaboration was a highlight. As someone who has worked in the field of partnerships for many years, I find nothing more gratifying than putting together teams that complement each other and win business together.
For the federal government market in particular, there are all sorts of certification requirements, including those relating to past performance and small business participation. It’s unusual for one company alone to fulfill the entire scope of requirements for a given procurement, and this is where partnerships are so crucial. It’s even more important when dealing with a very specific kind of capability or technology such as GIS. Esri is a software company that relies on its partners to deliver applications, solutions, integration, and consulting services in conjunction with our technology.
As such, Esri recognizes the power of its partner community, whose members are uniquely qualified to deliver the requirements of GIS, helping to completely meet the needs of our federal customers. One of the activities we introduced during the October event was matchmaking between small and large business partners. We held a series of sessions for seven of our large federal systems integrator/prime contractor partners to meet with some of our small business partners.
This may not seem like a novel idea, as many organizations—such as the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) and other industry conferences—conduct matchmaking activities for small businesses in the federal market. However, what seemed to be extremely effective was getting together the GIS-focused partners that are all exploring the same market opportunities. The feedback from partners in both large and small businesses was very positive, and we look forward to having this activity again.
Bringing together our federal partners for a host of technology and networking opportunities made for a great evening, and I am excited to see how this will benefit our GIS customers in 2017!
Stay in the know about Esri’s federal and small business partner community on Twitter by following @EsriFederalGovt, #EsriFedSB, and @heatherlwhitney.
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