"Quebec City's Information Technology and Telecommunications department has been able to leverage GIS to change their business processes, automate tasks, and integrate geographic information into their business systems," said Mr. Miller. "By increasing the integration of their systems with GIS, the City has been able to recognize cost savings by reducing the time required to train staff and complete tasks, and by making their workflows more effective." 

In 2002, when Quebec City merged with 12 other surrounding cities, the amalgamated City's directorate and its elected officials authorized a project to acquire a modern GIS-based application and ESRI technology was selected as the GIS platform. The City has migrated several applications to their new GIS platform including road network and public site management, cartography, land subdivision, cadastre, infrastructure management, green space management, accident statistics, heritage management, and land and material expertise.

ArcGIS Server and web services have allowed the City to change their organizational processes and add the value of geographic information to their workflows and business applications.  Many of these workflows were previously carried out with pen and paper but are now tightly integrated with GIS.  For example, the City now uses GIS to identify homes with pools by analyzing aerial photographs and then automatically updating the tax system accordingly. In the past students would collect this information for all homes using paper maps, but today they use a PDA and GIS to collect data in the field only for homes with new pools that do not appear in the aerial photographs.  This information is then connected to the tax system when they are back in the office.

The City plans to continue this integration and will also offer improved interactive mapping to its citizens, employees, and partners in the year to come.

About the City of Quebec:
The City of Quebec is the capital of the province of Quebec and is its government's head office. It is located in the Capitale-Nationale administrative region. Quebec City's fortifications, which still remain today and surround the old city, have made it the only fortified city in America, north of Mexico. Furthermore, in 1985, UNESCO declared Old-Quebec a world heritage site. This city, the oldest francophone city in America, will celebrate its 400th birthday on the 3rd of July 2008. In 2007, its population has reached 532,329 inhabitants and the metropolitan community's population reached a total of 726,672.

About ESRI Canada:
Established in 1984, ESRI Canada is a Canadian owned company specializing in geographic information systems (GIS) solutions. ESRI Canada distributes the world's leading GIS software solutions from ESRI Inc., Miner and Miner, and Azteca. In order to provide organizations with complete industry-specific solutions ESRI Canada has established an extensive business partner program that includes more than 125 Canadian organizations. ESRI Canada also provides professional services including consulting, training, technical support, and enterprise GIS implementation. ESRI Canada is a leader in providing world-class enterprise GIS solutions for many industries including local government, utilities, public safety and defence, business demographics, education, natural resources, and transportation. ESRI Canada has fifteen regional offices across the country, with headquarters in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, please visit www.esricanada.com or call 1-800-447-9778.

Media contact:

Heather Adams
Communications Specialist
ESRI Canada
T: 416-386-6463
E: hadams@esricanada.com
W: http://www.esricanada.com/